Perfect Example
"Perfect Example" is an autobiographical graphic novel by John Porcellino that chronicles the emotional landscape of a teenager preparing to transition from adolescence to adulthood. Set during the summer before he leaves for college, the protagonist, referred to as "John P.," navigates complex relationships and experiences feelings of depression, confusion, and isolation. Throughout the narrative, John P. grapples with his interactions with friends and potential romantic interests, ultimately realizing that he has the agency to shape his own happiness.
The work is characterized by Porcellino's simple artistic style, which emphasizes accessibility and reflects his introspective themes. He addresses universal experiences of growing up, such as the awkwardness of first crushes, the struggles with peer dynamics, and the pervasive sense of loneliness that can accompany adolescence. The narrative underscores the idea that while individuals may feel misunderstood, their feelings are often shared by others.
"Perfect Example" not only highlights the journey of overcoming personal challenges but also reflects Porcellino's growth as an artist, moving from a more abrasive punk aesthetic to a quieter, more contemplative approach. This graphic novel serves as a testament to the complexities of youth and the pursuit of happiness amidst life's challenges.
Perfect Example
AUTHOR: Porcellino, John
ARTIST: John Porcellino (illustrator)
PUBLISHER: Highwater Books; Drawn and Quarterly
FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1994-1998 (in King-Cat Comics and Stories)
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2000
Publication History
John Porcellino made his first handmade, photocopied “zine” in 1982, at the age of fourteen, and began self-publishing his ongoing autobiographical comic series, King-Cat Comics and Stories, in 1989.Porcellino photocopied King-Cat Comics and Stories and distributed it to his friends and co-workers. As he continued working on the series, his popularity grew, spread by word of mouth. By the early 1990’s, Porcellino was one of most recognizable figures in the underground comics scene.
Perfect Example comprises stories that were all originally drawn between 1994 and 1998; the major chapters were completed between 1996 and 1998. The one-off “Live-Evil” appeared in King-CatComics and Stories, issue 50; the prologue, “Belmont Harbor,” was published in King-Cat Comics and Stories, issue 47; the epilogue, “Escape to Wisconsin,” is from King-CatComics and Stories, issue 50; and the four central stories in Perfect Example (“Haircutting Time,” “In-Between Days,” “The Fourth of July” and “Celebrated Summer”) formed the entirety of issues 52 and 53.
Perfect Example was initially published in 2000 by the small but influential comic book publisher Highwater Books. In 2005, Drawn and Quarterly reissued Perfect Example with a new cover design and an updated “Resume and Relevant Information” back page.
Plot
Perfect Example is an autobiographical bildungsroman that takes place during the summer before Porcellino (referred to as “John P.” in the book)leaves for college. At the beginning of the summer, John P. starts hanging out with a girl in his class named Tina. The two discover they have similar taste in music and decide to go to a concert together. Their relationship becomes strained, however, when John P. discovers that she drinks and does drugs. After wandering away at a party, John P. imagines his soul leaving his body and floating high above the city.
John P. then falls into a malaise, coming to the conclusion that everything around him feels meaningless. After talking about his problems with his best friend, Fred, John P. calls Kristi, a girl on whom he has a crush, and asks her out on a date. At the end of the night, John P. asks her to be his girlfriend, but Kristi turns him down. Following this rejection, John P. feels even more depressed. A few days later, he goes to a party at John J.’s house, but, feeling awkward about the drinking going on around him, he hides in John J.’s bedroom. His friend Lita finds him there, and the two begin to talk. They eventually start making out, and John P. leaves the party even more confused about girls than he was before.
A few days later, John P. meets Lita again, but he leaves after being overcome by a wave of depression. John P. then attends a party at Mark Pruitt’s house, but feels withdrawn and disconnected. He sees both Kristi and Lita at the party, but he is unable to have a meaningful conversation with either. Later, Fred invites him to see the Fourth of July fireworks with him. However, when John P. sees that Fred has invited Kristi as well, he realizes that the two are dating and gets extremely upset and leaves. Once he gets home, he finds he is locked out and begins crying on his front steps. Mark Pruitt shows up and takes John P. for a ride to help him clear his mind, but John P. cannot help feeling like everything is a dream.
As the summer goes on, John P. begins spending more time by himself. While mowing the lawn one day, he comes to the realization that he creates his own unhappiness and that only he has the power to make himself happy. The next day, he and John Lyons make plans to go to the lake. When John P. discovers Lita has been invited as well, he takes it as an opportunity to overcome his fears. As John P. holds Lita’s hand, he feels like he wants to live and be happy for the first time in a long time.
In the epilogue, John P., John J., and John Lyons decide to take a trip to Wisconsin together. The three spend the day skateboarding, and at night, they camp out in the nearby woods. The next morning, as the three take a walk in the woods, John P. feels his depression finally beginning to lift. In the final panel, he assures the reader that he is “very happy.”
Characters
•John P., the protagonist, is a teenager preparing to leave for Northern Illinois University in the fall. During the summer, he deals with bouts of depression and anxiety about girls.
•Lita is a former classmate of John P. who, after several false starts, eventually becomes his girlfriend. Their relationship is critical to relieving John P.’s depression.
•Fred is John’s best friend. The two become somewhat distant after Fred starts drinking and begins dating Kristi.
•Kristi is a girl on whom John has a crush at the beginning of the graphic novel. She eventually starts dating Fred.
