Every once in a while, you come across a fictional character that you definitely don’t want to be associated with (Jeff “Comic Book Guy” Albertson from The Simpsons comes to one’s mind.) You will find yourself harbouring similar feelings towards Finster, the protagonist in Fanboy.
Created by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés (the creators of Groo The Wanderer), Fanboy is collection of stories about Finster — an ardent comic book fan who works in a comic store. Published originally as a six issue mini-series, Fanboy is now available as a single graphic novel.
The basic storyline is really simple — years of reading comic books devotedly have made it hard for Finster to differentiate between the real world and the imaginary one. He constantly gives way to fantasy — little imaginative dreams where he is leading a much more exciting and adventurous life than the one he’s currently leading. In his fantasies, he lusts after beautiful women, goes to war, fights horrible crimes, and occasionally saves the world. In the real world, however, he doesn’t have a date for the high school dance.
Even if you assure yourself that you are nothing like Finster, you will find that you know several guys exactly like him. The creators understand this perfectly, seeing as they themselves are a part of this club. The result is that the book is filled with good, easy humour and there are jokes aimed at comicbook “nerds’'.
Sergio Aragonés is known for his artwork in MAD magazine and the style of drawing in Fanboy is a lot like MAD, so much so that you often feel like you are reading one of MAD’s hilarious spoofs. The artwork is a treat for comic-book fans, with drawings by several guest artists including Jerry Ordway, Frank Miller, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Dick Sprang, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brent Anderson, Russ Heath, Joe Kubert, Marie Severin, Brian Bolland, Jim Mooney, Joe Giella, Bruce Timm, Kevin Nowlan, Wendy Pini, Jordi Bernet, Phil Jiminez, Bernie Wrightson, Matt Haley, Tom Simmons, Will Blyberg, Dave Gibbons, Steve Rude, Dick Giordano, Mike Grell and Dan Spiegle.
It’s a lot of fun to see Finster’s story drawn in various, fantastic styles and to guess who the artist is. When you recognise the artist and start congratulating yourself, you realise that you have been had by the writers because now they have proved beyond doubt that you are pretty much in the same league as Finster. The narrative changes according to the scenario and you get the impression of everything being slightly out of tune. This along with Finster’s silly, thick-headed demeanor makes for a very entertaining read.
The theme is to tell you that you are the living version of Finster. Like Finster says in an introduction to the book “You bought me because you live as I live, in a couple of worlds, at least one of which is filled with superheroes and monsters, outer space creatures and ladies who look like Wonder Woman as drawn by Brian Bolland and Steve Rude.”
This may or may not be true but like any other special, celebratory book, Fanboy is a toast to comic enthusiasts all over the world; people who wait and look forward to buying new issues and comics; ridiculously expensive as some of them might be. Fanboy is like one of those movies where they tell you, in tones laden with meaning, to leave your brains at home. The jokes are silly at times but read the book without too many expectations and you will find yourself enjoying it thoroughly.