BodyWorld

by Dash Shaw

Web comic by Dash Shaw about an addicted botanist in the future that travels to a town called Boney Borough to examine a very rare plant and smoke it.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix, Adult

384 pages, web

First published February 10, 2009

About the author

Dash Shaw is an American cartoonist and animator, currently living in Richmond, Virginia.
Shaw studied Illustration at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He has been publishing short comics and illustrations in a number of anthologies, magazines and zines since his college years. In 2008 Fantagraphics Books published Shaw's first long format graphic novel, the family comedy-drama Bottomless Belly Button. Among his other notable works: BodyWorld (2010, Pantheon Books), New Jobs (2013, Uncivilized Books), New School (2013, Fantagraphics), Blurry (2024, New York Review Comics).
Shaw's animated works include the Sigur Ros video and Sundance selection 'Seraph', the series 'The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD' and the movies My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea (2016) and Cryptozoo (2021).

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm rather confused by all the middling Goodreads reviews about this one. This is exactly what I want in a graphic novel: visceral, haunting, dark, grotesque, experimental, and with fold-out maps! I particularly loved his use different media (oil paint???) in the more erratic illustrations.


Sidebar: I just Googled Dash Shaw and he's kind of a babe.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have the feeling that from time to time I will need to look at all of the Dash Shaw books I have read and not appreciated and rethink my evaluations of them. This one I think might be my favorite so far, though it may just be that I am starting to gain a greater appreciation for what he is doing. I never know exactly what to think of him. Is he bold and innovative or just doing crazy stuff for the sake of doing it? This one is about, among other things, the representation of mind while on drugs. It's also Shaw's version of Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks, what's lurking in a small town, Boney Borough, and lurking specifically in its high school, or behind it.

It’s 2060, a civil war changed the country. What that has to do with anything I don't know, because Shaw is not into politics. Socio-cultural conditions are not his thing. Professor Paulie Panther, a crazy botanist who performs drug experiments on himself (and seems obviously crazy as a result of them), arrives to research a strange plant growing behind the high school. The cast includes Miss Jem, science teacher; Billy Borg (jock) and Pearl Peach (rebellious girl who loathes small town life), two Archie comics types (by this I mean they are drawn to look like they are out of Archie comics). Hey, what would these two kookie Archie and Betty kids be like on drugs?! Haw. But Panther (and the nod here is to experimental comics guy Gary Panter, I think) sees that this new drug has telepathic properties. Reminds me of claims for peyote among Indigenous Mexican tribes and Native Americans in the sixties, a shared spiritual/psychic experience to be had for all. What could go wrong? But is Boney Borough ready to get on Ken Kesey's acid trip bus? Are they into another kind of group think?

So the vibe here is less hippie peyote dream of a common psychic/spiritual state than something sinister, when we learn the drug may come from outer space (why, Dash?! why add that element on top of everything you have so far??! ) and may be part of a (paranoid) vision of aliens hoping to take over the planet. The vibe is increasingly more one of horror than Archie, as things get increasingly out of control. Questions emerge about the source of the madness. Is Panther an okay guy, or is he part of the insanity sweeping the town? Is he causing it or just going with the alien flow? Are drugs okay for the pursuit of happiness and insight?

Prof. Panther uses drug experiences to explore what psychic exchanges can do to minds and bodies; can we inhabit each other's minds and bodies, in this peculiar "body world"? Sexuality is one part of this exploration. Huxley's doors of perception are part of this exploration. But the news is not so good in this story for what drugs (and aliens?) can do to contribute to a better future. It's more than a little scary, this brave new world brought to Boney Borough.

Ultimately, I just decided to relax and go with this trippy narrative, and tried to appreciate how Shaw was trying to bring his crazy unconventional vision to the conventional world of Boney Borough and narrative comics, trying to reach an audience who would like to read a story that brings together high school, sci fi and acid. What Shaw (like so many "experimental" or alternative or art comics artists want to do is represent alternative states of being, seems to me: mad/fantasy/horror/psychic/spiritual/hallucinogenic states. These states give the artist free rein to explore alternative forms of representation and narrative, to get wild with design and color. Drug-induced conditions are Shaw's alternative mind choice du jour. Pretty crazy stuff in a sort of conventional multi-level narrative, in a vertical book format. But for Shaw it's all about the art, finally. And that's fine and fun and not boring at all.

[Mza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colour me fuchsia, red, teal, lemon, green, and impressed. Dash Shaw alchemizes Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Ed the Happy Clown, Acme Novelty Library, Gilbert Hernandez's Birdland, Frank Miller & Lynn Varley's maligned The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Charles Burns, Harry Potter, and probably some sci-fi thing I haven't read; and turns them into something new and surprising in the world of comix. BodyWorld experiments with form and technique on nearly every page, filters these experiments through Shaw's singular voice, and somehow ends up with an easy-to-read narrative.

