Daniel Zolghadri in Funny Pages

FUNNY PAGES
Directed by Owen Kline
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆

WHY do comic books get such a bad press?

Such seminal pieces of 20th-century graphic storytelling as the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers by Gilbert Sheldon, Robert Crumb’s numerous creations and Clay Wilson were must-reads for a generation questioning their parents’ values.

The underground comic scene in America in the 1960s and 1970s is comparable to the avant garde and New Wave – but it has yet to be recognised properly by art historians.

Perhaps it is because it unashamedly trumpeted a counter culture message, packed with sex and drugs, and were the graphic expression of the hippie ideals of the time.

And perhaps, as this film underlines, it may be to do with the fact that traditionally the form has found a fan base in adolescents and men others consider to be drop-outs and misfits – think the comic store guy in The Simpsons.

This dismissal of an art that made its mark in mass popular culture is one of the main threads of this low-fi, Mumblecore coming of age story, an indie flick that has elements of The Catcher In The Rye about its form.

Robert (Daniel Zolghadri) lives a comfortable, middle-class existence in the posh environs of Princeton. His father Lewis (Josh Pais) and mother Jennifer (Maria Dizzia) are uptight but loving, confused as to why their son is rejecting his suburban comfort as his raging teenage-ness makes him angsty and aggressive to anything he doesn’t deem to be fair, or thinks is square.

In an opening scene that is so well crafted it piques the interest immediately, we meet Robert as he is discussing his cartoon art with his teacher, Katano (Stephen Adly Guirgis). He is challenged to draw a portrait of his tutor, and strips off to make it a proper life study.

This immediately sets the tone for a film stamped with originality and intriguing characters.

After a tragedy knocks Robert’s unformed and fragile life sideways, he embarks on an adventure to try and find his own way in a confusing world. He gets a part-time job with a court-appointed solicitor, and through her meets Wallace (Matthew Maher), a deadbeat former colourist and inker at a famous comic producer. Robert wants to befriend him and discover some trade secrets, but Wallace is not in a fit state to help.

We follow the pair as they zig-zag through an unlikely friendship, all the while with a society encapsulated by his parents breathing heavy exclamations of disapproval.

Short and to the point, it’s an interesting take on a genre of art that is still waiting the recognition from the wider art world.