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Sam Henderson Reviews

August 1995
The Comics Journal #179
By Darcy Sullivan

When you think of mini-comics, you may be thinking of Sam Henderson. His work seems to embody the stripped-down style of the submedium, the primitive line work and body-function humor. But you only have to read a few mini-comics to realize that Henderson is near the top of the pro-am league. His drawings and ground-zero "jokes" may seem simple, but only because Henderson has scrubbed away the clutter — a process most mini-comics artists have not yet even attempted.

Henderson's primary vehicle is his mini-comic The MagicWhistle, which just reached its seventh issue; his strips have also appeared in Heavy Metal's "Strip Tease" section, Nickelodeon, Duplex Planet, Destroy All Comics, and other venues unlikely to bring him the attention of anyone older than 30. Berkeley-based Wow Cool! has now released Oh That Monroe, which collects the "complete adventures" of Monroe Simmons, an uberschmuck who fumbles, frets and rages from one hyperbolic humiliation to the next.

Monroe may be a disconcerting ride for non-cognoscenti. It's rarely outright funny, tet it's obviously supposed to be. It often reads like an abstract joke — funny because it isn't — but just about the time you get used to that idea, there's a bit of genuine mirth, like the wonderful play-out of a joke concerning Monroe magazine. Somewhere along the line you may start wondering whether you're cool enough for Oh That Monroe.

In the introduction, Henderson says most of the work dates from five or six years ago. This explains why Oh That Monroe seems less sure than his later Magic Whistle issues, in which he has simultaneously sharpened his whit and pushed the lame gags into pure conceptualism. (He's good enough to have a fan in Mark Newgargen, the Roland Barthes of laff deconstruction.) But there are plenty of pleasures to be had here. On closer examination, his drawings are less crude than stylized. S. Gross is a clear influence (on the subject matter as well), and there are also similarities to artists like Claire Bretecher and Keith Haring on the high-brow side. Henderson has a lot of fun with formalist humor, goofing with sound effects like "Walk Walk" and "Write Write."

The strips also have tremendous momentum, not just because Henderson's line and compositions are so clear but because he has a strong grasp of comic rhythm. Once you're in his rock-solid groove, you start believing you've read punchlines even when you haven't. It's a bit like when an original Ramones producer claimed that the brutish doubletime strumming and single-note bass riffing, recorded at TNT-blast volume, produced some sort of contrapuntal feedback melodies. In other words, so simple it's complex.

In fact, Henderson has a lot in common with the original '70s punk band. He too makes DIY art look easier than it is (as it turned out, initial appearances to the contrary, there was only one Ramones) and blurs the line between simple entertainment (pop song, gag cartoon) and avant garde exercise. Punk magazine cartoonist and Ramones cover artiste John Holmstrom is clearly Henderson's spiritual father.

The Ramones became one of the great modern rock bands — they weren't an experiment after all. Henderson may also be headed for greatness, whatever that means for an American alternative cartoonist. (He'd probably be rich or famous if he operated from Belgium or England — Robert Boyd aptly compared his work to Britain's Viz in a previous Journal.) Oh That Monroe certainly isn't the test of Henderson's promise -- those wondering whether the crown will fit should consult The Magic Whistle. But for connoisseurs of cocktail-napkin cartoons, high-school-annual-signing comedy, National Lampoon-style grossouts and irony-saturated jocularity, Monroe may be the summer's hot book. You may or may not "get it," but after reading this comic you'll think twice before laughing at anything else.