Without giving away too much ... It's a post-apocalyptic, dystopian, psychedelic drug comedy. In the year 2060, botanist/"poet"/professor Paul Panther's job as a tester of new plant life for hallucinogenic properties takes him to Boney Borough, Virginia (!!), where an unknown plant with two black leaves has been found behind the high school. Panther's testing of the potential hallucinogen -- he rolls it up in a joint and smokes it -- brings him into contact with three locals: Jem Jewel, a hot-ass science teacher at the high school; Pearl Peach, a disaffected teen and recent graduate of the high school; and her boyfriend Billy Borg, the school's top "dieball" (a variant of rugby in which the ball is a big 10-sided die) player. Paul discovers that smoking the leaf grants him and whomever he's hanging out with a form of telepathy with one another. They feel what the other person is feeling, remember what the other person remembers, think and say what the other thinks and says. The usual boundaries between one person's "bodymind" and the other's disintegrates. This instant intimacy entangles the four main characters in a number of soap operatic plot developments that threaten to engulf the whole town.

More importantly, the drug's powers give Shaw an excuse to mangle his drawings of his characters in a car crash of bright colour, clean linework, redundant sound effects (a Shaw specialty), and layers and layers of Photoshop. Faces, bodies, word balloons merge grotesquely. Panther's angular Dick-Tracyesque features get joined to Pearl's Princess Leia hair. Colours escape their containing lines and panel borders. Indoors become outdoors. The miracle is how easy to read all of these pages are. Most of the pages stick to a 12-panel grid, a solid structure that provides a steady rhythm even when each panel is filled with free-jazz blasts of colour and shape. Shaw's compositions are designed not to impede eye movement from one panel to another.

The stylistic paradox of BodyWorld is that it is always easy to read, never easy to look at. Of the well-known cartoonists who've been published by the bigger American independents (Fanta, D&Q, Picturebox, Top Shelf, Buenaventura), Shaw's drawing is amongst the ugliest. His people are not cute, sexy, charmingly primitive, baroque, or graceful. They are stiffly posed, facially autistic, and anatomically retarded, with especially irritating shapes for hands and feet. They are bodies that lack moving parts. He seems comfortable with simple geometric shapes; beds, laptops, bathtubs, room corners, windows, and chairs look OK (in the computer-generated way); but the figures in front of these props might as well be furniture, too. I hope he gets better at drawing.

However, if he doesn't, maybe that's not the worst thing. Part of what made reading BodyWorld interesting to me was watching the cartoonist struggle to communicate. A hand pushes open a door, and we know that that's what it is, but it looks retarded. A woman's buttocks as she walks resembles two Rubik's Cubes trying to push through a potato sack. In this way, information is transmitted, imperfectly but fully, throughout the book. The drawing forces the reader to engage with it from the creative side instead of the receptive side: How would I have drawn that? I could have drawn that nicer! It's akin to seeing the wires attached to Jet Li -- the magick is dead; long live the magick!

I'll remember this book for its humour and its reimagining of Hunter Thompson as a creepy, nerdy manchild. I'll remember its mood, a precarious balance between organized nerdiness and chaotic psychedelia. I'll remember its mushroom clouds of colour and its lifelike simulation of magick mushroom mindsex. It's hard on two eyes but pretty easy on the third eye.

[Titus · Rating 5 out of 5]

BodyWorld’s art style, and the beginning of the story, both suggest that it’s going to be a certain type of “alternative” comic: focused more on weirdness and humour than on depth, characterization or plot. In fact, the story starts out quirky and enigmatic in a way that reminds me of Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes, its oddball characters, opaque dialogue, absurd comedy and occasional cartoonishly over-the-top events priming me for a comic without much real story (or with a totally wild story that makes no rational sense). However, although it remains suitably strange throughout, BodyWorld actually develops into a sophisticated, fully realized narrative. It ends up something like a goofier version of Black Hole by Charles Burns, mixing human drama and existential themes – in a high school setting – with outlandish speculative fiction.

It takes a little while to hit its stride, but ultimately it strikes a good balance between wackiness and serious drama. The characters are exaggerated pastiches of archetypes, but they still have decidedly human cores, and a surprising amount of depth. As a result, I find myself drawn into their stories, and the comic as a whole. As far as its “speculative fiction” aspects go, there’s no worldbuilding to speak of – it doesn’t take itself quite that seriously – but the setting and premise are quite original and unfailingly interesting. Without wanting to give too much away, the story revolves to a significant degree around altered states of consciousness, in a way that reminds me of Crawl Space by Jesse Jacobs, and some of my favourite issues of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff, and suffice to say BodyWorld executes it excellently.

