Written & Compiled: Patrick Rosenkranz

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

Greg Irons died in 1984, struck by a bus on a working vacation in Bangkok. Since then, the artist has disappeared for the most part, and though his ink work may pop up from time-to-time in tattoo-themed publications, his name is rarely uttered in comics circles—overshadowed significantly by those of his more prolific and better respected peers like R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. But now, fantagraphics, in their ongoing Sisyphean attempt to put back into print the work of all men, women and children who have ever committed ink to paper for the sake of sequential art, have revived the Iron’s criminally forgotten spirit with You Call This Art?! 

The majority of Irons’ work in the 296-page anthology stands in stark contrast to many of his contemporaries. Where theirs is often emblematic of the idealism of the flower generation, Irons’ comics are the graphic representation of a lifetime of bad trips, the post-traumatic cold, sweaty comedown—the Nixon years. In his most powerful work, Irons channels the horror comics of his youth (Tales from the Crypt and others) to tell the stories of disillusioned junkie Vietnam vets, Manson acolytes and just plain old-fashioned folk descended into madness. You Call This Art?! is a reasonably comprehensive and loving tribute to an unquestionably talented individual who would have otherwise no doubt fallen through the cultural cracks.