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Failure
Failure collects Karl Stevens's beautifully rendered humorous comic strips from the Boston Phoenix alternative weekly newspaper. His slice of life vignettes and surreal anthropomorphic experiments are revealing sketches of urban America and beyond. The follow up to his Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominated The Lodger.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 23, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 26, 2019
So in the last few weeks since I discovered Karl Stevens a decade and a half later than did the alt comix world, I have now read three of his books and will probably look for more. This one is set in bohemian Allston, focusing on Stevens and other artsy slackers and other educated lost losers who mainly get drunk and are trying to get laid (with each other, only) whenever they can. Whatever—originally published serially in The Boston Phoenix—is a kind of gorgeously rendered portrait of a un-gorgeous time and a place in the kind of coffeeshop/PBR squalor recognizable in any urban area.
Bitching about late buses, whining about politics and shut up, Walking Dead is coming back on, get me a beer. Artsy, post-college, I need a job, I wanna be an ahtist, get me a beer, but it is not Tom Waits, you haven’t earned that yet and probably never will, slacker sideways disaffected twenty-somethings, who needs them? I’ll give it this; it feels almost ethnographically accurate and though I don’t need this accuracy personally to be happy, I can’t seem to look away. Why? Stevens—at least at this point in his career—is a cross-hatch marvel, adding breath-taking watercolors. And of what? Stevens and his ilk trying not to vomit the morning after? Stevens trying to wake up after drinking seventeen beers? The pointlessness is the point, man!
Stevens makes me think of Jeffrey Brown’s funny loser comics (though Brown is from Grand Rapids as I am, so he can’t ever be a hipster, not ever), with a similar self-deprecating vibe, though not the Brown scratchy drawing. I notice (again) that Stevens (again, as in all three books) draws/paints naked (now ex) girlfriends, again, hmm—but he’s a painter, dude, they’re like nudes, not naked girls, he’s like his inspiration Andrew Wyeth painting his friend Christina, so it’s totally okay!
In two previous books Stevens humanizes himself by including his imagined thoughts of dogs. Now it’s a cat. And now he also looks at other lost slackers, and not just himself, and some of it is insightful, and some of it can be somewhat funny. 3.5, this time rounded down, but the art, if you are interested, is 5 stars, all the way. If you are a twenty-something hipster you will way get this, bro.
Bitching about late buses, whining about politics and shut up, Walking Dead is coming back on, get me a beer. Artsy, post-college, I need a job, I wanna be an ahtist, get me a beer, but it is not Tom Waits, you haven’t earned that yet and probably never will, slacker sideways disaffected twenty-somethings, who needs them? I’ll give it this; it feels almost ethnographically accurate and though I don’t need this accuracy personally to be happy, I can’t seem to look away. Why? Stevens—at least at this point in his career—is a cross-hatch marvel, adding breath-taking watercolors. And of what? Stevens and his ilk trying not to vomit the morning after? Stevens trying to wake up after drinking seventeen beers? The pointlessness is the point, man!
Stevens makes me think of Jeffrey Brown’s funny loser comics (though Brown is from Grand Rapids as I am, so he can’t ever be a hipster, not ever), with a similar self-deprecating vibe, though not the Brown scratchy drawing. I notice (again) that Stevens (again, as in all three books) draws/paints naked (now ex) girlfriends, again, hmm—but he’s a painter, dude, they’re like nudes, not naked girls, he’s like his inspiration Andrew Wyeth painting his friend Christina, so it’s totally okay!
In two previous books Stevens humanizes himself by including his imagined thoughts of dogs. Now it’s a cat. And now he also looks at other lost slackers, and not just himself, and some of it is insightful, and some of it can be somewhat funny. 3.5, this time rounded down, but the art, if you are interested, is 5 stars, all the way. If you are a twenty-something hipster you will way get this, bro.
June 7, 2021
Apparently I am becoming a Karl Stevens completist, so when I found this 2013 collection of Boston Phoenix strips in my library system, I read it through. Slice of life comics, going for the gag, sometimes hipsterish humor about drunkenly wasting his twenties away, alternating the strips with life drawings of various women. As always, if the story underlying this rendering of a few years of his life doesn't seem more than drolly amusing, the artwork is amazing.
