Alex Robinson, Box-Office Poison

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Today I went to the library, determined to rectify my ignorance of graphic novels, and grabbed everything that looked interesting off the shelves. Then I spent the whole day immersed in Box Office Poison, a 600-page epic about a nerdy would-be S.J. Perelman named Sherman, his dangerous/beautiful girlfriend Dorothy, his roommates (a history prof who looks like Jesus and a woman who draws comic biographies of Emma Goldman), his comic-book-nerd friend Ed who's determined to lose his virginity, and this rich cast of people who seem like walk-ons only to reemerge later. It was beautiful, funny, powerful ... It was like a great TV series or long serial novel in its ability to leave you feeling like you've been hanging out with the characters for a decade, in a way few novels can do for me. And I think I ended up with some sort of masochistic crush on Dorothy, the alcoholic girlfriend that all the book's fans seemed to hate. Anyway, just wondering if anyone else was as impressed/moved by this book as I was.

― Phil Christman, Saturday, 13 March 2004 02:39 (twenty-two years ago)

It's one of two graphic novels I actually own. I read it and kept reading/showing huge swathes to my husband, who read it immediately after me, despite normally not reading much fiction at all. We were both quite taken with the excellent characterization. It's a real treasure of a book.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Saturday, 13 March 2004 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I love Box Office Poison. Funniest bit was when landlady has heart attack and chaos ensues in the apartment building. That dog barking and that white trash guy talking shit to Jane… I was kicking out my legs, I was laughing so hard.

I liked the graphic novel so much that I got BOP! More Box Office Poison, which were chapters left out of the book. Not so good. There were a couple interesting parts but there was a reason they were left out in the first place. Didn’t really fit.

I like the blurb on the back of the novel that says something like “taking a voyeuristic look into your friends lives,” which I completely agree with.

And Phil… Dorothy??? Any sympathy I might have felt for her was erased after she [SPOILER ALERT!] killed her dog.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Monday, 15 March 2004 13:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't realize there was a "More Box Office Poison." Now I'm going to have to inevitably disappoint myself.

Yeah, I don't know what it is about Dorothy. I couldn't believe her outburst to the one character's Costa Rican cousin--the skating champion? Any actual woman who acted like such a racist, rude jerk in my presence would be cut loose. Something about the comic-book format encourages weird, unsustainable crushes for me (cf. the thing I've been developing all weekend for Death in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. Damn, is she ever likable).

― Phil Christman, Monday, 15 March 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

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