I utterly detested the graphic novel in question in it's first opening pages. I was under the impression that it was going to be one of the more pompous "slice of life" stories: where constant, catty, 'Tarantino tryhard' dialogue has run amok and the social outcast protagonists constantly point their noses above the rest of society even though they are even more petty than the people they lambast.
My stomach churned, as my only hope was to finish the trade paperback as quickly as possible. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised.
The self indulgent arragonace which plagues a great deal of non-genre comics, that I was afraid How Loathesome was going to revel in, evaporates to reveal a emotionally resonating and quite frankly fun comic book.
I would emphasize "fun" as the most appropriate means of describing How Loathesome, not because it's enjoyable but vapid, like most art that is stuck with the "fun" adjective. It's very intriguing in it's themes and characterization. Instead I am remarking upon the book's capacity to seem more erudite at a glance than it is in reality:
The cast is colorful, and there is more thought put into them by the author, Ted Naifeh than any average writer would across any medium. Take for instance the sardonic companion of the two protagonists, who is constantly demeaning towards transsexuals. By the hands of a less skilled author, he would mainly manifest as a one sided strawman, a representative in the narrative to illustrate the stigma against those who are transgender; A clear cut antagonist who would get his comeuppance in the end. Fortunately, this Naifeh gives nuance to this supporting character: Despite his blatant transphobia, he is seen engaging in sexual activities with a trans individual, as well as the anomaly of why he befriends the two protagonists in the first place.
However, you would be damned to find any sense of character development throughout. How Loathesome introduces it's key players, you get to peak into a day of their lives, and that's it. This comic is humble in it's lack of grandeur.
The message conveyed is similarly meager: When you think of the greatest social commentaries or morality plays in fiction, most typically the central idea the author is attempting to convey, goes through an arc of it's own. Take the novel Crime and Punishment: Raskolnikov increasingly becomes more guilt stricken over his act of murder. He initially begins with a sense of justification for his actions, but increasingly throughout the novel he becomes more and more in tune with the immorality of the murder he committed.
There is a very clear progression of the reader's perception of murder: You begin with one worldview, and end with another. How Loathesome does not abide by this. It's takes on issues such as transphobia and how that issue intersects among various LGBT subcultures is thought provoking, but it doesn't go the extra step of making a statement about this prediciment. It is merely wallpaper to the main narrative.
Ultimately this is perfectly adequate, I do not get the impression that the authors did not intend to give How Loathesome a a sense of grandeur beyond what it deserves. It is a fun, character driven romp, not attempting to give solutions to the issue of transphobia. Its political backdrop serves the same role as the "Seude" and "Killing Joke" records and posters in the background: a further layer to the book, but it does not represent the book.
How Loathesome does not have the components of a great book, but it's surplus charms grant it to have the staying power in the reader's mind as if it were one
7/10
