Review - Gregory

Gregory
by Mark Hempel
Piranha Press

Twenty years ago a silly little graphic novel came out of the Piranha Press imprint from DC. Called Gregory, I found the story very funny and sometimes deeply poignant. Created by Marc Hempel, it's the story of Gregory. A big headed kid in a straitjacket who lives in an asylum with his friend, a talking rat named Herman Vermen. Gregory usually talks in monosyllabic grunts and enjoys running around, but the action is what happens around him. Sometimes a therapy cat is brought in to help. Other times he escapes from his straitjacket and flails his arms around. But Gregory just exists happily in his own little cell.

When this book came out in 1989, I passed it around to all my friends. They all fell in love with Gregory. Unfortunately, since I added this book to the library collection in 2004, it has only checked out 4 times. I think this book is lost in the shuffle of the graphic novel shelf. It's not thick and it doesn't have a steroid pumped superhero on the cover. Perhaps the Library of Congress is deterring people from borrowing this book with the very offputting subject heading "Institutional care -- Comic books, strips, etc." Whatever the reason, I do try and suggest this book whenever a somewhat curious person comes in looking for a graphic novel.

Gregory is labeled "for mature readers" I suspect primarily for the language. If our library had an older teen and younger teen areas, it would definitely go into the former. But it's audience is definitely for teens and young adults. Gregory is able to be content within himself and his environment (a cell with a drain, window, door and light bulb) without any need to be more that what he is. People come and go, trying to help, hurt, fix or change Gregory in some way, but he stays true to himself.