COMIC SHOP NEWS 686:
"When you lose someone, you feel like
the whole world should grieve."

RATINGS:  Out of a possible 5 stars
Cliff Biggers
Brett Brooks

Cliff: "When you lose someone, you feel like the whole world should grieve."

Every person who reads Pedro And Me will grieve along with writer/artist Judd Winick for the death of his friend and The Real World co-star Pedro Zamora. That is the truest measure of Winick's talent. Pedro And Me isn't the story of Pedro and Judd and Pam and The Real World and AIDS. Oh, you'll find all of that in here-but what you'll find that will make your eyes mist and your throat clench just a little is honesty and truth about friendship and love and loss. You'll cry before you finish the book-and your tears aren't just for the loss of Pedro Zamora, but for the important people you've lost in your life.

Brett: That is honest truth. It isn't often that you cry when reading a comic, and even then it is usually due to the shock value of something unexpected. You aren't shocked by what happens in this book, it has been well documented and publicized-but you feel such a profound feeling that you do cry. At least, I did.

Cliff:That's the strength of Pedro And Me; it's an amazingly powerful work that evokes without being maudlin. There are no Spielbergesque manipulative moments here, only honest expression of friendship, love, loss, and purpose. Winick may even help bring to the surface some thoughts about love and loss that have huddled, half-formed, in the shadows of your mind for a long, long time. That's Winick's skill, his talent, his genius. He bring Hemingwayesque simplicity to storytelling, but he imbues his stories with a sense of importance, a sense of universality that transcends the plot and the characters. He made The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius work because he transformed Barry into the uber-kid we all knew in our childhood. Road Trip worked because each of us has spent time in that car. And Pedro And Me works because every one of us has lost someone we weren't ready to lose, and we had trouble understanding why.

Brett: More than that, it helps you to realize that you are going to have a sense of loss. You begin to understand and accept that loss, whether it is very real or looming on the horizon. It is a deeply personal book, not only for Winick, but for everyone who reads it.

Cliff:Exactly! He manages to tell a tale that is universal, reminding us that every loss matters. I'm reminded of John Donne's Meditation 17-but where Donne's argument was entirely intellectual, Winick communicates the same idea with emotion and memory. All of Winick's strengths are evident here-but with Pedro & Me, he rises to the challenge of creating a true graphic novel, a massive work that possesses all the complexity of a novel told with pictures as well as words.

Brett: I think that the highest praise that can be awarded this book is that I FORGOT that he was using pictures to tell a story. Like any great work, you are so absorbed into the overall experience that you become a part of the piece, and the manner in which the story is being told is lost. This isn't a great comic, it's a great artistic achievement.

Cliff:There are very few works that aim as high, or achieve as much, as Pedro And Me. Maus. Stuck Rubber Baby. From Hell. Thanks to Winick for making such a personal contribution to such a short list.

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