Prez, Vol. 1: Corndog-in-Chief by Mark Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This, I liked!
And this is coming from someone who is currently reading a book about fucking UFO’s because I’m so tired of reading anything remotely related to politics, society, and everything that’s real. It’s gotten to the level that I’d rather read about UFO’s and entertain the possibility that they exist than read anything else that’s sold to me as being satirical or hilarious or pointed or the most important read of our times.
All that said, Prez is really good.
I’ve been wanting to read it, but I’ve been scared off for a while because I was worried that it was going to be more clever than it would be funny. More pessimistic about the future of the United States in a way that I didn’t find interesting. More about how the innocent nature of one teen would really turn us around as a nation.
Basically, I thought it was going to be like a snarkier version of that dumb fuckin’ Kevin Costner movie where he’s the only guy who has to vote for President or something.
But it’s not.
What I like about Prez is that it’s actually funny. Not funny in a way where it’s SO clever and SO on the money. It’s got funny dialog. It’s got jokes in it. The way the characters talk is funny. There’s a lot of funny in here.
It’s also weird. And in a good way. A lot of futuristic stuff tries to copy the feel you get from those satirical commercials in Robocop, but they just come off as dumb. But this one nailed it. I mean, hot dog heart? I’m in.
This is kinda what I wanted to read when I read that damn Brian K. Vaughn thing about America invading Canada. And I think what this had that the BKV book didn’t is a sense of humor.
And I think that’s why this book works so well, and works so well right now. I see a lot of the humor going out of politics. We don’t think it’s funny anymore. And maybe it’s not. But it seems like we’re still talking about it in a humorous-adjacent kind of way. I mean, you can’t tell me that comparing Donald Trump to a butthole is done for serious minded reasons.
If you don’t like humor mixed in with your politics, cool. I would encourage you to read or watch…basically everything else being produced by the media at this time. If you DO like a humor mixed in, if you DO think it’s funny in a fucked up way that we are where we are, then I think Prez will deliver nicely for you.