Jan.20/11: Amerikan Freak tpb (zenescope) by John Leekley

      I love to shop in the bargain bins for graphic novels and that's  where I found Amerikan Freak. I paid $1.99 for this title , the cover is 10 bucks.

Amerikan Freak (zenescope 2007) by John Leekley , art: Clay Sparks

see! not a typo!  Amerikan Freaks tpb

Jason the outcasted goth kid walking through the halls of his high school which apparently goes up to grade 26

plot/premise:
      Jason and Jesse went to a high school where the rich preppies and the blue-collar factory kids circled each other, like wolves from rival packs. They called Jason the Freak, he never belonged to a cool crowd. His big brother Jesse was always the protector. When they murdered Jesse, it was the biggest mistake this town would ever make. Out of Jason's rage came the darkness he had always feared, his dead brother Jesse bursting from his ripping flesh, the brothers merging to form one savage monster. Now there's hell to pay. 

turns out Jason is quite the artist and Jesse I initially thought was a pedophile caz he was dating one of Jason's clasmates but turns out they're closer to age than appeared

Gord Says: bleh...
    The story and plot was so generic and bland , I recommend taking some illegal narcotics before reading. It was so stale and uninteresting from the get go and for a super natural story , it felt so unnatural.

     The characters were cookie cut from the book of cliche. Take the bad guys for example... a group of  jocks in their letterman jackets and the lead jock's dad is the town sheriff  *yawn* I was waiting for Judd Nelson and Kevin Bacon to pop out of the bushes and start dancing. Talk about sleep walking through a project , John Leekley just dotted down some ideas on a bar napkin and violah! a graphic novel!

The art:    It bewilders me when artist don't know how to draw teenagers.  To be fair to Clay Sparks he isnt the only one , my idol John Byrne couldn't draw kids faces properly either. The kids in this story look like aged adults , Sparks would've been perfect for the Beverly Hills 90210 comic. Other than that I would say the art was ok , there was some good hazy eerie imagery. The mood was spooky  , lots of dark panels but that hardly makes up for such a bed pan story.

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 For a loner goth kid he's clean of tats , piercings , he even looks tanned along with the fact he clearly frequents the gym.. shame on me for  my ignorance in stereotyping.


Good News:  The lady in the lake was intriguing whom turns out to be very important to the boys.  Spooky broad that made a sinister deal for Jason's soul  when he was younger and she came to collect. They should've ditched the boys story and did her story.



Bad News: page 1 to 100. 

Verdict:    Remember when you were a kid  buying a chocolate bar , and you feel a little frisky to try something new. So you pick out a bar that catches your eye , it looks good on the label... then when you bite into it , it taste like the monkey bars but your sugar addiction kicks in and you end up finishing it despite its raunchy lingering taste.


      That's what Amerikan Freak felt like. I tried a new title i never heard of.. looked good but when its all said and done , this isn't even worth to occupy my mind while I pinch a loaf. My expections were low and it still fell short.


Dig it or Ditch it

DITCH IT If I offer this book to you for free , take it as an insult and toss your coffee into my face.