The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

Bad Idea

By Damon Suede

Five stars


Why five stars? Because Damon Suede is a sizzling writer. Fast, funny, emotional, edgy, literate. And he builds fabulous characters—not just the leads, Trip Spector and Silas Goolsby, but all of their friends (and enemies). These are flesh-and-blood people who rise off the page and take you by the hand. Even bit parts are given texture and richness.

Trip is a modestly successful young cartoonist, working on a comic book series he created for a man he has a crush on. Silas is an equally successful make-up artist—specializing in wounds—for a tawdry but popular cable cop show. Neither man has hit the big time, but their chance meeting (at a LGBT charity zombie run, no less) throws both of their carefully constructed lives off course.

Trip is timid, fearful, allergic to everything in a not-quite-stereotypical New York Jewish way. Silas is a refugee good ‘ol boy from Alabama, a former fatty who ended up a hunk.

But—and here’s the secret of the book’s power—they’re both geeks. Through his characters, Suede takes us into the world of comic book art and its denizens. These two very different men, both of whom have avoided relationships, but for different reasons, communicate through a shared passion for ink and script and color. Their shared geekdom is the flint that strikes the spark and sets alight feelings neither knows how to handle. The bad idea of the title is Trip’s creation of a comic-book character inspired by Silas. This is the fertile narrative kernel from which a complex and emotionally driven story grows.

A peculiar bonus is that the author quotes from “The Tick,” an old Adult Swim cartoon series that disappeared from late-night TV just as I fell in love with it. This bit of esoteric cartoon geekery just melted my heart.

Suede is a master of this genre, and it includes a generous helping of sex, portioned out appropriately to spice up the plot and help develop the characters. In a genre where sex scenes can easily become perfunctory because they are expected, Suede manages to fill his with a naughty fire that makes them not only readable but emotionally worthy.

Before this, I had only read Suede’s “Hot Heads,” which I liked. But “Bad Idea” I loved. It was a pleasure and a revelation.

Now I really want to read this. Awesome review.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

I've posted a review (which I can't find now!) about "Horn Gate," the story-within-the-story of "Bad Idea." Suede's writing is wonderful, and if the book itself (a novella, and not, alas, a graphic novella) is a little esoteric in its story, it is nonetheless gripping and (for me) moving.

My review of Horn Gate.

It's one of those books I really enjoyed and couldn't understand the attitude that greeted it.

Ha, Averin! I was reading the review and said--wow, she's using the same words I did. Then, duh. THANK YOU for finding it.