Ain’t It Fun: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk in the Secret City

by Aaron Lange

In the 1970s, Peter Laughner was a founding figure in a primordial ooze of what would come to be called punk rock, in the somewhat unlikely, somewhat necessary place of Cleveland, Ohio. Bands like Pere Ubu, the electric eels, Rocket From the Tombs, the Dead Boys, Devo, and the Pagans all intermingled in this psychosphere; Laughner touched them all. In 1977 at the age of 24 he became punk rock’s first casualty. While his short life ended more than a half a century ago, his legacy continues to resonate; Henry Rollins and Guns N’ Roses have covered his songs, while Wilco and the Mountain Goats drop references to him in their lyrics.

Underground comix stalwart Aaron Lange makes his much-anticipated graphic novel debut with this deeply researched biography. Through extensive interviews with the people who were there, Ain’t It Fun charts the cultural, environmental, and societal factors that shaped both Laughner and the Midwestern proto-punk subculture he championed. Ain’t it fun when you know that you’re gonna die young?

Genres: Music, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Aaron Lange is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for his alternative style and countercultural approach, strongly influenced by the previous generation of underground comix.
Lange was born in 1981 in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated in Fine Arts from the Columbus College of Art & Design and then worked a number of odd jobs, before actually debuting in the comic book world.
His first major series was Romp (2011-2012), an erotic and satyrical comic book. The following work Trim (2013) mixed autobiographical anecdotes, weird gag stories and biographical portraits of real figures of the American counterculture. His latest book is Ain’t It Fun, a bio of Cleveland punk-rock guitarist Peter Laughner.

Reviews

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly compelling psychogeography of Cleveland, tracing leylines that intersect with tragic musical genius Peter Laughner -- whose brief career intertwined with Pere Ubu, Television, Rocket from the Tombs, Dead Boys, and others -- and whose legacy burns a bit brighter every passing year.

Each page of this stunningly illustrated graphic novel features a single topic, delving into subjects like the gruesome unsolved torso serial killer, Ghoulardi's wild TV horror program, mysterious burial mounds that predate Native American tribes, mystic poet d.a. levy, occult city planning schemes, Alan Freed's original rock radio show, David Bowie's ties to the city, and so much more.

For fans of lost histories and counter-culture luminaries.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a graphic novel about the life of Peter Laughner, a key figure in the history of punk rock in Cleveland, Ohio. It also goes into a fair amount of detail on local historic figures, neighborhoods, and buildings that were key to his brief life. That sounds dry and dull, especially if you're not somewhat familiar with his work already, but I found it to be a fascinating book. Details that, at first, seemed extraneous wound up tying into Laughner's life in interesting and unexpected ways. Aaron Lange put an impressive amount of research into this project, and the result is one of the best Rock and Roll biographies I've read in a long time.

To be fair, I'm biased. I grew up in and around Cleveland, and know the area pretty well. I'm also a fan of Pere Ubu, arguably the best-known band with which Laughner is associated. Upon graduating high school in 1986, I moved to Michigan, but still get back to Cleveland regularly to visit friends and family. So many of the locations and local personalities are familiar to me. Heck, just this past summer, my wife and I attended a family wedding in Cleveland, and we all stayed at the Hilton near Public Square that appears on Lange's map on page 410. Indeed, the day of the wedding–which was in the evening–we unknowingly walked most of the route depicted on the map, just taking in the sights.

So I was already familiar with a lot of the background. I don't know if it would resonate as strongly for someone without those connections. But I hope so. It's too good a book to languish in obscurity.

Lange's art is a bit unconventional by graphic novel standards. Instead of some variation on the standard grid of panels, he does full page compositions. Or rather, he makes sparing use of panels–sometimes borderless–but always with an eye towards the entire page being a single, attention-grabbing image. And some of the fonts he uses for the lettering are lovely!

And, as I said, he casts his net wide, bringing in all sorts of fascinating detail of people, places, and history that touched Laughner's life, however tangentially and tenuously. Moses Cleaveland, Abraham Lincoln, Lester Bangs, Ghoulardi, David Bowie, Devo, the Michael Stanley Band, Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar, Eliot Ness, Dr. Sam Sheppard … all are name-checked, some of them multiple times. The web of connections bringing it all together is truly impressive, as are the extensive footnotes detailing Lange's sources.

I stumbled across the book entirely by accident. I was at a local gaming convention–board and card games, as well as tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons–walking past a table full of small press RPG supplements, when the name “Peter Laughner” leapt out at me. I flipped through it. The art looked good. The subject definitely interested me (though, at the time, I think I was confusing Laughner with David Thomas. Clearly, my knowledge of Pere Ubu's music doesn't extend to the band members …) I bought it on the spur of the moment, reasoning that I would be highly unlikely to just stumble across another copy like that.

Although off the beaten path, this graphic novel is definitely worth tracking down if you have any interest in the subject matter. Highly recommended!

[John Kinhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ain’t It Fun is an elaborate and brooding graphic novel, offering a stylish and thought-provoking meditation on proto-punk legend Peter Laughner. Artist and author Aaron Lange’s grandiose vision spans from Laughner to a curated selection of intertwined macabre, absurd, and cosmic Cleveland history that formed the primordial ooze that Laughner and his Cleveland punk ilk emerged from. Through a web of vivid, lurid stories, Lange paints Cleveland as a gritty, desperate place, yet one that fostered an unlikely fusion of history, music, and popular culture.

This dynamic, visually striking tome is more than just a graphic novel—it’s an artistic essay, infused with Lange’s fluid, electric style, and steeped in scholarly insight. It’s the kind of work that feels ripe for adaptation into a documentary. Ain’t It Fun is a must-read for anyone interested in the roots of punk, the underbelly of Cleveland’s culture, and the intersection of art, history, and rebellion.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cleveland rocks!

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ain't it Fun" is an elegiac, exhaustively researched graphic novel tale of legendary proto-punk guitarist Peter Laughner and the decaying post-industrial city that spawned him. I've been fascinated with Laughner ever since scoring the excellent and exhaustive box set from Smog Veil records that came out a few years ago. He was a guitar virtuoso whose taste and ideas were way ahead of his time in the early to mid-'70s. Conceptualize the Velvet Underground and the Modern Lovers meets the Stooges with a smattering of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, for lack of better comparisons. Aaron Lange does a fabulous job weaving Peter's story into the history and geography of Cleveland, touching on everything from the infamous 'torso' serial killings and the river catching on fire to the Kent State massacre. Highly recommended.

[Steve Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic look at the life of Peter Laughter, most famously known as a member of Rocket From The Tombs and Pere Ubu. "Famously" might be a stretch since he has very few recordings and died in 1977 when it seems everything was just getting started.

It's quite an amazing and detailed graphic look at not only his life but that of the city of Cleveland. Highly recommended for anyone who likes music around the birth of punk, or is interested in a counter-culture history of that city....or both.

[Eric Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fave book of 2023, this deep dive into Rust Belt Proto Punk, Cleveland, True Crime, Pop Culture and history is like a mix of Please Kill Me, From Hell and Torso (BendiS)

[Rory Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing deep dive into the history of God's favorite city and music genre. A sprawling history of the sound of Cleveland and the messianic figures that heralded some of its biggest changes.

[Bobby Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A work of art. Essential reading if you like rock and roll at all.