Bumperhead

By Gilbert Hernandez. Published by Drawn & Quarterly. 

Hardcover, 128 pages, B&W, 2014

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.

Bumperheadfollows 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.

“Hernandez is brilliant on the particular embarrassments of growing up . . . Marble Season is a treat: beady, nostalgic and sometimes unexpectedly piercing.” —The Guardian on Marble Season

“Marble Season sometimes feels like one long, seamless shot of budding love, brimming violence and suddenly struck friendships.” —The Washington Post, Best Comics of 2013 on Marble Season