A new edition of Adafruit’s comic reading list — this week it’s Too Cool To Be Forgotten from Ross, a senior shipper in our Shipping Department!
Like most of my friends on the Adafruit shipping team, I have my favorite podcasts. But the jovial, cerebral (occasionally raunchy) ‘Ink Panthers Podcast’ barely hinted at the emotional complexity of Too Cool to be Forgotten, a short comic written and illustrated by cartoonist and podcaster Alex Robinson.
The book follows Andy, a middle-aged man, who tries a last resort to quit smoking, and finds himself transported back into his 15-year-old self. He revisits the absurdities of high school with 20 years of foresight and perspective.
I know from his podcast that Robinson is obsessed with alternate histories, and in this work he considers Andy’s temporal predicament from every angle in the character’s inner monologue. We see firsthand the hardships of time travel.
The element that pushes the book onto another level, however, is the emotional portrayal of Andy, our hero. The book is about how unacceptable life can be, and how we can retreat into ourselves. Let’s just say that I’m glad I didn’t read the book’s moving climax while riding a crowded subway. It’s an amazing comic.
Adafruit pal Cory Doctorow digs it too!
“Touching and funny … By the story’s end, wish fulfillment has become something much more challenging and, frankly, beautiful. There’s a lot going on in this little book.” — Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing