Bumperhead

by Hernandez, Gilbert

• ISBN13: 9781770461659
• ISBN10: 1770461655
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-09-16
• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly

Summary

A fascinatingly disjointed tale of drugs, rock and roll, and adolescence from a legendary cartoonist

The Love and Rockets author, Gilbert Hernandez, returns with Bumperhead, a companion book to Marble Season. Whereas Marble Season explored the exuberant and occasionally troubled existence of the wide-eyed preteen Huey, Bumperhead zeroes in on disaffected teenhood with its protagonist, Bobby.
Bumperhead follows Bobby, a young slacker who narrates his life as it happens but offers very little reflection on the events that transpire. He lives in the moment exclusively and is incapable of seeing the world outside of his experiences. He comes of age in the 1970s, making a rapid progression through that era's different subcultures and in a short period of time segues from a stoner glam rocker to a drunk rocker to a speed-freak punk. He drifts in and out of relationships with friends, both male and female. Life zooms past him.
Hernandez's approach captures the numbness and raw undirected anger and passion of a young man who waits for life to happen to him, not noticing all the while that it is happening. Subtle and thought-provoking, Bumperhead is a fascinating read.

Author Biography

Gilbert Hernandez was born in 1957 in Oxnard, California. In 1981, he co-self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets with his brothers, Mario and Jaime. Embracing strong female lead characters and punk culture, the series stood out from the male-dominated comics of the time. Hernandez and his brother Jaime have continued Love and Rockets for three decades. In the ensuing years, Hernandez has won nearly every industry award, as well as the prestigious United States Artists Literature Fellowship. He currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife, Carol, and his daughter, Natalia.