.:: Bob Fingerman ::.

Press

Pull-Quotes and Reviews

BOTTOMFEEDER

*Starred Review* Phil Merman hasn't looked a day over 27 for 27 years now, ever since somebody mugged him on a subway platform, after which he found he couldn't eat, or go out in the sun without catching fire. He's a vampire, though one whose conscience compels him to feed solely on society's dregs. The only friend he has is pathetic old college pal Shelley, who's never been the same since his family perished in a mysterious fire long before Phil's mugging. He'd drop Shelley, whose aging irksomely reminds Phil of his own despised perpetual youth, but the wraithlike man positively haunts him. Then while at a bar with Shelley, Phil meets another vampire who introduces him to more, including a circle prone to orgies. Phil almost overcomes his scruples as his new friend leads him into some harrowing adventures. Finally, he starts wondering, Why now, after 27 lonely years? The answer packs a punch that cracks the novel's exhilarating tough-guy facade. Previously a graphic novelist, Fingerman writes in a punchy, up-to-the-minute urban vernacular that, while it brims with abusive humor, squelches romanticism, provokes other-than-sexual interpretations of vampirism, and helps propel Bottomfeeder to the front ranks of its genre.

Booklist

BEG THE QUESTION

"Fingerman's visual style is a witty combo of old-school underground-comics grunginess and new-school precision; his dialogue is worthy of the stage — it's terrific screwball-comedy byplay that rings true. A-"

Entertainment Weekly

"A sprawling, sexy, smart, nerve-wracking, almost minute-by-minute look at the friendships, love life and career of a young cartoonist trying to make it any way he can in a city that couldn't care less. But I cared and so will you. Bob Fingerman writes and draws on the dismal sub-culture of comics-limbo with the eye of an anthropologist and the gifts of a born storyteller."

Jules Feiffer

"Intensely funny and addictive, Fingerman captures true love and Brooklyn with incredible honesty and tenderness. I always scream with joy when I see the new Minimum Wage at the bookstore, and now here's the collected edition that we can all scream for."

Margaret Cho

"Beg the Question does for relationships what Maus did for the Holocaust. Wait a second; that probably doesn't sound right. What I'm trying to say is that through this medium of cartoons, Bob Fingerman has gloriously and hilariously captured the comedy and the tragedy, the agony and the ecstasy, the yin and the yang, the missionary and the doggy-style, of a young man and woman's love for each other."

Jonathan Ames, author of My Less Than Secret Life

"Finally, a graphic novel unafraid to face the important issues: sex, death, marriage, abortion, religion, and the name of Simon Barsinister's henchman on Underdog. Bob Fingerman's Beg the Question is a masterful work, unflinching, ugly, potent, and massively entertaining along the way."

James Gunn, author of The Toy Collector

"It doesn't seem fair that Bob Fingerman gets to be such a funny, savvy, cool and smart writer who can also draw. It gives him an advantage and I may need to have him assassinated."

Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors

"Beg the Question is one of those hellishly-hard-to-describe-but-that's-good kind of novels. It's about a very erotic romance, and it's about grown-up friendships; it's about first jobs (or, rather, about trying to get a career going, no easy thing), and it's about being young in New York City (which you'll recognize as dead-on accurate if you were lucky/crazy enough to have experienced it yourself). And it's about...well, it's just about the most fun I've had reading anything in a long, long time. The characters are so real and so well drawn (pun intended) you'll wish you had their phone numbers because you'd love to stay in touch. Nice work, Fingerman."

Tom De Haven, author of Dugan Under Ground

YOU DESERVED IT

Fingerman's previous work, Beg the Question, was a realistic black-and-white graphic novel about two young New Yorkers' troubled engagement. This volume is a full-color short story collection that trades realism for Grand Guignol. Fingerman favors a baroque cartoony style full of bent, hunched figures and very wordy dialogue. His work has a density that recalls the early Mad comic books, but is far grimmer. In "Missing Pieces," a paramedic supplements his income by selling photos of brutally dismembered crime and accident victims. This troubles his partner, but when the photographer himself is run over by a subway, the partner decides that selling atrocity photographs might not be a bad gig. "Otis Goes Hollywood" is the story of an immensely strong naïf, Otis, who has an unfortunate habit of brutally killing people by accident. Some Hollywood sleazeballs take the opportunity to turn Otis into an action star, revealing that everyone in the story is morally corrupt, except for Otis;who innocently slaughters dozens. The violence is like "Itchy and Scratchy" from The Simpsons; too bizarrely exaggerated to be taken seriously. These stories are not for the easily offended, but readers who like their humor shaded pitch black will enjoy them.

Publishers Weekly

“Bob Fingerman remains the Marcel Proust of low-end, contempo urban torment. You Deserved It is a creepy, compassionate, relentlessly funny and disturbing masterpiece, shining a light on the nonstop cringe-fest that is life for the under-achieving alterna-humans who inhabit the dark and art-adjacent corners of every 21st Century American city. The author is the kind of genius who would probably be happier with fifty less IQ points and a job in the post office. Instead, he labors selflessly on, generating savage graphics and squirmy dispatches from the dashed-dream underbelly of the world we all inhabit -- but few have the heart, vision or dementia to celebrate. Fingerman’s hell is our delight.”

Jerry Stahl, author of I, Fatty and Permanent Midnight

“With a Vicodin addicted misanthrope’s delicate touch, Bob Fingerman has once again demonstrated just how blurry the line is between “comic” and “book”. You Deserved It is rife with his trademark grit, anger, and HUGE-nippled vixens. In its pages are the answers to some of life’s nagging questions, including “Will I get sick if I eat that?” Seriously, if you get off on death, buxom babes, mocking the art-as-commerce world and/or meat packing plants, then this is the comic for you! If not, I think you may still enjoy it anyway.”

David Cross, HBO's Mr. Show