PeeWee Herman
Suspended Animation Classic #204
Originally published November 22, 1992 (#47)
(Dates are approximate)
Contemporary Biographics: PeeWee Herman
By Michael Vance
This isn’t a review of character PeeWee Herman or actor Paul Reubens. This is a review of a comic book about Reubens and his creation. It’s an easy way to sidestep the controversy surrounding this actor.
Most people either love or hate PeeWee Herman, the modern Peter Pan who has refused to grow beyond the age of ten. Those who love him will find a new comic on Reuben’s life very interesting. But even die-hard fans will find this comic’s introduction extreme.
It reads, in part: “The one individual who is best able to communicate love to youth in a love starved society is found guilty of loving himself. This is his crime. New we know why gangs rule the night, leadership is nowhere to be found, rhetoric replaces ideas, one in four high school students carry firearms, and the suicide rate among the young is at an all time high:.
As PeeWee would say, give me a break.
Thankfully, this unauthorized biography is more even-handed. In fact, it’s well drawn, well researched, and fascinating. Reuben’s rise to fame in “PeeWee’s Playhouse” is followed from early days in high school to the controversy that brought that house down.
The only reason for a biography is to reveal what’s not general knowledge to readers. Despite my own admiration for Reuben’s work, I didn’t know he’d debuted in TV’s “The Gong Show” or that PeeWee was created during his membership in a troupe called “The Groundlings”.
This is not a book for preteen readers. But adults will enjoy at least a partial answer to PeeWee’s own probing question:
“I know you are, but what am I.”
Contemporary Biographics: PeeWee Herman/30 pages, $2.50, published by Revolutionary Comics/written by Jay Allen Sanford, art by Joe Paradise/available in comics shops.
PeeWee Herman
Suspended Animation Classic #204
Originally published November 22, 1992 (#47)
(Dates are approximate)
Contemporary Biographics: PeeWee Herman
By Michael Vance
This isn’t a review of character PeeWee Herman or actor Paul Reubens. This is a review of a comic book about Reubens and his creation. It’s an easy way to sidestep the controversy surrounding this actor.
Most people either love or hate PeeWee Herman, the modern Peter Pan who has refused to grow beyond the age of ten. Those who love him will find a new comic on Reuben’s life very interesting. But even die-hard fans will find this comic’s introduction extreme.
It reads, in part: “The one individual who is best able to communicate love to youth in a love starved society is found guilty of loving himself. This is his crime. New we know why gangs rule the night, leadership is nowhere to be found, rhetoric replaces ideas, one in four high school students carry firearms, and the suicide rate among the young is at an all time high:.
As PeeWee would say, give me a break.
Thankfully, this unauthorized biography is more even-handed. In fact, it’s well drawn, well researched, and fascinating. Reuben’s rise to fame in “PeeWee’s Playhouse” is followed from early days in high school to the controversy that brought that house down.
The only reason for a biography is to reveal what’s not general knowledge to readers. Despite my own admiration for Reuben’s work, I didn’t know he’d debuted in TV’s “The Gong Show” or that PeeWee was created during his membership in a troupe called “The Groundlings”.
This is not a book for preteen readers. But adults will enjoy at least a partial answer to PeeWee’s own probing question:
“I know you are, but what am I.”
Contemporary Biographics: PeeWee Herman/30 pages, $2.50, published by Revolutionary Comics/written by Jay Allen Sanford, art by Joe Paradise/available in comics shops.