Read
September 30, 2011This is pretty unabashedly hipster circa mid-Oh-Ohs (my cute name for the 2000's, and shit, I can say that now!) which is either really embarrassing or cute, depending on your poison. It's certainly very Allston, and I'm reminded why I moved there briefly around the same time these comics were made and why I just as quickly moved out. It's a wasteland of concrete and bars and drunk bicyclists with tattoos and certain young urbanites that vomit and are vomit-inducing. Lots of talk of break-dancing and how buses suck and veganism and pot-drunkeness and how there's only three cool places left and stuff like that. It ain't good or funny or insightful, but it's actually very, very accurate, so kudos to wispy-jerk Karl Stevens for capturing something that kind of sucks. It's just a shame he doesn't have the talent or narrative ability to do it in an insightful or satirical way a la Peter Bagge's take on early 90's Seattle in Hate.
January 31, 2015
Whatever, indeed.
September 12, 2017
Meh, had some decent stories/storylines and the artwork style was cool. Not sold either way. Maybe I'll check out some of his other work.
July 18, 2013
Realism gets a bum rap in some circles of both fine art and cartooning because trying to represent the visual world accurately through drawing is, by definition, doomed to failure. That, though, was exactly the quixotic gesture at the core of Karl Stevens’s weekly comic strip, which ran for seven years in the Boston Phoenix under several names. Its final two years are now collected in this very odd, thoroughly charming volume. “Failure” is about failures that look like successes, or vice versa, in the impecunious life of an artist in Stevens’s Boston neighborhood. Read the review: http://wapo.st/1aUH8KG
March 5, 2019
Poking fun at Allston. Lots of references to real places that still exist. Overall not bad, a distinctive style. The characters could use more varied facial expressions. Moreover, thought it was lame that we get two separate panels of showering, the panel of the male character stops short of his groin, whereas the female character is shown in full. Sexist?
February 12, 2017
Another fun and astute collection of strips of Stevens's that had originally appeared in the Boston Phoenix. Check out my interview with Karl for The Comics Alternative, http://comicsalternative.com/comics-a..., where we discuss this book.
May 4, 2009
Amazingly drawn. Fun to see local places and local frustrations. It's nice, and only $10. Why not?
November 9, 2013
Third star for the art. It's a gorgeous book, just very dated in every other way.
February 12, 2017
A collection of strips in Stevens's "Whatever" series that he had originally created for the Boston Phoenix. This is the kind of work you'd expect coming from the author of Guilty. A fun read!
December 31, 2023
Artistically, this is a five star book. Karl Stevens is one of the best cross-hatching artist in the business, and he has been for twenty years at this point.
Story-wise, whether or not you will like this depends on how old you are, where you've lived, what your friends are like, what scenes you've been a part of, etc. This is not a universal book.
It's a bunch of scenes of life in Allston, MA in the early 21st century. I happened to live there at the time these comics were coming out in The Phoenix, and, although I didn't know him at the time, I was definitely present for the inspiration of one of these comics, if not two. I was so amused by his thoroughly accurate portrayal of a a rant my roommate had made about the dreaded 66 bus that I cut it out of The Phoenix and had it on the refrigerator through two moves before I lost it.
I know Karl, first very distantly because I worked in the comic book store he depicts in this book (and may, in fact, have taken the job he was looking for one of these strips...sorry), and then a little better when I moved to a different store in Cambridge a few years later.
There are several cringey moments in this book, and some very dated jokes and references. But they were relevant when this was coming out in strips, and I didn't notice anything racist, misogynist, or problematic, just humor that no longer lands, and a certain type of non-humor that was big at the time...not so much now. As a tiem capsule of 2006-2008 written between 2006 and 2008, this is perfect.
Story-wise, whether or not you will like this depends on how old you are, where you've lived, what your friends are like, what scenes you've been a part of, etc. This is not a universal book.
It's a bunch of scenes of life in Allston, MA in the early 21st century. I happened to live there at the time these comics were coming out in The Phoenix, and, although I didn't know him at the time, I was definitely present for the inspiration of one of these comics, if not two. I was so amused by his thoroughly accurate portrayal of a a rant my roommate had made about the dreaded 66 bus that I cut it out of The Phoenix and had it on the refrigerator through two moves before I lost it.
