I know, I know.
This piece should be all happy joy-joy and filled with Christmas cheer… but, I’ve decided to talk about the book 100 Months by John Hicklenton instead.
That’s not to say there isn’t joy and hope in the book.
There is.
It’s a thin hope yes, and it’s only there if you read the book from a certain point of view, but it is there!
First, I shall tell you about John Hicklenton.
Hicklenton first came to public view as a comic artist on 2000AD, where after a couple of shorter tales, he got his shot at the Big Time with a run on the strip Nemesis The Warlock.
And man did he deliver.
As you can see from the images, Hicklenton’s work is unique.
That’s a word that is overused, but in this case I think it applies. His work is disturbing and dark and grim, but also has a twist of pitch black humour running below it. Compromise did not come into it. I think it’s fair to say that at the time, this work divided the fans. I shall give you a clue as to which side of the fence I sit on by telling you that the page below is one of my favourite comic pages ever.
Then, in the year 2000, John was diagnosed with MS.
For many years, he struggled against this terrible disease, and his life was documented in the magnificent documentary film Here’s Johnny.
On 19th March this year (2010) Johnny took his own life at the Dignatas clinic in Switzerland. Hicklenton was as uncompromising in death as in life, insuring that even the end came in his own terms. As he said himself, in a letter to UK comics godfather Pat Mills (imagine Stan Lee, only still writing vital and original comics 40 years later)- “MS – you have a week to live, you’ve met someone you shouldn’t have fucked with”.
The day before visiting Dignatas, Hicklenton finished work on 100 Months.
Now, how can I now go on to write a balanced review of the book with that weighing on me? Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve written a review of sorts of the book for our own blog, and this is kind of my trying to do it again… but it’s still not working!
The book is, it goes without saying, a powerful read. The art is astonishing and as disturbing as one would hope. But it’s the tale Hicklenton is telling that makes it all the more powerful. Here, as he delivers his final Testament to the world, he spells out in no uncertain terms just how lost we are as a species.
How we are squandering both our planet and our own potential. But, as I said at the beginning, there is a ray of hope, albeit a dim one, at the end. Perhaps we are better than we allow ourselves to be. If only we could sort ourselves out, if only we had time…
Well, that’s depressed you all, hasn’t it?
Sorry about that, but really, don’t let it. This book is a towering testament to the best human abilities that Hicklenton alludes to in the book. It is a monument to one man’s Love, Hope and self-belief and to that most important trait- the refusal to compromise your Art.
Merry Christmas!
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