Suckle: The Status of Basil
"Suckle: The Status of Basil" is a graphic novel by Dave Cooper that delves into the surreal, hallucinogenic journey of a naive adolescent named Basil. Born in an unusual manner, Basil's exploration of a bizarre world populated by virile aliens, demonic entities, and sexually aggressive characters reflects his struggle with the complexities of sexuality and identity. Throughout his adventures, he grapples with his desires, often fueled by a recurring vaginal symbol that leads him into both erotic fantasies and horrifying situations. The narrative oscillates between his romantic aspirations and the predatory nature of the world around him, embodied by characters such as the seductive Angelic Woman and the manipulative Brit.
The artwork style is reminiscent of mid-1990s stoner culture, filled with dynamic, vibrant scenes that alternate between the grotesque and the ethereal. Themes of male anxiety, the dichotomy of female sexuality, and the harsh realities of machismo culture permeate the story, resulting in a profound commentary on the loss of innocence and the search for authentic connection. Ultimately, "Suckle" serves not only as a tale of adolescent awakening but also as a poignant reflection on the intersection of desire, shame, and the quest for friendship amidst a morally ambiguous landscape.
Suckle: The Status of Basil
AUTHOR: Cooper, Dave
ARTIST: Dave Cooper (illustrator)
PUBLISHER: Fantagraphics Books
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1996
Publication History
After producing three issues of his comic Pressed Tongue for Fantagraphics Books, self-taught comics creator Dave Cooper was approached by the company’s founder, Gary Groth, to write a full-length graphic novel. The first edition of Suckle: The Status of Basil was released by Fantagraphics in 1996, and the book was reprinted in 2001. In 2008, Delcourt published a French translation in a single volume with Cooper’s subsequent graphic novel, Crumple: The Status of Knuckle (2000), which is sometimes viewed as a kind of sequel to Suckle.
Plot
Suckle follows the coming-of-age of Basil, a smiley and naïve adolescent, as he navigates a hallucinogenic world of virile aliens, ectoplasmic vaginas, demonic insects, sociopathic men, and sexually aggressive women. Basil is born from an egg laid by a fly in a labia-shaped bump in the earth. He wanders nude through a forest until he finds a futuristic city. He nourishes himself with strange vaginal fruit that gives him erotic nightmares. This vagina symbol haunts him throughout his adventures: Whenever he sees it, he melts into a giddy puddle of desire. He is also stalked by the Demon that sporadically materializes out of shapes in the cityscape and tries to enter him, causing terrifying erotic experiences.
He stumbles upon a cabin, where he is invited in to eat by the Scottish couple who live there. The woman befriends him, offering him a friendship bracelet, and the man teases him when he smells the vaginal fruit on his breath. Basil is deeply touched by the idea of having a friend. In the city, he falls in love with the Angelic Woman, who is the leader of a New Age sect connected with the vagina symbol: She wears a pendant with the symbol around her neck. He also meets an urbane, leprechaunish Brit who takes him away from the Angelic Woman and tries to initiate him into sexuality by taking him to visit prostitutes, while simultaneously embezzling his money. Basil is uninterested in the prostitutes but is pleased to meet a woman who gives him a massage, until the moment is lost, when she demands he lick a sweet liquid off her body. He manages to escape when the liquid pours out of a machine in impossible quantities.
Basil is left derelict in the red-light district, revolted by the crass sexuality on sale around him, until one of the sect’s members, the friendly Jessica, finds him and takes him back to their temple. Inside, the Angelic Woman is reading to a group of women from a book with the vagina symbol. Jessica takes him away to nurse his wounds and put him to bed. That night, he dreams that the Angelic Woman desires him. He sleepwalks out and enacts his fantasy with Jessica, who is masturbating on the couch. Suddenly, the Demon climbs out of the Angelic Woman’s mouth, and Basil wakes up, horrified to see Jessica in front of him. The next day the Demon will not leave him alone. Even when he masturbates, and the Demon shoots out of his urethra, it still wants more. Basil runs all around town but sees the Demon everywhere. Finally, the Angelic Woman finds him and leads him back to the temple, where the two make love in a hallucinogenic scene in which she offers him her vagina. He suckles it, and their two bodies disintegrate into shapes in motion and ecstatic smiles.
The depraved world outside no longer bothers the giddy Basil, until he meets the Brit again, who takes him to a sadomasochist (S and M) dungeon. He escapes this, but the world seems hopelessly corrupt again. In a rage, he stamps on the friendship bracelet given to him by the woman in the cabin, and the crushed bracelet reveals a secret shape. He takes the shape and uses it to unlock the most sacred door in the temple, but when he opens it, he sees the Demon sodomizing the Angelic Woman. He vomits violently and collapses, lying unconscious for several weeks. When he regains consciousness, he is delighted to be back in the woods with Jessica, who promises to take him somewhere nice to settle. The story ends with Basil overjoyed to see Jessica, who is a real friend.
Characters
•Basil, the protagonist, is a spiky-haired teenager with big innocent eyes and a wide grin. He dresses in mid-1990’s slacker chic, wearing a grimy T-shirt and an earring. He begins his journey as an innocent set adrift in a surreal, highly sexual universe. Though he dreams obsessively of vaginas, he is repulsed by aggressive, vulgar, and commercial sexuality. He is easy to manipulate and needs to be cared for by a friend. Through the course of his adventures, he becomes more aware of what he desires and is more able to stand up for himself. He is haunted by the Demon, who destroys his idealized sexual fantasies.
•Jessica is a helper. She has long, curly black hair and a round face with big cheeks, which gives her an innocent and friendly look. She is a mother figure who takes care of Basil, taking an interest in his drawings and telling him the rules of the vagina sect. Basil does not see her as sexual until he mistakes her for the Angelic Woman and undresses her while sleepwalking.