I know Karl, first very distantly because I worked in the comic book store he depicts in this book (and may, in fact, have taken the job he was looking for one of these strips...sorry), and then a little better when I moved to a different store in Cambridge a few years later.
There are several cringey moments in this book, and some very dated jokes and references. But they were relevant when this was coming out in strips, and I didn't notice anything racist, misogynist, or problematic, just humor that no longer lands, and a certain type of non-humor that was big at the time...not so much now. As a tiem capsule of 2006-2008 written between 2006 and 2008, this is perfect.
April 26, 2020
Didn't care for it at all. The art work and was good, but the "story" was depressing and pointless. Or maybe that was the point.
February 20, 2014
The art in this is AMAZING and it seems fairly authentic in its portrayal of the sometimes kind of hollow, sometimes eom life of the hipster and/ or perpetual student... Though none of these people actually seem to be actively pursuing higher ed, more like drop outs and creative types. It was funny for me as a person born and raised in Portlandia to compare the Massachusetts mentality versus our Oregon vibe... we are far less team sport oriented, especially among hipsters. We just don't care much for that sort of thing here except for soccer...Anyways, this book is well worth checking out as it gives very cool "moments in time" that are in no way profound but kind of celebrate the ordinary- kind of American Splendor for a new generation.
May 12, 2008
I enjoyed the artwork but since this is a collection of random pieces Mr. Stevens submits to his local Massachusetts alternative paper, and I had never read them before, I had a hard time trying to sort out what exactly was going on. I wasn't familiar with any of the characters or local references (bars, bus lines, diners, etc.), so I had a difficult time following. There wasn't any real flow, just a lot of angsty mid-twenties ranting & raving.
Still, if you like this sort of thing, you may want to check it out.
Still, if you like this sort of thing, you may want to check it out.
August 30, 2008
It took me 61 pages to really adore this little book. Before that I don't think I got the style and couldn't handle the pacing(pretty quick). It is a bit film-like and sprinkled with interjections. Detailed drawings (some gorgeous color pieces... really good). Somewhat intellectual 20 somethings in a college town; if you've been there *read this book*.
November 25, 2009
the art in this is amazing. but i found the protagonist REALLY insufferable & his friends uninteresting, mostly. little frayed threads of interesting stories are started & then stopped, while boring plotlines go on & on.
but the art, as previously stated, is amazing, & there were some one-pagers that made me laugh hysterically.
but the art, as previously stated, is amazing, & there were some one-pagers that made me laugh hysterically.
June 24, 2023
Certain panels are very nostalgic for me. I used to read every issue of the Pheonix and since I was stuck at a desk most of the time that tended to be multiple times. And so I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first saw the panel. I know where all those places are, what they looked like, and I even know (knew) some of the people. My god, how far we've come.
December 9, 2019
Karl's work always blows my mind. His gorgeous pen and ink drawings and water coloring methods demand to be read and revisited time and time again. I think here his razor-sharp humor, wit, and range of storytelling styles is most apparent. I was happy that my library was able to get this for me on inter-library loan.
October 21, 2009
Possibly one of the best illustrated books I have ever seen. I was absolutely blown away with the art in this book. And not to mention awesome little stories to go along with it. Definitely recommend this book to anyone. Visually and literally stunning.
May 14, 2008
Essential, devastating reading for anyone who has ever lived, loved, drank too much, f*cked up royally, and started all over again the next day (Toscanini's in hand) in Boston.
September 8, 2008
Well drawn, but mostly pointless.
May 6, 2010
If you've ever lived in Allston or anywhere in Boston for that matter this is a MUST read. I met the author last month, very cool guy.
October 23, 2013
Karl Stevens is my mortal enemy.
July 23, 2016
Beautiful art, cool little scenes (generally, sometimes inconsistent standard).
Read
September 24, 2018The one-page vignettes are just not to my taste.
Want to read
March 30, 2021Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
August 10, 2021
Oh the nostalgic 2010s of my mid to late 20s. Stevens' artwork is gorgeous and I connect with his sense of humor. I'll read anything he does.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews