Super Graphic Book Review

Title:	Super Graphic
Contributors:	Tim Leong
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Issue #:	1
Year:	2013
Pages:	196 Pages
Age Rating:	12 (Adult Themes)
Story Grade:	A+
Art Grade:	A+

In the book 'Super Graphic' Tim Leong has compiled a series of statistics, graphs and quirky facts that are sometimes educational and sometimes funny as hell, but always entertaining and beautifully rendered. Tim can jump from a chart comparing the differences between Richie Rich and Royal Boy on one page to a matrix of the different Crumb Butts on the next page.

It is difficult to decide which is best, the information provided or the design choices used to display the information. For instance, the image on the right. This is a rudimentary batman head, but it is also a graphic of the favorite questions the Joker has for Batman. In black is, "Why so serious?" In the flesh tone is "Where does he get those wonderful toys?" It is fun, informative and beautifully styled.

Unlike the image on the right, some of the charts, graphs, diagrams and matrices are so complex with information that you could spend hours on one page analyzing the data and the beauty contained within.

Tim also brings a fantastic sense of humor to the book as well. The image on the left is a small sample of that humor. Anyone who knows anything about the reclusive Calvin and Hobbs creator, Bill Waterson, knows that he was defiantly against marketing Calvin and Hobbs merchandise. He believed that whoring comic strip characters in the merchandise markets was devaluing the likes of Peanuts and Garfield and he refused to do that with Calvin and Hobbs.

The one thing that seemed to get through, around or otherwise ignored was those damn vinyl auto stickers of Calvin pissing on something. In the chart on the left, click the image to see a larger version, it shows two comparative trajectories; the arc trajectory that Calvin's urine followed, in black, and the arc trajectory that Leong's faith in humanity took every time he saw one of those decals.

That is just one example of the humor in this book.

I found this book not only fun to read, but also educational and beautifully rendered. I grade this book an A+. There is nothing bad that I can say about the book, at all. If you like comics, or charts and graphs, or graphic design, or analyzing things, or laughing, or books or if you just simply like breathing, this book is likely for you.

Until next time... ask yourself this... Why do men "like" a character like Spider-Man? The answer is on page 85.