•The Brit first appears to be a helper but is increasingly revealed to be an antagonist. The anonymous character is rotund with a small, leprechaunish head and weaselly eyes and speaks in an East London accent. He tries to initiate Basil into machismo culture by taking him to brothels and S and M dungeons, but he extorts money out of him. Toward the end, when Basil is fed up with the vulgar, commercial world of the sex industry, he fantasizes about chopping the Brit’s face in half.
•The Angelic Woman is the anonymous spiritual leader of the vagina sect. She is tall, with light, flowing hair, and she radiates confidence and calm. She has the vagina symbol tattooed on her forehead and wears it on a pendant and around her waist. Readers never hear her speak, but Basil obsesses over her image. His dream is smashed when he sees her being sodomized by the Demon, and in this scene, she no longer appears beautiful. She seems much older, with serpentine hair, sagging breasts, and a snout.
•The Demon is a black devil character, with long horns and an evil grin. He stalks Basil’s imagination, forming out of shapes in the landscape or from his fantasies. The Demon pollutes Basil’s angelic sexuality, leading him into morally questionable behavior that he later regrets or tries to cover up. By sodomizing the Angelic Woman, the Demon manages to infect Basil’s most idealized fantasy.
Artistic Style
Suckle: The Status of Basil continues some of the surreal treatment of sexual angst and William S. Burroughs-like aliens that Cooper was exploring in his “zine” Pressed Tongue and his earlier Cynthia Petal’s Really Fantastic Alien Sex Frenzy (1993). The comic makes use of a similar mid-1990’s stoner-culture aesthetic. Cooper’s landscapes alternate from urban scenes reminiscent of Futurama to fantastical “nowhere lands” that recall works by comics creator Jim Woodring. Bodies burst apart, merge, inflate, or otherwise transform in hallucinogenic scenes, and bodily fluids frequently explode all over the page. Cooper’s portrayal of bewildered male sexuality and assertive female sexuality is reminiscent of Robert Crumb’s comics, as are the scenes of strange erotic ritual, such as when a woman is having an orgasm on a giant spliced tongue.
Layout and color are used to great effect in Suckle. The book is small, and Cooper usually crams six to eight frames on each page, making the fictional world seem busy. The panels are mostly different-sized rectangles, but different shapes and proportions appear throughout. Only two fundamental scenes are rendered on a full page. Cooper plays effectively with light and dark contrasts, which correspond to moments of innocence and depravity. The lightest points occur when Basil is walking through the desert and when he makes love with the Angelic Woman. The page darkens whenever the Demon appears and in a disturbing sequence in an S and M dungeon. On the last few pages, this contrast is even starker, as Basil is passed out and dreaming of a dark vagina that slowly transforms to Jessica’s light lips. The only use of color is to illustrate a picture Jessica draws of Basil on yellow paper. The book ends with Basil filling in her image on the same page, symbolizing their friendship.
Themes
Suckle is a surreal exploration of male anxiety about coming-of-age and the mystery of female sexuality. When the story begins, Basil wanders nude through a desert: It is only his contact with civilization that gives him the idea to clothe himself. Likewise, he is ignorant of his own sexuality, but as he is inducted into different forms of sexuality, he gradually learns about his own desires. The foil to this is played by the Demon, who shrouds his fantasies in guilt. There are nods to adolescent shame about masturbation: When Basil eats a vaginal fruit, an old farmer teases him that everyone knows what he has been doing. Basil is shocked when he experiences unexpected erections and surprised when other people reveal their sexual interest in him. Without understanding why, he becomes programmed to seek out the vagina symbol.
In the world of Suckle, women are mysterious and distant. Basil is in awe of the ones he desires and often repulsed by those who desire him. Only at the end of his journey do male and female desires begin to correspond. While the women Basil meets are either sexual deviants or mother figures, the angel/whore dichotomy is continually disrupted by his experiences. When apparent mother figures suddenly become sexual, as happens with Jessica, Basil is particularly perturbed. Even his ideal, the Angelic Woman, who seems to have a pure sexuality, turns out to have nasty desires, as he discovers when he sees her with the Demon.
Basil’s maturation also happens in the shadow of machismo and the sex industry. Though Basil is motivated by seeking out the symbol of a vagina, he is not satisfied by finding sex in brothels or S and M dungeons, not necessarily because of the commercial nature of the transaction but because of the crassness and aggressiveness of the women. The closest the commercial world can come to impressing him is when he sees a picture of a vagina on the Brit’s wall, which he declares to be beautiful.
Impact
Suckle was a major turning point in Cooper’s career. After years of working on other people’s projects and his own minicomics, Cooper became a serious artist in his own right. The book earned him his first Harvey Award nomination in 1997, paving the way for Harvey and Ignatz awards for his next comic series, Weasel (1999). Success with the 136-page format led to Crumple: The Status of Knuckle and Ripple: A Predilection for Tina (2003), both of which also address sexuality and sexual anxiety. The three similarly titled works are sometimes referred to as a trilogy, despite Ripple having an entirely different artistic style.
Further Reading
Brown, Chester. Ed the Happy Clown (1989).
Burns, Charles. Black Hole (2005).
Matt, Joe. The Poor Bastard (1997).
Bibliography
Cooper, Dave. “The Dave Cooper Interview.” Interview by Gary McEown. The Comics Journal 245 (August, 2002): 76-105.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Dave Cooper.” Interview by Nicolas Verstappen. L’autre bande dessinée (August, 2008). http://www.du9.org/Dave-Cooper,1028.
McInnes, Gavin. “Gavin McInnes Explains Dave Cooper.” Juxtapoz 113 (June, 2010): 132-142.