Hicksville, by Dylan Horrocks, Victoria University Press, reviewed by Martin Doyle

WHAT hits you when you read this book isn’t just the content.  It’s the fact it’s even a book.  
Horrocks labels it a “comic book”, but if you stripped away the obligatory frames and boxes round the drawings, you could call it a graphic novel.  
But despite having been mentally colonised by film and TV, we in NZ seem to view graphic and cartoon storytelling, when delivered in print, as infantile and not “Suitable for Adults”.  Other countries don’t see the problem.  
Cue change. Aucklander Dylan Horrocks gives us the story of his life in art, America and country-town NZ. It’s got humour, grit and tons of (generally) interesting dialogue.  Typical to modern creative artists, he treats the reader as intelligent, sophisticated and unfazed by occasional intimacies or raunchy expression of fiercely felt emotion.  
His penwork and handwriting create the “rough, intimate” cachet that is special to comic art and make this a highly enjoyable tome. I suspect most of the panels were originally produced for newspaper formats and hence rely heavily on talking heads. But when Horrocks occasionally uses the “pics only” or landscapes/environments/odd angles suddenly available to him on this larger canvas, mamma mia, he reveals a force that I don’t think he knows he’s got.
Simple things like a lighthouse, a pokey town or library shelves are seductive simply because they’ve been delivered with his unique, art-felt touch.  
You suddenly realise that Godzone looks pretty good in comics. And we’re ready for more.
VUW deserve big raps for this early taste of Adulthood.