MAKE WITH THE FUNNY COMICS: COOL JERK BY LUKE FOSTER At the very least, a comic called Cool Jerk should grab your attention from the name alone. But don’t stop there, because Cool Jerk is a funny strip that live up to the promise of such a catchy title.
Cool Jerk is a weekly comic strip by writer/artist Paul Horn that chronicles the exploits of Armpit Beachhead—the titular Cool Jerk—and his girlfriend Puppy Fizgig. It started out following them through their final year of high school but soon moved them from Nevada to Spittle Beach, California, where they currently reside.
“Chronicles the exploits of” is such a comic industry term, isn’t it? It makes everything sound so serious.
Armpit is a slacker, a bit on the dumb side, and would much rather spend his time on the beach than working. He spends a lot of time focusing on his hair and has a bit of an ego. Actually, this kinda sounds like me, except I don’t live on a beach. Puppy, however, has a job, goes to college for fashion design, and is the closest thing to a voice of reason this comic has. The two make a great pair, and their different personalities play off each other nicely.
Armpit and Puppy have more people than just each other in their lives, though. They are joined by some of the other Spittle Beach denizens-- such as Manhattan, Yuritomato, the Goremonger, Maggot, the Lynch Mob, and Dangerman-- as they “battle the forces of stupidity, inanity, and pop-culture horror,” to use Horn’s own words. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Armpit and Puppy are probably the most normal names you’ll see in this comic.
Cool Jerk has taken on many forms. It started life as a weekly strip for the teen pages of the Reno Gazette-Journal. A few other Gannett-owned newspapers picked up the strip, and it ran in those until 1996. During that time Horn himself moved from Nevada to California, though he did keep up work on the strip. Nevada to California? That sounds familiar. Anyway, after that the comic took a brief hiatus before being reborn on the Internet, where it currently resides.
Horn also printed a Cool Jerk collection. “Hodabeast” is the series’ first book, collecting all the strips from 1991 to 1996, and is the focus of my column today. Since it’s labeled “Vol. 1” I’m assuming there are more to follow, too. From print to the web to print again. Who says you can’t go home again?
Horn wrote the strip with an anarchic glee, especially in light of the fact that Cool Jerk was quite unlike any of the other fairly tepid strips in the newspaper at the time. The strip covered things like gross-out contests and running out of deodorant on some of its more mainstream days, but took plenty of shots at Spring Break and moody art hipsters, which aren’t always tackled on the comics page. In fact, the strip took quite a few shots at those last two. I can imagine they got pretty annoying for people who actually live on the beach.
Many of the jokes come from the characters getting into fairly bizarre situations, like Armpit’s halfhearted attempts at employment. The first job he got was as Eddie Vedder’s body double, so Shannen Doherty would stalk him and not the rock star. Then there was the time he tried to get a job as an empath, since he convinced himself he had the ability to see the future. That one ended in a beating. Harsh, but sometimes these things have to happen.
Cool Jerk also covered a lot of other topics relevant to the college-age (or thereabouts) crowd, like dating, fashion, rock music, and comic book conventions. And the jokes are great because they are so true to life, whether the strip is making fun of the grunge movement or the elaborate schemes people use to try and attract someone of the opposite sex.
Horn was also not averse to having his characters totally cut down somebody they felt deserved it, whether it was Armpit beating up some obnoxious guy or a girl’s crappy boyfriend, or Puppy taking verbal shots at a stuck-up child prodigy, no one who deserved it was safe.
Cool Jerk's stories also made quite a number of pop-culture references. Because the references in “Hodabeast” were written more than 10 years ago, some of the pop culture stuff is a little dated, but most of it is still pretty relevant and easy to laugh at. Especially the Power Rangers. Remember those guys? Man oh man, they were so popular. How did they do it?
Horn also tackled more political and social issues, but still kept it humorous without being preachy. Racism and sexism were made fun of, though not always in the manner of a traditional comic strip. Like the time Armpit tried to keep some rednecks from giving Manhattan trouble by pretending they were gay. Or like during the Spring Break stories when he showed men and women could be equally empty-headed and shallow. He also took a number of shots at the Republicans for always trying to claim the moral high road while acting like hypocrites at the same time. Now that’s timeless material.
Horn also took shots at the other strips Cool Jerk was compared to, most likely unfavorably. Not because Cool Jerk was bad but, let’s face it, have you seen the comics page of the newspaper lately? Sheesh. Anyway, some of the zingers were a little less subtle than others. Like the time Armpit, Puppy, and Manhattan laughed themselves breathless when they read “Tumbleweeds,” “Fred Basset,” and “Family Circus” all in a row. That was one of the not subtle ones. But I agree with him, so it’s okay.
Horn’s art is also pretty cartoony, but can get detailed when needed. For example, many times the characters pretend they’ve been seriously wounded or mutilated, letting people think their guts are strewn across the beach or their skin has been ripped off. But it’s all just clever prosthetics, and the characters have a good laugh at the horror of their unwitting victims. And seeing how much detail he put into those images, I bet Horn got the same reaction from the people reading “Blondie” or “Garfield,” too.
The back of the book, like all good DVDs, has a few pages of creator commentary as well as an index for the book’s strips. So, if you liked that strip about Men Without Hats or “Spartacus” and want to show it to someone, you can pull it up at a second’s notice.
“Hodabeast” is available for purchase on the Cool Jerk web site, www.cooljerk.com. As luck would have it, that’s also where you can find new strips every week, as well as archives of all the rest of the comics, too. How very convenient.
Luke Foster is a stand-up comedian and writer who wishes he owned a penguin, because penguins are nature’s comedians. It’s a scientific fact, so don’t try and argue about it.Posts: 20777 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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