Hotwire #3

by Glenn Head

Thrills, chills and transgression are back in third volume of Hotwire ! Hotwire #3 eschews literary high-mindedness for pure, gut-wrenching visceralness, gunning off the page with David Sandlin's “Infernal Combustion,” which is about boozing it up in a broke-down caddy, and Tim Lane's bit of freight-hopping grit, “Spike.” Underground comics legend Mary Fleener returns with “The Judge,” a true tale in which she fends off thugs... with a .38! Meanwhile, Hotwire Captain Glenn Head spins the biography of German surrealist Hans Bellmer as a down-and-out Vaudevillian in decadent Weimar Berlin. Other creepy delights: Rick Altergott delivers a fable of a child-molesting clown pleasuring himself in the suburbs, while Matti Hagelberg's “Passion of Atte” is a modern-day Dante's Inferno in comics form. There's also more knockout work and crazy visuals by Mark Dean Veca, Johnny ( Angry Youth Comix ) Ryan, Mats?!, Max Andersson, Sam Henderson, Steve Cerio, Stephane Blanquet, Doug Allen, Carol Swain, Craig Yoe, J. Bradley Johnson, Michael ( Tales designed to Thrizzle ) Kupperman, Danny Hellman, Mack White, Lorna Miller, David Paleo, Christian Northeast, Karl Wills and Jay Pulga. Looking for laffs? A psychic jolt? A partner for your next trip? Look no further than...

Genres: Comics

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Glenn Head is an American cartoonist and comic book editor, based in New York City.
Head was born in 1958 in Morristown, New Jersey and began drawing comics when fourteen. A student of Art Spiegelman at the School of Visual Arts in the early ‘80s, Head's style was significantly influenced by the underground comix of the 60's.
Much of his work has appeared in anthologies. In the early 90's Head co-created with cartoonist Kaz the comix anthology series Snake Eyes, for Fantagraphics Books. From 2005 to 2010 he edited and contributed to another anthology by Fantagraphics, called Hotwire Comix.
In recent years Glenn Head has moved towards longer form comics, releasing the graphic novels Chicago (2015) and Chartwell Manor (2021).
Other works and illustrations by him have appeared on a number of newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, Screw, the New York Times, Playboy, New Republic, Entertainment Weekly, Nickelodeon Magazine and more.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best of all three volumes in that there was much less filler in this volume than the previous two. Also, there is very little here that I already have in another collection. Still really don't like the Car-Boy stuff by Anderson or the freaky illustrations by Paleo. On the other hand, I really loved the stuff by Glen Head, Chadwick Whitehead, and Danny Hellman. The McArf short by Kupperman is especially funny.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely weird comic shorts. But it was mildly entertaining.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The anarchy of Zap meets the luridness of EC comics. The story lines are sometimes merely so-so, but the artwork tends to be very good. No literary "graphic novel" pretensions here--just straight ahead, in your face illustrated tales.

[Steve Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mack White's story was good, but the rest of these comics were fairly lame. Strangeness isn't enough to make a comic compelling.