Ego & Hubris

While the subject of this comic book was too far up his own ass to really be considered interesting, the book itself serves a wide variety of purposes rather well. Even if more than a few of these purposes go well outside the author's original intent. While it did not come as a shock that the rather prickly Pekar would find Malice worth an entire volume of his time, my own personal experience renders this special snowflake of a Randian Libertarian the absolutely worst kind of person. But since Pekar obviously likes him, it is an interesting exercise in how everything can be basically true and above board and two people can have wildly different perspectives on it - something I think a lot of us likely miss in the modern world lol.

The ending, in particular, seemed rather contrived by either Pekar or Malice to show that Malice's ego/hubris had finally paid off. He finally gets to prove himself! But while I can appreciate that real life stories are a lot messier than fiction, I still really don't buy it. I'm sure he's being paid a lot more than me, but working in casting for a reality tv show (along with the other things listed on his Wikipedia page) don't actually strike me as things I perceive (even in my most capitalist moments) to be all that successful, and I don't feel like the Malice I got to know would really be all that excited about. Except of course that apparently these bosses finally really appreciate him, which I can see going a long way for anyone.

I was also pretty interested in all the ways that I could, in fact, sympathise with Malice, especially in his earlier years. A lot of the problems he sees in larger society and with bosses, in particular, are actual problems - at least in my humble opinion - but the striking difference between us is our reaction to these problems. While it certainly takes more energy to care about other people, there really is nothing particularly inspiring about how selfish Malice proves himself throughout this book. Rather than strive to actually solve the problems he faces, Malice's short-sighted focus barely manages to improve his own life let alone anyone else's.

I would also like to note that Malice seems to go out of his way to be particularly harsh to women.

The artwork in this book is good and overall the writing is also extremely well done. This is the first Pekar I have read in a while and it certainly proved thought provoking.