Page 45 Review by Stephen
Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month April
One of the most visually thrilling, fluid and effervescent expression of comics as a medium, the skateboarders here flip and fly off every page from every conceivable angle! Arms thrust out, baggy tops and trousers back-flapping, they infect you with their gravity-defying faith, skill and joy!
Yet another relentless succession of dull, rectangular panels would have robbed this of its freedom and zeal, but the artist is a surfer and it shows. Dumais' years as a skateboarder shine through too, for he'll take you on a revelatory, cross-cultural history lesson in skateboarding history from the first rudimentary steel-wheeled, homemade efforts, through commercial construction, vertical experimentation, trick perfection, early zines and social growth, then the shift in music from punk to hip-hop when skateboarders first roamed into city centres to repurpose whatever they found into brand new concrete challenges. In history, context is everything, and here you'll learn the when AND why as well as the who, what and how. All accompanied by a lyrical beauty, wit and especially insight:
"If you skate in the streets for long enough, it will change the way you see the world. You'll start paying attention to how rough the sidewalk is, checking out every crack and bump. You'll be counting stairs, running your foot over ledges to check if they're slippery. But be warned... Once you develop that second sight, it's permanent. There is no turning back from seeing the skate potential in everything. And I mean everything..."
There follow 21 panels of Dumais finger-flipping an imaginary skateboard over suspended power lines, flyover freeways, cathedral domes etc.
And I kinda concur 'cause playing 500 hours of early Tombraider in front of my Ma reshaped our worldview too. In incomparably beautiful Venice, for example, we'd gaze admiringly up at St Marks's Square's architectural skyline, and after considered study based on our considerable combined knowledge of both Byzantine and Baroque declare:
"Single jump, single jump..."
"Oh, but THAT is a runny jump..."
I'm so ashamed.
