Two Books by E.R. Flynn: Manifesto Calypso and 2020: Our Nightmare Year
I couldn't wait to post this review of Flynn's graphic books about the chaos of our current society.
This is what I get for sending a paid subscription to E.R. Flynn, (I call him Ed whether he likes it or not). Ed's wicked sense of humor and wild illustrative thrust have been jousting with today's societal and political windmills for a while now. He's sharpened his point with two graphic satirical books which he gives to paid subscribers, along with a T-shirt if you so desire. A very generous "thank you for subscribing," I must say. Thank you, Ed. It's been an interesting and fire-breathing morning of reading.
The shorter of the two, Manifesto Calypso, rips into the Christian right and their greedy, capitalist, earth-destroying leaders with a grizzly scenario of Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) trying to persuade a gun-totin' young boy from perpetrating a "Show-and-Tell" of his AR-15.
By the way, one of my associates here in Nevada gleefully told me just how much fun an AR-15 is to shoot. Right, that's when you're at the gun range, you silly little prepper, you. But how will you do when faced with a phalanx of trained soldiers in your front yard who've come to confiscate your weapons? I'll just stand over here and watch. (But I digress.)
FSM tries bringing Ted Kaczynsk* to mentor the boy, telling him he can take his gun to school after he writes a 35,000 word manifesto, in his own blood, to state his grievances. The kid returns the next day, gun and manifesto in hand. Obviously, this youngster is diligent, dizzy, and so deluded that further persuasion is required.
Enter the True Jesus … and that's where things really get wild. E.R. Flynn takes it to the max to run over readers' dogmas with his karma. It's grizzly but ultimately satisfying to folks like me who have been dodging the religious right daily in recent years. Thank you, Ed.
I do take issue with Ed saying that Jesus told Paul to write his manifesto. Gee, Ed, I thought Jesus' manifesto was the Sermon on the Mount. Guess I've been misinformed. Paul had been talking smack about Jesus all during his ministry around the countryside. Then, after he thought the coast was clear, Paul had a literal come to Jesus moment on the road to Damascus and decided to use his sizeable street cred with the Romans after his finished with Syria. And that's when Christian doctrine really went downhill. One should never trust one's manifesto to a critic. Anyway, the rest of Ed's treatment of this subject burns through the bull-ony to open our minds to explore other ideas.
As for 2020 Our Nightmare Year, WOW! A punch in the gut.
I admit, I live in a bubble, a one-acre piece of land on the hillside of a bucolic agricultural valley south of Carson City, NV that is quickly becoming the New San Fernando Valley. While the first wave of California escapees complain bitterly about "all these people swarming in from SoCal are bringing their woke ideas with them," the reality is that anybody who settles in Nevada from the People's Republic of CA are right-wingers trying to find their tribe.
That said, it was difficult for me to leave my semi-green acre to go to the market for whatever I could find to supplement the cases of canned goods we'd already amassed on the garage shelves. (We have prepper friends and it's rubbed off on us a tad.) I chose a Dia del Muerto motif mask to protect my health as well as right to exist with the old men who seem to always accompany their wives to the grocery store. They were able to carry bigger packages of toilet paper than the little woman could. But that's the height of my 2020 hardship … their self-righteous, bare faces glaring at mine.
Because of this fairly sheltered existence from the horrors of lockdown with an abusive mate or losing jobs due to COVID, my husband and I could watch in a relatively unscathed (or am I in denial) state of mind. Frankly, it was as crazy in Happy Valley as any place else. It was hard as Hell for me to see the MAGA and Trump flags and banners flying EVERY FRIGGIN' WHERE!
So, turning page after fiery page of E.R.'s graphic book about 2020 brought back just how bizarre, disgusting, and deeply faith-crushing that year was. I worked hard to count my blessings, which were many … dammit!
We survived our bouts of COVID as did our daughter and her husband. He barely made it back into the US after a trade junket to Poland before the airports closed. We were never hungry. My husband's job with the NV Dept. of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation was the ONLY place that actually increased its essential-ness. We were also very glad that he had to work from home and avoided the hordes of desperate people mobbing the building because they couldn't get their checks in a timely manner. The aging computer system just wasn't up to the task. (Most are Windows-based, so blame Bill Gates.)
But again, I digress from reviewing Ed's book. This is not about me, but Jesus Horatio! This book will visually and emotionally blow your gaskets. Ed's artistry is topnotch and his rage is palpable. He stabs with both hands in this tirade about the madness that happened that year. We in NV were enveloped for three months by thick smoke, watching the flames sear the tops of the mountains to the west. In Portland, rogues were running wild. Our government was in total shambles. Hurricanes and tornadoes did their best to wipe the slate clean. Any religious murmurings I remembered from past forays into spiritual communities came back to haunt me as predictions fulfilled … with a vengeance.
Thanks, E.R. Flynn, for a gut-sucking hour, telling it like it is. And hooray for your "manifesto" of hope at the end. And it's true what you say, true artists don't dance around the truth. They are the court jesters, but so often are sent to the Tower to lose their heads.
I'm glad you enjoyed the books! There'll be more coming your way in the future!
Sidenote: I went back and forth on how to summarize/satirize the context of Jesus Manifesto in one small panel. I figured Paul would be a good patsy to blame. :)