•John J. is a friend of John P. who accompanies him on trips to Bluesfest and Wisconsin. He also throws the party where John P. and Lita first get together.
•John Lyons is a friend of John P. who accompanies him on trips to Bluesfest, the lake, and Wisconsin. The two often go skateboarding together.
•Mark Pruitt is a former classmate of John P. who is described as similar to John P. but smarter. The two become close after Fred starts dating Kristi and Mark invites John P. to his family reunion in Milwaukee.
•Howard Pruitt is Mark Pruitt’s grandfather. John P. meets him at the Pruitt family reunion, where he encourages John P. to follow his dreams and pursue his interest in music.
•Harold J. is a classmate of John P. The two spend their gym class arguing about whether Venom or Hüsker Dü is the better band.
•Tina is John P.’s classmate and badminton partner in gym class. The two strike up a friendship, but John P. starts to distance himself from her after he finds out that she drinks and does poppers.
Artistic Style
Porcellino’s illustrations are known for their simple, straightforward style. Drawn in black ink (with the exceptions of the prologue, “Belmont Harbor,” and the epilogue, “Escape to Wisconsin,” which are both drawn in red ink to differentiate them from the main body of the story), there is little detail, shading, or realistic perspective featured in Porcellino’s illustrations. His crude figures most closely resemble Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts characters. The title page of each chapter, however, features a single panel that, while still simple, features brushwork and shading that suggests the depth of Porcellino’s artistic talent. Porcellino has admitted that he purposefully chooses to illustrate his comics in a simple, rough style partially in reaction to his frustrations with the education he received in art school and partially in the belief that it helps make his work more accessible.
Early in his career, Porcellino frequently made the argument, most forcibly in his comic “Well Drawn Funnies #0,” that his artwork belongs to a “bad is good” school of punk art that is direct, bold, and embraces ugliness. Since many of the incidents in Perfect Example and his other comics are rather bleak (he writes frequently of heartbreak, depression, malaise, and dissatisfaction), he believed it was more honest to create artwork that reflects his dreary outlook on the world. In his later work, however, as he matured as both an artist and as a person, his simple style has become indicative of his interest in Zen. At critical points in Perfect Example, Porcellino abandons narrative and lets his simple images of nature and personal serenity speak for themselves.
Themes
Perfect Example is primarily a story about moving out of adolescence and toward some semblance of adulthood. Throughout Perfect Example, Porcellino consistently depicts himself as lost and confused, emotionally stunted and ill prepared for the world. Nonetheless, the feelings and circumstances that he describes should be intimately familiar to anyone of a certain age: the difficulty in talking to the opposite sex, the petty squabbles with parents, the days spent doing nothing but “hanging out” at friends’ houses, the wide-eyed wonder of watching the world open up. Though at the time Porcellino may have felt misunderstood and out of place, his story turns out to be utterly universal and relatable. There is something reassuring about this fact; though Porcellino has created a testament to the loneliness and difficulty inherent in growing up, he also suggests that no one is truly alone in this pivotal moment.
Looming over this entire story is the theme of depression. As the “Resume and Relevant Information” printed at the back of the book suggests, Porcellino has been struggling with depression for most of his life, starting in high school. The primary struggle in Perfect Example concerns Porcellino learning how to deal with his depression, searching (and eventually finding) an outlook on life that will allow him to find meaning and happiness in his world and his personal relationships. The ultimate epiphany of Perfect Example is that each person creates his or her happiness or unhappiness.
Impact
Considering that Porcellino’s comics have been self-published using only a photocopier, the fact that Perfect Example was eventually republished by Drawn and Quarterly, one of the most well-respected publishers of independent comics, is demonstrative of the legitimacy that “zine” culture has obtained in the graphic novel community. When Porcellino began self-publishing King-Cat Comics and Stories in 1989, there were few markets available for his unique minimalist style of narrative and illustration. However, looking at the vast number of Web comics being written in the early twenty-first century (many of which feature crude drawing styles and episodic autobiographical narratives that are highly reminiscent of King-Cat Comic and Stories) it is hard to overstate Porcellino’s contribution to the DIY comics community.
Perfect Example is also remarkable as an example of Porcellino’s growth and maturity as an artist. Porcellino’s earliest comics were principally known for their anger, dark humor, and punk-rock sensibility. However, while writing and illustrating the minicomics that would become Perfect Example, Porcellino shifted his tone as he grew older and eventually married. Perfect Example is a much quieter and more sensitive work than many of Porcellino’s earlier efforts, which were brazen, where Perfect Example is rather sober and melancholy. The honesty and sensitivity about his own depression and suicidal thoughts in Perfect Example (and in his other King-Cat Comics) has led to a collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, whereby Porcellino has illustrated The Next Day (2011), a graphic novel featuring the true stories of four suicide survivors, written by Paul Peterson and Jason Gilmore.
Further Reading
Porcellino, John. Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man (2005).
Thompson, Craig. Blankets (2003).
Ware, Chris. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2003).
Bibliography
Arnold, Andrew. “The Complex Simplicity of John Porcellino.” Time, July 13, 2001. http://www.time.com/time/columnist/arnold/article/0,9565,167115,00.html.
Dodge, Chris. “The Revolution Will Not Be Photocopied.” Utne Reader 107 (September/October, 2001): 23-25.
Porcellino, John. “Interview: John Porcellino.” Interview by Jason Heller. A.V. Club, July, 2011. http://www.avclub.com/articles/john-porcellino,14096.