Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker (No. 84)

Why I Hate Saturn (1990)

by Kyle Baker

REVIEW BY BART BEATY:

(from The 100 Best Comics of the Century! in The Comics Journal #210, 1999)

Without a doubt the most loaned out comic book I have ever owned is Kyle Baker's Why I Hate Saturn, and each time it's circulated amongst my friends it's come back just a little worse for wear. My copy is dog-eared and battered, it's had drinks spilled on it, part of the cover has worn away for some reason, the spine is cracked,  a couple of pages have fallen out and it smells vaguely of Thai food for reasons I can't ascertain.

And that feels so appropriate.

This story of a young woman recklessly tossed about on the sea of fate, cut loose by a series of coincidences and plot points well beyond her control, used and abused by crazed ex-boyfriends, sisters, and editors belongs in a book that, like its lead character, is just nearly holding it together.

Baker's fashionably hip end-of-the-80s sensibility seemed mildly outrageous a the time (remember the bazooka-wielding finale?) but after the intervening decade it's beginning to look a lot like reportage. What hasn't changed is the fact the rapid-fire dialogue still crackles with life while Baker's hyper-expressive visuals still make this one of the most approachable graphic novels of the past decade.

My copy's in such bad shape because I've yet to meet someone who won't finish the book once they've started it. It's simply too fast, too funny and too difficult to put down. So it gets read and read and read again.

It may not look so pretty up on the shelf, but I'd trade a dozen of those pristine graphic novels that I've read once and then put away for just one more of these books that looks like it's been read by a small army. Because it has been.

REVIEW BY HO CHE ANDERSON:
(from an Instagram post, 2021)
Kyle Baker! This man’s work was like a depth charge going off in my brain. The Shadow was my intro to his stuff; it was only later I discovered his more personal work like Cowboy Wally. Then came this bad boy and Kyle ascended to the levels of Los Bros, and (cough, cough) Woody Allen (this book feels a lot like an Allen-style New York comedy). Hilarious, beautiful, highly recommended.

FURTHER READING:
Kyle Baker's Patreon Page

Kyle Baker's CBLDF Profile