Reviewed - Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson

The great American writer, the great American iconoclast, the great American hedonist—however you choose to view him, Thompson remains the high-water mark for all social commentators worldwide, and a truly fearless champion of individual liberties. 

“This diamond-sharp graphic biography is a witty, thoughtful book . . . Bingley and Hope-Smith’s portrait is brave and badass, taking the kind of chances Thompson would have appreciated.” 

—Publishers Weekly

Invariably a biography is a judgment about the man.  The foreword written by his former editor Alan Rinzler was more interesting and more honest than this pap about a confirmed degenerate who wasted his life on vanities and trivialities.  Someone wrote that Hunter S. Thompson is "a bum, a vandal, a thief, a liar, an addict, a freak, and a psychopath."  That is nothing to white wash or admire which is what this book does.  I cannot recommend this book.

My introduction to HST was Johnny Depp's awful movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."  But I wanted to give this man a chance.  I had heard he was a good writer - a great artist.  This book is more of an overview of his life than a biography.  There is nothing glamourous about being a junkie which is what Hunter S. Thompson will be known for.   After reading this book and feeling very nonplussed about it, I went over his wikipedia entry and read the article he wrote about the gang rape of the 2 teenage girls by the Hells Angels.

I don't see much about this man that needs to be celebrated.  His article if anything seemed like a rambling justification of the destruction of innocence of two young women and how he maintained his friendship with Sonny Barger after his goons beat him within an inch of his life?  What a scoundrel.

And his fake rivalry with Nixon and Nixonism fell flat on its face.  There is nothing defensible about what Nixon did to Ellsberg or many of his critics.  But Thompson's scorn as portrayed by Will Bingley (Author), Anthony Hope-Smith (Illustrator), make Nixon seem larger than life and noble compared to this bum.

There was a lot wrong with this book and failing to find his voice was one of them.   He is allegedly a social critic and moralist.  He is a social engineer whose social architecture we suffer and as to his morals, it would be better to characterize him as an immoralist.  Good riddance to bad rubbish.