Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 741
EAN: 9781891830983
ISBN: 1891830988
Label: Top Shelf Productions
Manufacturer: Top Shelf Productions
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: 2008-07-29
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Studio: Top Shelf Productions

From the critically-acclaimed cartoonist behind Box Office Poison and Tricked comes the delightful Too Cool to Be Forgotten, a story of second chances. Andy Wicks is a forty-something father of two who's tried everything to quit smoking -- from going cold turkey, to the latest patches and nicotine chewing gums -- so he figures he'll give this hypnosis thing a try. What's the worst that could happen? Unfortunately, Andy gets dealt a fate worse than death: high school! Transported back to 1985, Andy returns to his formative years as a gangly, awkward teenager. Is he doomed to relive the mistakes of his past, or has he been given a second chance to get things right? One thing's for sure -- this time he's going to ask out that girl from math class...

Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrific work from the very talented Mr. Robinson
Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel, as I have with all the other stuff from Alex Robinson. He remains, to me, one of the very sure things in the world of animated storytelling. I won't give away anything about the plot, but it's good, with terrific illustrations just as you would expect. Enjoy!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Cool cover for a cool book
Comment: The story of a man's journey back in time to relive high school, "Too Cool" is more than just a Back to the Future story. Issues of gender, morality, and family are expertly woven in, and nothing can prepare you for the poignant ending.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The story inside lives up to the hype of the outside imagery.
Comment: TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN has that perfect melding of title and cover that makes for a perfect image, so absolutely clever and funny that it begs to be read. Luckily, the story inside lives up to the hype of the outside imagery.

Andy Wicks wants to quit smoking. Now 40, he's been puffing away since he was 15, when he took his first drag while trying to look cool at a party. It led to a lifetime of addiction. As a full-grown man in middle age, with a wife and two daughters, he desperately wants to kick the habit but has found it difficult, if not impossible, in the past.

When his wife drags him to a hypnotist, he's not sure what to think. But he's willing to give anything a try, no matter how goofy it may seem. And so he finds himself in a center for holistic medicine undergoing a procedure he doesn't know what to make of --- especially when he awakens from his trance as a 15-year-old in 1985. (Those who are math-inclined may notice the timing is a little off, which is most likely intentional: Either the modern-day portion of the story is set in 2010 or the numbers aren't meant to add up. It's probably the former, but this is a book that comes with the following disclaimer, so the latter is possible too: "Page 84 includes an error in which the protagonist...thinks the word "Dad" instead of "Did." This will not be corrected.... We apologize if the author's stubborn refusal to listen to reason, demands or threats at all diminished your enjoyment...")

The author, Alex Robinson, has made a name for himself with the graphic novels BOX OFFICE POISON and TRICKED. Here, he manages to deliver a subdued work that perfectly walks the line of wittiness and pathos. Alex isn't desperate to relive his teenage years --- he barely made it out the first time --- but he is determined to understand what he's doing here and why. When he gets the chance to amend his younger days and to approach his love life with the courage of an adult rather than an awkward teenager, he does so only for his own edification, not for revenge or for the opportunity to take advantage.

Robinson wisely saves the book's most tender moments for the riveting finale. The payoff is not so much a surprise --- it can't be; it feels too right and too familiar --- but it still catches the reader off-guard.

TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN is full of some special touches, too. Fans of sci-fi and fantasy who have contemplated the ramifications of time travel will appreciate Andy's dilemma regarding the perplexities of what's going on (like how much can he change in the past and still arrive at the future he knows?). Andy's amazement at the sheer potential that was present back in high school serves as a touching reminder of what brought him there in the first place, a need to quit something that was holding him back and threatening his future. The conclusion he ultimately reaches in this regard is the true emotional center of this excellent work.

--- Reviewed by John Hogan

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One Cigarette
Comment: Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Award winner Alex Robison made his impact in the world of independent comics with the release of his long running Box Office Poison which eventually culminated in a 600 plus page slice-of-life graphic novel that depicted the lives of a ragtag group of comic book artists, historians, bookstore clerks, and others attempting to get by and find fulfillment in New York. Now, Robinson has produced a new graphic novel, To Cool to Be Forgotten, which, although under a quarter length of Box Office Poison also makes a fine edition to graphic novel fans who like their books to be sans superheroes, girls in chainmail bikinis, and fellows whose epic battles extend to some twelve books.

Too Cool to be Forgotten centers on the life of Andy Wicks, a bald, myopic, middle-aged man who has done his best to quit smoking--patches, nicotine gum, cold turkey--but the allure of cigarettes always brings him back to his habit. Finding himself at a dead end, he takes his wife's advice to try some "new age mumbo jumbo" in order to help him overcome his addiction. His doctor puts him under hypnosis and, instead of finding himself thinking that he is a chicken, finds himself back in 1985 when he was 15-years-old, a time during which he was a fan of Iron Maiden, had a nice stash of girly magazines, and was friends with a group of nerdy, marginalized students who, while not being the complete outcasts of the school, were among the "social elite."

Realizing that he has been given a second chance to nip his bad habit in the bud, Andy decides to turn down the first cigarette that he will be offered at a party. Not wanting to change his future dramatically in any other way ala Back to the Future, Andy limits himself to interacting only with his old friends, but when the opportunity comes up to ask a girl whom he has a crush on if she will accompany him to a party, he can't turn down the opportunity, and slowly he realizes that there might be other things that he needs to remedy besides his addiction to cigarettes.

One of the aspects that makes Robinson's Box Office Poison such an enjoyable graphic novel is its brightly colored canopy of characters each of whom have very distinct personalities and, because of the length of the book, there personalities are fully fleshed out so the reader can truly feel and identify with each character. Too Cool to be Forgotten is quite different in this aspect not only because of the brevity of the book itself, but because the reader is in the mind of one character whose perceptions act as the reader's perceptions and Robinson does a great job of truly showing how lacking a number of person to person relationships can be and truly little people know about each other. However, Robinson also shows a darker side of personal perspective and memory, showing how an individual's memory can be quite selective of what it remembers and how things that are forgotten, or repressed, are the things that truly should be remembered.

Robinson's artwork, for some, might leave a bit to be desired. It is minimal and the character designs are rather simple, but through them he is able to convey emotion quite well to which at some points becomes quite cartoony in an overall more realistic work. Where Robinson's art truly shines is within the beings of his characters. Not one to make idealized stereotypes in comic form, Robinson's characters suffer from frizzy hair, pimples, and all matter of other traits which truly make individuals unique in this imperfect world.

While it might not be on the same scope as Box Office Poison or his later worked Tricked, Too Cool to Be Forgotten makes a fine edition to ones graphic novel collection.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow
Comment: Great graphic novel.

If you were to wake up as a 15 year old again, but with the memories of your life up to 40, what would you think? What would you do?

This book hits the nail DEAD on the head. The protaganist has a very realistic, if short, trip to his own past, in order to try to fix something.

Very well done, a great read.

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