Back in Bleck: Blecky Yuckarella Vol. 2

February 09, 2008

Review – Back in Bleck – Johnny Ryan

Johnny Ryan is my current favorite “modern” comic artist, even though he occasionally pisses me off. He’s an angry guy who picks both appropriate and inappropriate targets, and will aim for an easy poop and pork joke whenever possible. And because he doesn’t appear to like competition, he’ll occasionally aim a sharp barb at hard targets that include some of the early alternative comix masters without whom there would be no Johnny Ryan. The bottom line, however, is that Ryan’s comics are balls-out hilarious.

Blecky Yuckarella

While Ryan himself is pushing forty, his “Angry Youth Comix” ring brutally true as does his Blecky Yuckarella comic strips, mostly for the "Portland Mercury." The Blecky character is hateful; smelly, gross, and ripe with bodily fluids – even more so than most of his characters, who are all deformed and psychotic in some way. But it doesn’t matter because they’re screamingly funny, no easy feat. Next to Blecky, my favorite Johnny Ryan characters are Loady McGee the serial killer and Quasimodo Rose the hunchbacked porn star.

In short, Johnny Ryan has turned political incorrectness into an art form. And, because of this and like many cartoon geniuses tottering on the edge, Ryan occasionally pisses people off, occasionally biting the proverbial feeding hand. In 2007, the "Portland Mercury" stopped running the Blecky Yuckarella comic strip.

“Back in Bleck: Blecky Yuckarella Vol. 2” is not for the squeamish; but if you like your laughs on the bleeding edge, you may just love this collection of his "Portland Mercury" strips