Stunt

by Michael DeForge

Seeing your double is often viewed as an ill omen, a portent of bad luck, and a harbinger of death. Hiring a professional double, an actor spurs on his own demise as he and his double explore the depths of degradation and self-destruction.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Comics Manga, Queer, 21st Century

72 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2019

About the author

Michael DeForge lives in Toronto, Ontario. His comics and illustrations have been featured in Jacobin, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Believer, The Walrus and Maisonneuve Magazine. He worked as a designer on Adventure Time for six seasons. His published books include Very Casual, A Body Beneath, Ant Colony, First Year Healthy, Dressing, Big Kids, Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero and A Western World.

Reviews

[Mia Vicino · Rating 5 out of 5]

better than once upon a time in hollywood because it has the courage to show the truth: cliff booth and rick dalton bone

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark tale of identity confusion, which would not be out of place in a Brian Evenson collection. DeForge's prose is similarly clean and quiet, as we follow the downward spiral of the protagonists. The drawings are in his usual fluid, semi-abstract style. I really like the unusual form factor and overall design of the booklet.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great DeForge, his artwork is fabulous and the mordantly satirical story really works. Love the cute oblong book format too.

[Brianna Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kind of thing you read that makes you remember the human brain can really think up anything it wants to and if you’ve got the skill to back it up you can create something weird and a little wonderful. Mostly weird.

[Greg S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit like someone put The Substance, a Marina Abramovic durational performance, and The Picture of Dorian Gray into a mangle and it came out as an oblong comic about doppelgängers and Hollywood stunt men with beautiful blue, black and white drawings where everyone is either a squat little smiley blob or an overly long-limbed sexy stud.

[Anetq · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange blue, black & white story of stuntman who can't kill himself, dreams of dying at work, but get hired to tank the career of the promising star of the movie - and while diving further and further into the abyss if degradation he makes it to the end.

[Benny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn.

[Bianca TitsMcGee · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe the worlds tiniest little book. it was hard to tell where our main character ended and our other began both literally and figuratively i’m still trying to gage the messaging but maybe i need to reread

[Cail Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever and well-executed, I enjoyed it thoroughly. A stuntman takes on the identity of his famous doppelgänger. DeForge is one-of-a-kind. Koyama Press did a great job with this skinny bastard.

[Bahia Burias]

fucking clever

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, thought-provoking read with Michael DeForge's usual, trippy art style.

[df parizeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of depth for such an unassuming piece. DeForge's style is hard to classify--the best I can manage is graffiti come to life. The reserved colour palette lends an ominous tone to a graphic novella that says so much about identity, consumption, and depression, without having to waste words.

At best, this is provocative and an important addition to the English art/literary canon. At worst, it's a stylistic conversation piece you'll have trouble deciding how and where to shelf in your library.

[Mary Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wild little book. The story of an actor who hires his stunt double to help him publicly ruin his image. The four color palette worked so well and the characters and setting design, and even the design of the book - tiny height but long width - was neat. The story was kind of super depressing but under a layer of absurdity and humor.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love DeForge's visual experimentation, as always - but this story feels like it's something I've seen before (though maybe that has partly to do with its unintentional echoes of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood).

[tinaathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess I am a DeForge Stan because he can do no wrong.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m really enjoying the weirdness of Deforge’s stories but it’s the wild design of his pages that keep me coming back.

[Zahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

TW // Suicide, Suicide attempts (shown), suicide ideation, possible drug/alcohol addiction

Honestly didn’t know what I was going to be reading and definitely didn’t think it would go the way this book did. I found the format of the book unique but wasn’t a fan of reading it that way. I did like the artwork and the use of just three colours, I think it worked very well for the story being told. The book did have weird turns and sometimes I liked it and other times I was like wtf. I do like the way the author went about the sensitivity of suicide and how it affects not only the person who is thinking of suicide but those around them. I found it even more unique because of how the two main characters, even though two completely different people they pretty much become one person. When Jo wants his stunt man to die by suicide but pretending to be Jo, it is evident how much the two become one because when it’s actually Jo who dies by suicide the stunt man wished it was him not Jo. It makes me wonder if the stunt man is only saying this because of how much he became Jo that he is in ways starting to think like Jo as well. It could also be that he wants to be with Jo forever since it was clear they had some kind of relationship going on.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Michael DeForge’s darker works, Stunt is a short, claustrophobic comic exploring themes of identity, body, and toxic relationships. The narrator is a stuntman who follows the popular actor he doubles for from his home in Toronto to LA, his already fractured self-image unraveling further as he takes on more and more of his employer’s life. As they draw each other closer, emotionally, physically, sexually, identities blur.

DeForge’s dynamic, fluid art is ideal to depict the narrator’s loss of both his physical, mental, and self image as he and his double begin to subsume each other completely, performing the life of the actor right down to the very end. Stunt is an effective, horrific, and poignant piece.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having follow DeForge since nearly the beginning of his career, I've seen a lot of his tricks. I've loved his work often, been a little underwhelmed on occasion. This is probably closer to the latter, though it has many strengths and I'm not sure if I'm just being unfair, so I'll leave it at four stars. The story is told in narration, and I can imagine he wrote it before having ever drawn any of it. More dark storybook than comic book, forms filling the given space, decorating the corners, stretching and bending. It's a predictable story but no one else is doing this type of work in comics, those that are feel like cheap DeForgian knock-offs, and I'll continue to read everything he does.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost like a flip book that’s the size of a large bookmark. I didn’t think this one was going to gel with me but then it culminates in a way I was not expecting. Identity, celebrity, and male body expectations quite literally melt together in this rather dark but sparsely narrated tale about a stunt man and the actor he for whom he doubles.

[A Fan of Comics · Rating 5 out of 5]

The rise and fall of a body double.

This book is about a stunt man and the man he looks exactly like. Its short, trippy and really good!
The art is the best part, It does get a little mature but def a great read!

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The painfully-distorted images of the stuntman's body contorting to fit inside the long panels of each page enhance the apathetic narration and elevate this story about willfully giving up your identity in the celebrity spotlight. "It wasn't me, after all." 4.5

[Sal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Hollywood stuntman forms a Persona-tier unhealthy bond with the actor he stunts for; a somewhat predictable critique of celebrity culture is bolstered by the novel format and the exaggerated dynamism of the art.

[Margaret Withers]

Huh. Picked this one up on a whim from the library and am glad I did. Stunning, surreal art for a compelling, strange tale. Will look into more by this author and/or this printer.

cw: suicide, suicidal ideation, just some weird stuff.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bizarre psychological cycle, artfully unnerving and captivating.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

So tiny and fast and good!

[KadaziaSparkles They-Them-Theirs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started off slow then got really intense..

[Danny Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

baller

[Kasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Michael Deforge’s drawing style but the story wasn’t my favourite.

TW: suicide, suicidal ideation

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked how expressive this is.