The Wyrd -- The Annotated MANTOOTH!
The Annotated Mantooth Is For All Of You Who Love AWESOME
The Annotated MANTOOTH!
January 29th, 2008 - To point out just how pumped I am about being able to introduce you to (or merely provide my own fairly-well-educated-take-if-I-do-say-so-myself take on material you’re familiar with) off-kilter fare without sticking slavishly to any one genre, I present to you one of my favorite, balls-to-the-wall whacked-out comic books of all time, Matt Fraction’s underappreciated classic, “MANTOOTH!”. Specifically, the astounding collection from AiT/Planetlar, “The Annotated MANTOOTH!”
The Annotated Mantooth is hands down one of the funniest things you’ll ever read. It’s a collection of the three issues of “Rex Mantooth: Kung-Fu Gorilla” that appeared as a double feature in the short-lived anthology cominc “Double Take”, (along with “Codeflesh”) way back in 2001. It involves the peculiar adventures of a sexy, take-no-prisoners secret agent kung-fu gorilla, Rex Mantooth, as he attempts to save the world from various whack-jobs and their completely out-of-left-field schemes. I hesitate to give too many details away, as much of the pleasure of reading it is in discovering for yourself the absurdity and sheer brilliance of the off-kilter situations, but rest assured you’ve never read a more finely balanced splatter of all-out hilarity colliding with spot-on observational satire. And lots of stuff, in the comic’s parlance, “splodes” (read it to see what I mean).
Sure, I can give examples. I can calmly explain that there is a need for the titular gorilla to wear a corset and dress and a wig with blonde pigtails in order to impersonate a woman interested in joining a cult/burgeoning private lesbian army. But like I said, I’d like to leave surprises. Jokes aren’t funny the second time they’re told. At least not AS funny. BUT--another great thing about this collection is it’s still funny after the 15th or 134th read. ESPECIALLY because of the added content, one of best ideas I’ve ever seen for a comic collection: for every comic page on the right, we have a corresponding script page on the left. So you can see, directly and without doubt, how an artist interprets the script he’s provided, and how certain things are squeezed/changed/compressed to better fit the page. It’s absolutely fascinating, and a must for anyone serious about writing (or drawing) comics.
But Larry Young, comics genius/publisher extraordinaire, was not satisfied with merely providing you with Fraction’s original script pages. He also includes room for additional notes by Fraction, commenting on his own script. Sort of like a DVD commentary, if DVD commentaries were hilarious screeds, occasionally untrue, but adding immeasurably to the already-existing content. He provides actual insight as well—notes on why a joke made it, what still makes him laugh, etc., but these pale in comparison to the occasional aside alluding to a (hopefully) fictional narrative of his own upbringing, like the explanation of the line “And you WILL hit this sh*t all night long” having come from a love letter sent from his father to his mother.
I’m not sure whether or not this sort of content has ever been provided in other collections/anthologies, and to be honest, at the moment I don’t care. It’s not just the originality of the content I’m impressed with, it’s the meat of the content itself. The script is burst-out-laughing funny in and of itself. Small example:
(Page) “3.3
SQUARE-ISH PANEL, NO BLEED. As ARSEWEDGE looks on from the back left, REX (in the front right) holds a severed ROBOT-NINJA HEAD in his hands like Hamlet looking at poor Yorick, if Hamlet was ever caught pondering Big Goddamned Spy Thoughts.”
Fraction didn’t HAVE to make the script just as entertaining as the comic itself, but he does, just by virtue of the wit, enthusiasm, and storytelling skill that explodes all over the place in this comic. It is truly a shock to me how this comic didn’t garner wider appeal. It’s semi-deconstructionist, looking at comics action and clichés and following them to illogical extremes—robot ninjas, zombies, and world-conquering wannabes abound—and overtly, comically misogynistic. And I know PLENTY of people who would argue that your typical comic book amounts to nothing more than male power fantasies, supplemented with the gratuitous use of buxom females as nothing more than set dressing. Rex Mantooth takes this premise and runs, making Rex the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with the heroes we tend to idolize not just in comics but in virtually all forms of media.
He’s a spy, he’s an action hero, he knows kung-fu, but he also couldn’t care less about what happens to his female sidekick as long as he gets to have sex with her in the giant robot at the end of their adventure. Deplorable behavior, to be sure, but it’s simply an extension of the kind of behavior exhibited by James Bond (mostly in the Connery flicks), and continued in the meathead tradition of most 80’s action movies. And the hits don’t stop there, folks. This comic is jam-packed with biting commentary on the male impression of being tough/heroic, the inherit hilarity of zombies holding a rally, the best examples of broken English you’re ever likely to come across, AND the aforementioned ‘text pieces’ written by Fraction to better explain his own origin. Did I mention the best name for a giant robot ever, “World’s Greatest Grandpa”? Or the breasts of freedom?
I envy you in a way, dear reader. I recall the feeling of excitement and discovery when I first laid my hands on “The Annotated Mantooth”, and I’ll never have that feeling again. What I WILL have is my battered/much lent and well loved copy of it, forever sitting on the bookshelf alongside other, better recognized classics such as “Watchmen” and “Sandman”. And I will read it whenever the mood strikes me and be reminded that comics are capable of being funnier than any other form of media out there. But don’t take my word for it. Seek it out. There is no way imaginable you can possibly regret it. Unless, somehow, the idea of reading the adventures of a Kung-Fu Superspy Gorilla doesn’t sound appealing to you. In which case you should ask yourself what you’re doing reading comics in the first place.