There’s nothing “full throttle” about this work.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Art: Greg Scott
What They Say:
Hollywood’s sexiest leading man, Steve McQueen—star of films such as Bullitt, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Papillon–lived as large off screen as on. An actor, motorcycle and automobile racer, and all-around gearhead, McQueen rose from hardscrabble circumstances to become one of the most famous movie stars in the world. Steve McQueen: Full-Throttle Cool presents McQueen’s life story in graphic biography format, from the early years that included a stint in reform school to his death from mesothelioma.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Plato tells us that out in the universe exist ideal forms, and all we experience on this world are shadows of those forms. If that’s true, then Steven McQueen must have been the ideal form of 1970s cool. Although he only starred in a handful of movies, several of them redefined cinema and provided a template for masculinity that American men have been following to this day. It’s that sense of raw masculine power that Full-Throttle Cool attempts to capture, but ultimately the comic is as uncool and unenergetic as its subject was cool and energetic.
I’m sure this will sound cruel, but one of the favorite things I love to tell my students is “Nobody cares about your dead cat.” It’s a variation on a saying one of my professors liked to use: “Everybody has a cat poem.” Basically, what she was saying was that we all have certain experiences that matter to us—the love for a pet, the death of a loved one—but those experiences don’t translate well to art because art requires a core, universal truth, and “I love my cat” just doesn’t cut it.
This extends to the genre of creative nonfiction. Although the stories are true, the good ones may not be 100% factual. Life is full of boring moments. Moments where nothing exciting or special happens to us and all we do is sit on the couch, eating Oreos. Fiction—as Hitchcock told us—is life with those parts cut out. Nonfiction writers may need to play with time, with order of events, and even intensity of the moment to create their desired effect, and that’s okay as long as the core, guiding truth remains intact.
While the creative team of Full-Throttle Cool seems to understand the importance of cutting out the dull parts, they don’t seem to get that a story has to be about something. This trade moves from moment to moment in McQueen’s life, from birth to death, hitting all the high points like a greatest hits collection, but lacking a central thesis. The only narrative thread that ran through this work was, “Gee, isn’t Steve McQueen the coolest?” Yes, most assuredly he is, but that’s not enough to make a story.
It’s almost like there is an inverse relationship between McQueen’s coolness and the quality of this book. The art certainly lacks any sense of life or verve. The placement and size of panels and the camera angles employed were too simple and direct, lacking in any real sense of narrative rhythm or style, and the art relied far too heavily on photo references to the point where the faces lacked any real sense of emotion or personality.
As I read this, I couldn’t help but think of the last great biographical comic I read: The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story. Not only was the art more sophisticated and of better quality, but the story had a premise that ran throughout the entire book. It guided and shaped the events so that the work was about something beyond just a celebration of Epstein’s life. That premise made it a story and made me as the reader connect with Epstein and his life, because it was something universal and relatable. There was nothing universal or relatable in Full Throttle Cool; it was just another cat poem.
In Summary:
Although I’m a huge Steve McQueen fan, Steve McQueen: Full Throttle Cool just left me cold. The writing and art were tepid and uninspired, and there was no real story to be had—just a string of events in the life of a fascinating, larger-than-life man who, frankly, deserves better. Dr. Josh gives this a…
Grade: C-
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Motorbooks
Release Date: 7 July 2015
MSRP: $19.99
