Suckle: The Status of Basil
By Dave Cooper
Published by Fantagraphics
Books
Dave Cooper's first graphic novel is back in print from Fantagraphics, and as with his other works, including Dan and Larry and the currently-serialized Ripple (seen in the pages of Cooper's Weasel comic), sexual paranoia takes center stage.
The lead character Basil is an innocent in Cooper's weird, malleable world, seemingly newborn in the novel's opening pages, and venturing out into life and a journey of sexual awakening as hideous and compelling as any in real life. It takes place against a backdrop of ever changing reality, with bodies and landscapes morphing into strange and often sexual shapes that are foreign and yet familiar.
Cooper's primary muse seems to be the dichotomy inherent in human sexuality, the battle between rationality and lust, and Basil experiences that to the fullest degree imaginable, as he meets his own desires head-on and runs from them, repulsed and horrified at what he finds. Repulsed not only by the desires of others, but by his own relentless, inconvenient boner.
Cooper is without a doubt one of the most visually inventive and delightful cartoonists around today, with an eye-pleasing style that contrasts and complements his bizarre storytelling drive. Basil is a typical Cooper creation, all wide-eyed innocence, looking for happiness and a good suckle. The powerful climax of the book finds him pushed into a sexual encounter somewhat against his will, where he finds himself immersed in a nightmarish confluence of sexual politics in which no answer is right because none will be listened to by a partner assaulting him from every angle with every line in the book.
This is a small-format graphic novel with a power surprising for its unassuming size and appearance. It finds Cooper early in his career, yet confident in his ability to depict the sexual strangeness that has continued to be a hallmark of his work. It's a powerful journey we follow Basil on, and one that promises to reflect the reader's own life experience in surprising and haunting ways. Grade: 4/5