Reading “POP” by Curt Pires is like taking a culture studies class your freshman year taught by a disillusioned grad student who has a ponytail, drinks a lot of coffee, and says the word “Sheeple” a lot. Your freshly expanded mind will be immediately drawn to his bleak outlook on society, and you’ll quickly begin to adopt his animosity toward the corporate machine’s homogenization of art and the death of meaningful creativity in the age of marketing campaigns and pop culture by committee and product placement and like him you’ll seethe with disdain for the monetization of everything that used to mean anything. You’ll eat that shit up. I read “Pop” with one hand on my pitchfork and I love every second of it.
WRITTEN BY: Curt Pires
ART BY: Jason Copland
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: September 24, 2014
Reviewed By Eric Switzer
“POP” #2 has got to have the coolest cover on shelves today. I say this because #1 had a really incredible cover, and I wonder how the four of them would look framed together on a wall in my living room next to a mass produced black-and-white Tyler Durden. The irony is not lost on me.
So Coop is still trying to figure out who Elle is and they have a run in with the Cartel while doing DMT in the woods and it looks like they might get caught but they escape just in time and there is a car chase and a pretty cool fight scene with the biker chick…
If you are reading “POP” then you know the book isn’t a huge standout because of the plot, but rather the tone. I read “POP” for the angst. I read “POP” to get angry. I read “POP” because it reminds me of a time when there was nothing worse than being a sellout and The Man wanted to crush my soul. Sometimes I wonder if he did, because you grow up and you get a job and you aren’t as worried about the things you used to think were life and death. You grow up and assimilate more and more the shortcoming in our culture don’t get to you as much, you don’t notice them or they don’t bother you. “POP” doesn’t let you forget. “POP” is here to remind you that the bullshit hasn’t gone away. The players have changed but the game stays the same. “POP” is a call to action.
It isn’t perfect, and it shouldn’t be. “Perfect” art is a Cheerios commercial. Its a Starbucks billboard. “POP” is an expression. Curt and Jason are exposing themselves, trying to expose some truth. The work is personal yet global. The message isn’t always clear or consistent, metaphors are a little mixed, but it starts the conversation. I don’t think “POP” has all the answers, it isn’t a new bible. But it makes me angry, and I really like that.