You know, maybe high school wasn’t all that bad. Of course, I’m looking back at it almost 20 years removed while Chris Staros has 30 years distance from his high school years as shown in Yearbook Stories 1976-1978. This new Top Shelf release collects two short stories by Staros, “The Willful Death of a Stereotype” and “The Worst Gig I Ever Had.” Both stories are actually a few years old, originally appearing in a couple of Small Press Expo Anthologies but it’s nice to see them released this way.
In the first story, “The Willful Death…” Staros revisits his earliest days at a brand new high school, trying to recreate himself as teenagers dream of while running for class office. I think Staros has a childhood a lot of us can relate to; forming a love of something early in life only to find that as you grow older it isn’t supposedly “popular.” For Staros, it was reading. Thanks to a book report contest, he discovered books and became a bit of the class brain– good for tutoring but without the physical development for sports and team activities. Sound familiar to anyone? When he’s sent to a brand new high school for his freshman year of high school, he sees the opportunity to re-establish himself, to get a fresh start and break down social barriers that were already in place in grade school.
In the much shorter second story, Staros recounts a time his high school rock band ended up playing out in the woods for a biker party. This is a much lighter tale than the first story but shows how a fairly whitebread band of high school boys had their world at least slightly expanded when they met new people and situations.
For “The Willful Death…,” Staros is joined by Bo Hampton on the artwork. I’m more familiar with Hampton as a painter but his more cartoony, black, white and graytone artwork is a wonder. While some images remind me of Tim Sale, Hampton captures an innocence in his story, conveying perfectly and succinctly Staros story. The second story is drawn by Rich Tommaso, a different type of artist. Hampton’s gray tones make the first story more dreamy and nostalgic. Tomasso’s sharp linework gives “The Worst Gig…” an immediateness and urgency that’s the exact oppostite of Hampton’s more expansive story.
Staros’ stories are not going to set the world on fire. Unlike a lot of more serious and pretentious autobiography that tries to plumb the deep depths of the artist’s tortured soul, Staros’ stories are revelatory but easily identifiable– well, at least the first story is easily identifiable. There’s no great search for Truth here (note the capital “T”) but his stories ring true. Staros may embellish a bit but there’s little in these stories that seems implausible or suspect. They are pleasant stories that are just a lot of fun to read.
Yearbook Stories 1976-1978
Written by: Chris Staros
Drawn by: Bo Hampton (The Willful Death of a Stereotype) and Rich Tommaso (The Worst Gig I Ever Had)
[tags]Chris Staros, Bo Hampton, Rick Tommaso, Top Shelf Comix[/tags]