Comments on: Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson

By: princeminski

princeminski — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:22:00 +0000

Yeah, Steadman is the only illustrator for HST. Anything else just seems like the egregious Trudeau version.

By: princeminski

princeminski — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:21:00 +0000

Very well expressed.

By: Maserati_Toadcheese

Maserati_Toadcheese — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:02:00 +0000

HST’s quality did decline quite a bit in his later years–and, IMO, the terrible self-knowledge of this probably drove him to suicide as much as the physical pain that he was in–but I wonder if it wasn’t the times that he was living in and his feelings of irrelevancy to them that led him to go over the top with the drugging. At least with Nixon, he seemed to be able to balance Nixon’s monstrousness against his humanity, but successive exposure to ever-more conservative and heartless presidents must have been torture to someone who seemed to prepare himself for writing by methodically scraping away the psychic calluses that most of us depend on to get through the day.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:18:00 +0000

Maybe he’s on stilts. It is the Haight.

By: jimh

jimh — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:25:00 +0000

Understood, but there is no vantage point like the one he drew where you can see houses below, or the bridge. I live right there.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:38:00 +0000

The corner of Haight and Ashbury is higher than downtown.

By: jimh

jimh — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:09:00 +0000

I like accuracy, and I live a block from there, so I’m sorry to see the artist has drawn Haight and Ashbury with a view of the Bay Bridge. Nope. It’s not even on a hill, man. Either Mr. Hope-Smith has neglected to do his research, or when he visited the drugs were pretty strong.

By: SFSlim

SFSlim — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:04:00 +0000

Anyone know if a PDF or other ebook format version is available? I’ll buy it right now if so.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:35:00 +0000

This book sounds fun, but I’d really like to see the Ralph Steadman version.

By: Mark_Frauenfelder

Mark_Frauenfelder — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:30:00 +0000

Thanks Mike. I have only read a few “Hey Rube” columns and didn’t think they were very good. But I should read some more, I guess.

By: timmaguire

timmaguire — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:23:00 +0000

“a passionate, rebellious genius who sprinted too fast at the beginning of a long-distance race, collapsed early, and spent his remaining decades burnt-out, crawling bewilderedly.”

Yep, that about sums it up. When he was good, he was great. And he was great a lot early. Not so much later.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:04:00 +0000

I always wondered how Thompson managed to balance writing with so much drinking and drug use. It never occurred to me he had someone help him put it all together.

I also hope I remember this correctly, but I found one of the most profound lines in Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas to be when Duke and his attorney told someone that they were looking for the American dream, and were told by someone “the place burned down about three years ago”. I was disappointed that moment didn’t make it into the movie.

By: Mike Rhodes

Mike Rhodes — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:06:00 +0000

Hey Rube awful?! Occasionally, yes I suppose, but it would be a shame to dismiss the totality of the column out of hand simply because of his astute reading of the events on 9/11/01 and his prediction of what our future would hold. I believe that column was published on 9/13 and he was as cogent and spot on as his early days. His final book “Kingdom of Fear” I would also rank among his best works from the 70′s. His analysis of the post 9/11 Bush years were trenchant and insightful, he was in his element again and got his teeth back a bit. If you are a devotee of HST I think you owe it to yourself to read that work. regardless, thank you for turning me on to this graphic novel. I just always hate to hear the seemingly popular opinion that HST wrote nothing worthwhile after the Songs of the Doomed era or wherever people draw the line.