That much of Fat Free's readership outside the fat acceptance community would agree with all these overstated premises isn't the point: the issue is that Milner doesn't really show us anything in her life that goes beyond the bounds of conventional pop psych wisdom. Even the book's mildly titillating moments — Jude works as a phone sex voice for a time, chortling over the fact that her customers mistakenly believe they're speaking to a "Gina" -- are overly familiar. (Heck, the phone sex bit was once the subject of a Beavis and Butthead short!) Occasionally, the two Milners hit upon a brief fantasy moment that's amusing – I liked the panel where a disgusted Jude imagines tossing intragastric balloons at a wall of medical professionals – but there aren't as many of these as we'd like. Pre-surgery Jude is much too busy calling herself names.
Artist Mary Wilshire (Wimmen's Comics, Red Sonja, Power Pack) illustrates Fat Free in pencils that aren't always well served in the trade paperback printing. Though Richard Milner includes a special pleading intro explaining the rationale behind the use of pencils instead of more traditional inkwork, I'm not completely convinced by 'em. One thing inking can do is magnify compositional and anatomical flaws – and I suspect a big motivation behind keeping the work in pencil was to obscure how difficult it is to construct a comic story around a realistically fat character.
One of the reasons so many mainstream comic characters have the same basic body form resides in the fact that decades of panels featuring mesomorphic body types has created a visual library of poses for nearly every situation. Fat bodies don't behave so predictably, however, and require the artist's constant attention. (One of the things that makes Jaime Hernandez, say, such a wonderful comics artist is his visual appreciation for a variety of body frames.) More than once, I found myself thinking (as in a panel where a Jude who suddenly seems to have lost her breasts is shown cutting fabric for a short-lived dressmaking business), "Waitaminute, did our girl just drop fifty pounds between panels here?"
Article comments
1 - Ned Sonntag
Did I miss a previous Commenter who got Moderated? Thanks for setting the record straight, Bill! I went to Pratt with Mary and worked at OUTLAW BIKER with Jude, although I'd already known her through my wife's girlfriend and one of my plus-size sweeties... the Downtown Scene was a small world back in the mid80s... my relationship with Richard was always contentious. Still it's amazing to see yourself show up in the funny pages!
2 - Bill Sherman
Nope, Ned, looks like you're the first commenter to this post. Interesting to read that you were classmates with Mary Wilshire - not something I knew before.
I've long dreamed of someday showin' up in the Funny Papers . . .
3 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
4 - Bill Weitze
Nice review.
5 - Dragynpryncess
I must shout Brava! to Ms. Wilshire. For far too long the comic book industry has been top heavy (pun intended) with superheorines who are anything but. They have little or nothing to overcome and are, as far as reality is concerned, more than perfect. This comic stylized graphic novel is like a wake up call to the comic community and the world at large. The world is filled with all kinds of people and the ones who most need to be lauded and praised are the ones who've struggled through the most and come out on the other side as better people. This story needed to be told to open people's eyes. I cry 'Well Done!", to Ms. Wilshire and those who helped to get this inspiring story out there.
6 - ent doctor
super sex