19 Mar 2024
The minutiae of suburban angst and all the melodramatics of NEw Jersey.
Written by Garden State punk icon Joe Steinhardt of Don Giovanni Records and and illustrated by Marissa Paternoster of The Screaming Females, Merriment is Jersey at its Jersiest from some of Jersey's best. Like Clerks before it, Merriment takes the malaise of living in the shadows of NYC and Philly, and creates something honest and hilarious.
No matter where you grew up though, odds are pretty good you've had bouts of existentialism, inferiority, paranoia and self-sabotage, but it's hard to imagine you did so with the bluntness, heart and humor of main character Mack and those in her circle.
Over the course of the graphic novel, we watch as Mack and close friends spend evenings drinking, searching, longing and sharing their idiosyncrasies over Marlboros and snark. Mack thinks about ways to kill folks, Denise resents Mack for moving to NYC, Mack pities herself for being kicked out by her partner after she was found to be cheating and that's just the opening pages. Liz isn't getting engaged, Jo hates everything, Chelsea is pretentious, Denise is fauning over her and everyone has fucked Liz's ex-boyfriends. Isn't that the fun of young, suburban, adulthood? The way the most banal shit feels earth-shattering when it happens to us and seems so petty when someone else is deep in it, the story and art capture the misanthropy of Northeastern misanthropy with zip. Merriment exposes and exploits the ennui of small-town friend groups with grit and grace. Steinhardt's storytelling shares a self-aware love for the quirks of emerging adulthood. And its fucking funny considering all of its heart! This is a read for anyone who knows that “there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work.”
There are so many one-liners Kevin Smith wishes he came up with sprinkling the pages. Its easy to get lost in the nuance and the minutiae to overlook the distinctive art provided by Paternoster. It's easy to get lost in the art, and overlook the deadpan hilarity that comes with bridge-and-tunneling your way into the uncertainty of the future. In other words, it's easy to get lost in Merriment and impossible to put it down until its roof-hanging, I mean cliff-hanging denouement.
Favorite moments and personal notes on Merriment:
- “It's like I know when I'm supposed to feel things,” Mack explains in the midst of a rooftop existential crisis, “and what I'm supposed to feel, and I can fake it real well but I actually feel nothing most of the time.” “You mean like sex?” responds a disaffected Denise.
- “Do you like any bands that aren't named after the vagina?”
- “Young adult horror is basically just horror where nothing scary happens”
- Page 136-137 discussing Corey Feldman's place as top five (supporting) actor
- “He's more dick picks than Dick's Picks” when referring to a bro who happens to be a child of hippies.
- Paternoster's Denise bears a striking resemblance to a caricature of Rene DesCartes in my Philosophy 101 book at William Paterson University circa 2004. It bears no meaning to the merits of the graphic novel, but I couldn't get past it and needed to share.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed's musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he's self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/