SMAHTGUY - Serio Comics 3
SMAHTGUY: The Life and Times of Barney Frank written and drawn by Eric Orner, Published by Metropolitan, Henry Holt Books and Macmillan
I went to my first book reading of The New Year…and it may already have been the best!
Graphic literature readings are particularly fun these days because some authors are projecting their pages onto a screen as they act out their story
Eric Orner’s presentation of SMAHTGUY written and drawn by him and published by Metropolitan & Henry Holt Books at Skylight last Thursday was a delight because he’s not just a cartoonist and author, he’s also more than a bit of a charismatic natural as an actor too
Here he is in a video recorded that night telling the story of how Barney Frank, who was the first openly gay member of The House of Representatives in federal Congress & the subject of Orner’s book, felt after Orner shared a draft with him
The person next to Orner is the legendary Mimi Pond, who not only published one of my favorite graphic memoirs, The Customer is Always Wrong, but also briefly worked on The Simpsons, including penning the first full-length broadcast episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" in 1989, which was nominated for two Emmy awards
Even more specifically, happy to journalistically report, that one of her breakout comics in 1983, Secrets of the Powder Room, her second book published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston that detailed the dating & misadventures of a ‘niche at that time’ subsection of women based loosely on her experiences, was revealed by Orner that night for the first time to a delighted Pond to be the inspiration for his own breakout comic strip in 1989, The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green, which detailed the dating & misadventures of a ‘niche at that time’ subsection of queer people based loosely on his experiences
Orner’s respectful yet irreverent banter with Pond portended well for the experience of reading his graphic biography of Barney Frank who he had worked for as a speechwriter as a day job (shoutout to Eric for honesty about this aspect of many even ‘successful’ artists’ existence) and I was happy to pick up a copy that night from Skylight and finish it out over the weekend
One of the things I loved about Orner’s book was the richness of his testimony of the details of the political process and the power of personal hard work
This verite depiction of government service combined with the versimiltude of the very often funny dialogue reminded me of a comedic David Simon’s THE WIRE
Orner is also able to…
Narrate the minute yet momentus thorniness of the machinations Barney faced and even executed himself yet still find threads of identity humor, which ranges from queerness to religion to fatness and beyond
Orner’s choice to be unmitigatedly candid about Frank’s choice to remain in the closet in the 1970s and 80s and sacrifice the potential for a romantic personal life in order to provide political opportunities for others like him & not produces much pathos
Yet also many moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity
And when Frank inevitably struggles to maintain this ascetic-Faustian bargain with himself
Orner’s authorial honesty is shown to formally match his subject’s
Orner goes on to display how Frank owns and turns his shameful sex scandal into a courageous useful strength
But even in Orner’s portrayal of Frank’s mix of pragmitism & progessivism in furthering queer rights
Orner also doesn’t shy away from the realities of some of those incrementalist consequences
Perhaps one of the best storylines is that of Frank’s love life, which Orner again honors truthfully by showing how a person can have more than one great love in their life
As Frank blossoms in different ways with Herb in his first public partnership
And then after with Jim who stood by him no matter how much time Frank had to devote to his career, which was then ironically rewarded by Barney deciding to leave it to devote more of a portion of his life to their relationship
As you can probably tell, I greatly enjoyed Eric’s graphic novel
And just as much I greatly enjoyed meeting him
I stuck around at Skylight to talk after because with SHOULD WE, um, BUY A GUN? we share a similar aesthetic of marrying the political with the humorous in graphic form
I was struck by a Bibliomancy (which is the first page you open to in a book) because both times I opened SMAHTGUY that night it was to page 78 which is a spread opening ‘Book 2’ with a skyline landscape drawing of Boston & the caption: “A day later, he stood out in front of Park Street station at 6:30 am, trying to introduce himself to commuters and explain that he was a candidate for the legislature. Mostly they pushed past him, annoyed.”
I joked to Eric that as someone entering the graphic literature space & looking to build community (via this Substack Seriocomics too!) that I can feel awkward like that caption trying to introduce myself & not annoy people
His whip-smart mind that already regaled us with spontaneous responses to prompts all night immediately recognized a synchronicity
This was the exact 1st page, even though it was 1/3 of the way through, that Eric first drew of his whole book!
We both laughed
Here I am still fledgling with my book & the page that was bibliomancied twice was his literal point of departure into his now realized debut himself…
But it’s because of foreruners like Barney Frank and Eric Orner and Mimi Pond and many more before them that I can confidently create art that debates political topics in tones nuanced and thoughtful yet still amusing and tender
LOL, Eric just emailed me asking which book of mine he should start with as I finish this post…
Another synchronicity!
Thank you all for reading this post & considering supporting Eric who is so kindly supporting me
Okay, that’s the third post of Seriocomics!
Wow, thank you for sharing. So relatable, I feel super uncomfortable reaching out to people who are ahead of me in the book publishing world. I hadn't heard of Eric Orner, love his drawing style; so vintage :)
Would love to see more of your upcoming book!