We're in an America based on tabloid news, underground comix, 1970s trash culture, Jack Chick Tracts, Mad magazine, and what Fox News viewers likely think kids these days are up to. The geist is very 70s, blended with present-day and 1990s elements. In short it's a story that could only take place in a comic book, and one NOT intended for children. It features a small army of small town characters, including writer/artist Rick Altergott's most notorious antihero, the socially maladjusted loser, Doofus, who lives comfortably without apparent means of support and devotes his time to metal detecting, masturbating, and huffing women's underwear.
The graphic novel is Blessed Be, first published in April of 2024 and based on material from Raisin Pie, the adult comic Altergott co-created with his wife, Ariel Bordeaux.
The plot begins with Tom Cottonwood, the self-proclaimed Acid King, an asshole of a drug dealer who gets sentenced to a year in prison. A year later he returns, bent on revenge, angry that others have taken over his business, and over-the-edge deranged from years of sampling his product. Like many, he has found religion in prison. The religion in question, however, is Satanism.
Meanwhile, the mysterious 40 Acres Club has lost a member, and Doofus puts forth his idiot sidekick, Henry Hotchkiss (an even bigger doofus than Doofus), as the replacement. All seems to be going well, until Doofus explodes over a minor issue with Hotchkiss and kicks him out of his house. He soon regrets his childish outburst, but by then, Hotchkiss is gone, convinced that Doofus hates him. He moves into the woods where he has more than a few bizarre and unsavoury encounters.
Local horny teens Astrid and Scotty engage in local horny teen activities until Scotty blunders into the Acid King’s revenge plot. Both Doofus and Astrid now find themselves exploring the seedy elements of their small town (I'd call it an underbelly, but it's pretty damn prominent) as they try to find their respective missing friends. Naturally, these mysteries draw in the colourful and ridiculous inhabitants of Flowersville, USA. Along the way, we might glean some insight into the darkness that we still want to believe doesn’t touch mythic small towns ("Don't try that in a small town?" Why not? They've done everything else there). However, I wouldn't get too serious about this comic. Altergott delves into cultural craziness, scatology, sex, violence (including, but not limited to, a decapitation), and lowbrow gags in order to entertain us while following the dictates of his own loony, often terrifically silly artistic vision.
The artwork goes a very long way towards selling us that world. One sees influences of Wally Wood and Will Eisner-- but also Will Elder and the Looney Tunes. In some panels Elder's chicken fat principle holds, corners crammed with crazy details. A more restrained approach applies in others. Altergott's attention to light, shadow, and detail invests Flowertown with an insane reality. I feel like one wrong exit off an Interstate could land me there.
One must take this crazed, satiric world at face value. Thinking about it too much doesn't work. We see a couple of cell phones, one modern desktop PC, and hear one e-mail joke, but the characters mostly function as though these things do not exist. They scurry around town trying to find each other. They get the latest from newspapers, dropped off in bundles before sunrise and purchased from newstands. Reporters wear rumpled fedoras and take notes on sketch pads. A field rave takes place, ripped from a mid-90s exposé that Geraldo Rivera might have hosted; the nearby "love van" is a classic Volkswagen Type 2 microbus. The Acid King drives a muscle car. Doofus and his ilk buy old-timey porn magazines from a sketchy shop.
I had a small issue with Astrid's single use of "that's gay" as a pejorative. Yes, it's true to teenspeak for a large chunk of recent history and yes (as should be clear), Altergott revels in depicting the problematic. Much worse happens in this story! Nevertheless, coming from one of the few relatively non-satirized and generally likeable characters, it felt gratuitous, more like an oversight rather than Altergott being the deliberate jerk that his characters require.
Blessed Be also lost me a little with its conclusion. Other readers might take issue with the amount of crude toilet humour, but that's integral to a Doofus story. There's a lot more than that crap in Altergott's first graphic novel and, if you're open to reading well-crafted and truly odd meta-trash, you might find Blessed Be rewarding.