Crass Sophisticate #07

Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2007
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Crass Sophisticate #07 Creator(s): Josh Reinwald
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: US $ 1.50

Sophisticated? No way. Crass? You betcha, in bucketloads.

This is a seedy, grimy little comic book that is defying the odds by actually maintaining a longish run. Which proves that there must be a market out there for crass and lewd comic books. Personally I found the single rather tasteless gag that this latest edition is based on wore a little thin after a while and I had definitely tired of it by page 38.

However if you like comics that are based on the abilities of popular Hollywood film stars [in this case Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie] to provide good oral sex then you finally have a comic here that targets your interest.
Basically the entire comic is set in a downmarket urban bar where three males rail against the world in general and the inhabitants of the bar in particular. The main focus of their conversation however is oral sex. Now this is all crass enough but he fact that most of the characters spend a good deal of their time covering each other with vomit, spit, mucus and other bodily fluids means that we, the reader, end up feeling quite ‘stained’ [physically and mentally]. In fact the overall health of the three main characters in particular [once again both physical and mental] is something of a concern here, especially the one who is overly congested.

I realise that this as all supposed to be funny but the joke was just too thin to work and in the end the tale is just grubby and more than a little sordid. Eventually it seems that we are observing and listening too little more than a bar room rant by a group of unhappy drunks.

Even the arrival of Jennifer herself [along with Vince Vaughn] does little to lift the tone and as they quickly embark on a series of debauched acts that even Brett and his mates find enlightening.

After 34 pages of this the aliens arrive and decapitate Jennifer, oh yeah like we couldn’t see that coming.
As always Reinwald’s art is raw and often brutal. Perfect for the subject matter then. Having said that though his ability to create emotion through the facial expressions of his characters is impressive. I guess then that I preferred to look at the pages rather than read them.

The generous sprinkling of obscenities that feature on nearly every page ensures that the tone of this offering remain basic at best. The comic ends with a one pager where the arrival of the personified Death interrupts a man masterbating. There you go then; Crass Sophisticate read it and wash.

In a Word: Mucky.



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