MADreads

Rockin’ the family

November 21st, 2008 Dennis - Central

“When I think of Queen I remember my whole life” writes Mike Dawson towards the beginning of his rather lengthy semi-autobiographical graphic novel, Freddie & Me : A Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody.  And while Mike’s fascination with the band and it’s music flows through the book, it’s clearly in the background while Mike’s life takes center stage.  There’s Mike at a young age, watching a video on TV of Freddie Mercury vacuuming in drag while singing “I want to break free,” Mike listening to a cassette with a friend who wonders if there are any more songs with “swear words”, Mike arguing with his younger sister Sarah about the relative merits of Queen versus Wham! (and, eventually, just George Michael), and, of course, young Mike’s solo performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” during a talent night while the family was on holiday in Wales with his bemused and mortified parents watching from the audience–guaranteed to make you smile.  (Check out that cover image for a preview.)

There’s an opening sequence to set up the story, but then the action moves back in time to Mike’s childhood and follows a pretty straight-forward chronological narrative path, with the occasional omniscient cartoonist/narrator breaking through to comment on the subjectivity of the action.  The art is all black-and-white which serves the story pretty well since the narrative takes a fairly leisurely pace (some might say it drags a bit, but I’m trying to be charitable).  Dawson’s style borders on caricature with some of the images of children, where features seem to be larger than normal, but that’s probably a decent approximation of the disproportion of youth and the coltishness of adolescence.  Still, it takes an artist with a pretty strong sense of self to deliberately render his own image with a nose that large.

Mike and his family are originally from England, but when Mike’s father gets a job in the United States, the family eventually moves to join him and settles in New Jersey, where Mike seems to think his British accent will confer instant coolness upon him.  Foolish child.  By this time, it’s already been announced that Freddie Mercury has AIDS.  Mike would seem to be barely old enough to process what this means when he first learns the news.  Yet later, when he hears from his mother that Freddie has died, he’s devastated.

Life goes on, of course. Mike plods through his teen years, complete with braces, bad haircut, and (being charitable again) a rather interesting hat.  His interests in art and eventually girls begin to fill his time–once he realizes, or is made to realize, that a musical career is probably not the path in life he can succeed on.  And I think most of us can remember what a cruel realization that day can bring.  Well, some of us can.  Anyway.  Moving on.

But where does Queen fit in all this?  Well, they’re just background music, for the most part.  Mike never manages to see the band perform live, although there were a couple of near misses.  And he did get to see Brian May perform once.  And a musical based on the band that Mike got to enjoy with his mother.  Sadly, like most fans, Mike’s meetings with his favorite band are of the imaginary variety.  As an artist, he can imagine/depict what it would have been like for him to meet his favorite band– and for the band to meet their biggest fan.  He does that once with a quick, imaginary meeting between he and the members of the band backstage.

What Mike eventually seems to realize is that meeting the musicians isn’t the important part of the music–it’s what the music communicates to the listener.  Unless you’re witnessing a live performance, that connection between artist and listener is decidedly one-way.  And that’s all right too.  But Mike provides a role reversal toward the end of the book, when he and his sister Sarah (in a memorable T-shirt) meet George Michael at a book signing and Mike the cartoonist gives his adult sister the ultimate fan’s wish: he creates a fantasy where George Michael, while being chauffeured away from the autograph signing session, remembers a grinning Sarah getting his autograph, and it brings a smile to the face of the world-famous recording star– while the music of Queen plays in the background on the car stereo… and it’s a sweet, sweet moment to belie the lyrics of the song:

“Nothing really matters, anyone can see… Nothing really matters to me.”

Overall, I think the book could have been trimmed considerably.  Too many scenes of Mike growing up that might have seemed significant at the time, but don’t really move the story forward or foreshadow any future events.  And if you’re looking for a celebration of Queen or Freddie Mercury, you’ll probably feel neither got nearly enough pages devoted to them.  Still, for me, that last scene made the whole read worth while.

Entry Filed under: Graphic Novel, Memoir & Biography