timothycomeau.com > writing

Heironymus Bush

July 2002

Comic, B/W, 32pg., $1, James Turek, 710 Barnard Street Apt H Savannah, GA 31401 jjturek@hotmail.com

By the end of this title, the President takes some pills, meets Zeus, and decides to become a punk rocker. It was a little whack, though, and I saw it mostly as one intelligent person's way of blowing off the steam of living under the presidency of such an idiot. My favourite part was in the middle; after murdering a teenager, his sidekick "Jensen" goes on a feeding frenzy, while Bush decides to take a walk. Bush lays down in the grass and has some sensitive thoughts. It reminded me of Beckett's plays, in that his works have both farce and dumb jokes but then they get all serious when one the characters starts thinking. Endgame for the presidency. If only he really laid on grassy knolls thinking about the nature of life. Later, I noticed the title, which plays off three different ideas: "Heir" as in heir to the throne, "onymus" as in anonymity, being the disguise of the generic, and then of course, by putting them together, we get Hieronymus, as in Bosch, the master of the grostesque, and favourite of the media when they want to do a Devil story, but combine nicely to signify an immoral generic entitlement. (Timothy Comeau)