Warts and all

Warts and All is a sizzling collection of celebrity gossip and way-out-there satire, all rendered in Drew Friedman's insanely meticulous stipple techinique. This book received the 1992 Harvey award for "Best Graphic Novel – Reprint," and no wonder — as assembled by editor/designers Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, it's a handsome package indeed. Subjects include such Friedman favorites as Tor Johnson, Leave It to Beaver, Rondo Hatton, and Bela Lugosi — as well as Joey Heatherton, who stars in Friedman's magnum opus, "I, Joey Heatherton." Rounded off with such insulting strips as "Comic Shop Clerks" and "Ugly White Guys — They Like Television," and a handful of selections from Spy magazine's "Private Lives of Public Figures" (Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, Bill Cosby, Dan Ackroyd), Warts and All is a thrilling and appalling trip through the backwaters of American culture.