Clifford Meth

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:
• Overture / Dave Sim, writer
• Abortion Stew [comic] / Wm. Messner-Loebs, writer and illustrator
• Ellen / Wm. Messner-Loebs, writer and illustrator
• The Small Scarlet Cloak / Wm. Messner-Loebs, writer and illustrator
• Who are these other guys / Wm. Messner-Loebs, writer and illustrator
• The Short, Unhappy Life of Betty Macafee / Dave Cockrum, writer and illustrator
• Sundae in the Park with Ice Cream / Dave Cockrum, writer and illustrator
• Wagging the Rebbe / Clifford Meth, writer; Paty Cockrum, illustrator
• The Other Woman / Clifford Meth, writer, Al Milgrom, illustrator
• Rat-gnawed and piss yellow / Clifford Meth, writer; Steve Lieber, illustrator
• Finale / Tom Spurgeon, writer

Note: With the exception of "Abortion Stew," these are text stories with spot illustrations.… (meer)

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents of Crib Death: The Baby-Sitter's Companion (1997, all stories written by Clifford Lawrence Meth with spot illustrations by artists noted below): Foreword / Tony Isabella -- The Big O / Rob Orzechowski, illustrator -- Max / Paul Abrams, illustrator -- Queers / Bill Messner-Loebs, illustrator -- The Asshole Syndrome / Dave Cockrum, illustrator -- Uncle Joe / Marie Severin, illustrator -- The Poet / Paty [Paty Cockrum], illustrator -- Crib Death / Mike Witherby, illustrator

The stories contained in Crib Death: The Baby-Sitter's Companion (1997) were first published in Crib Death and Other Bedtime Stories (1995), except "Queers" which appears here for the first time; some of these stories were updated for this volume and are to be considered the author's preferred text.… (meer)

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents (All stories written by Clifford Lawrence Meth with spot illustrations by artists noted below): Foreword / Gene Colan -- Introduction: A View from the Ruins -- Bruises: A Fable / Gene Colan, illustrator -- Snaked / Nelson, illustrator -- 47 Damn Steep / Dave Cockrum, illustrator -- Waiting for Moshiach: An Illusion / Joe St. Pierre, illustrator -- 2 Hookers / Ron Wagner, illustrator -- A Dream I Had / Bill Messner-Loebs, illustrator -- Knee Jerk: An Unraveling / Benjy Meth, illustrator -- The Case of the Dying Corporate Workers (Starring the Legion of Dysfunctional Heroes) / George Perez, illustrator -- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Penis / Paty [Paty Cockrum], illustrator -- The Rabbi at High Noon / Adlai Zander, illustrator -- Afterword: Who's Who & What's What… (meer)

I am slightly ashamed to have even read this book. When the front cover read that this was a "dangerous book" I did not understand that it meant "dangerous" as in "this will eat away at the gray matter within your skull dangerous." I didn't know that it meant I would be reading in depth about someone grabbing his wife whom he no longer loved off of the toilet while she was pooping in order to throw her on the bed and shag her. I didn't know it meant I would be learning what a vasectomy smelled like, or how not being well-endowed would lead you to eventually commit murder. No, I was expecting "Dangerous" in the way, say [a:Harlan Ellison|7415|Harlan Ellison|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206546229p2/7415.jpg], [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1261866457p2/3389.jpg], [a:Joe Hill|88506|Joe Hill|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1279308605p2/88506.jpg], or even [a:Cormac McCarthy|4178|Cormac McCarthy|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1302752071p2/4178.jpg] is dangerous. All of the above have described similarly disgusting scenes and topics. All of the above have done so with style. [a:Clifford Meth|833497|Clifford Meth|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] just wasn't my style.

His writing was a bit too harsh for me. In the past I've praised [a:Robert Louis Stevenson|854076|Robert Louis Stevenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192746024p2/854076.jpg] and [a:Joe Hill|88506|Joe Hill|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1279308605p2/88506.jpg] for the economy of their words. They seem to write in their stories, novels, and descriptions only the bare minimum of what they need to set a tone or invoke a proper scene. [a:Clifford Meth|833497|Clifford Meth|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] seemed to be going for a similar style, but like [a:Chuck Palahniuk|2546|Chuck Palahniuk|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1264506988p2/2546.jpg] this ended in all of his stories (and the title novella "One Small Voice") having the exact same tone. At some points I found myself having to flip back to get the characters straight in my head - aside from the size of their members there seemed to be little distinguishing one from the other.

All in all, there were perhaps two stories that I enjoyed out of the entire collection. The final story, "Pillow Talk," made me laugh out loud. Aside from that, the story about Anne I found strangely touching... though it suffered the exact same problems of tone that I mentioned earlier. That I enjoyed the stories again, is putting a bit too much praise there. If I was a teenage man? Maybe then I'd like the book more and I'd think it encapsulated my viewpoint. As a girl in her early 20s, however, nothing in the book squares up with the male friends I have, nor what they've chatted to me about.

I think [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1261866457p2/3389.jpg] does a better job of balancing a man's attraction towards a woman versus the lust he feels towards anything with breasts.… (meer)