The basic art style isn’t particularly special, though it does make great use of colour. Most of the comic employs a strict 12-panel grid, which feels a bit restrictive at times, but this also means there’s considerable impact on those occasions when the grid is broken (which is mostly tied to psychedelic experiences). It’s when depicting psychedelic episodes that the art truly comes into its own, using a bunch of great visual techniques to impart a real sense of altered consciousness.

In sum, this is an excellent comic that satisfies my desire for a proper plot and fleshed-out characters, while also indulging my taste for psychedelia, irreverent humour and unbridled weirdness.

[Przemysław Skoczyński · Rating 5 out of 5]

O tym, że Dash Shaw potrafi wymyślać szalone fabuły wiedziałem po przeczytaniu "New School" czy "Doctors". O tym, że potrafi dostarczać spójne, rozbudowane i zajmujące obyczajówki rozpisane na setki stron świadczy znakomity "Bottomless Belly Button". "BodyWorld" trochę łączy te światy. Historia się rozkręca niczym najbardziej odjechane prace Clowesa, a jednocześnie stanowi przekrój postaci i postaw powielających kulturowe schematy umieszczone w niecodziennym kontekście. Jest zbuntowana nastolatka, jest jej chłopak wyglądający jak Archi czy Fred ze Scooby Doo, jest samotna atrakcyjna nauczycielka, skrywająca swoje tajemnice czy w końcu niekonwencjonalny nauczyciel, będący jednocześnie naukowcem. Nie dość, że zostają rzuceni w fabułę pełną absurdów, funkcjonują też w obrębie szalonej estetyki Shawa, który na tym polu jak zwykle nie zawodzi. Autor potrafi obrazować narkotyczne odloty, stanowiące sporą część dzieła, mieszając techniki (prawdopodobnie miks cyfry z tuszem i farbą) i nakładając na siebie obrazy niczym niedopasowane kalki, czym świetnie oddaje wymianę jaźni, myśli i doświadczeń bohaterów, którzy pod wpływem narkotyku zyskują moc czegoś w rodzaju telepatycznego kontaktu. Nie zdradzając treści można jeszcze wspomnieć o klimacie młodzieńczych rozterek i burzy hormonów w niecodziennych okolicznościach, co pozwala umieścić "BodyWorld" obok "Big Kids" - DeForge i "Black Hole" - Burnsa. Do tego Shaw próbuje zabiegów, które mają wzbogacić komiks o inne cechy gatunkowe. Są więc mapy miasta, do których później odwołuje się fabuła, rozkładówki z bohaterami, opis zasad gry w fikcyjną grę "Dieball", przekrój budynku szkoły czy schemat rośliny na wzór podręcznika z biologii. Sama orientacja komiksu - nie wiadomo dlaczego - nie jest pozioma, lecz pionowa, a to oznacza, że czytasz nie od lewej do prawej, lecz z góry do dołu. To wszystko jakoś specjalnie nie przeszkadzało, ale odniosłem wrażenie, że absolutnie nie było potrzebne. Wtręty, których mogłoby nie być i historia by nie ucierpiała. Pomijając te drobne niedociągnięcia czy może raczej efekt poszukiwań własnej komiksowej drogi - "BodyWorld" to jedna z najbardziej intrygujących powieści graficznych, jakie czytałem w ostatnim czasie

[Dov Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really really good book. Not something I would have imagined liking so much because I'm not into futuristic/sci-fi-ish/drug-trippy stuff. This is futuristic, sci-fi-ish and drug-trippy, but it's also funny and familiar. The characters are all ordinary, trope-worn (?) folks in a story that is for the most part one I've seen many times before.

I love that Shaw brings run-of-the-mill high school drama into this very not run-of-the-mill book, marries the all-too-mundane with the totally weird and grotesque, as we follow creepy and yet endearing (or is it just me who thinks so? rut roh), citified botany professor Paul Panther (interesting name) to a small, remote, wooded community, where he meets his botanical match and has the super-heroic (total burn-out) fight of his life.

It's Professor Paul Panther's job to get high off whatever new plants he can find to get high off of and then collect data about his experience. But in this sleepy town with jocks and nerds and innocent-looking addicts, he runs into a plant that induces telepathic-hallucinagenic effects for purposes that are far from innocent. (Not that I ever think of plants or their sponsors as innocent).

The book is a little unwieldy and the colors and images are often far-out, but "BodyWorld" is still very readable and there's a lot of great emotional texture and a lot of humor that plays off our expectations of narrative and characters, appreciation and burlesque of archetypal stuff.

[Dave-O · Rating 3 out of 5]

A visionary book, not without some faults. The plot with its drug-induced mind melds and alien conspiracies is merely there to prop up Shaw's experiments with panels, color and representation of states of overlapping beings. The pacing is brisk and the book is damn purty, though the dialogue is uninspired. I was left wondering why bother setting a book so far into the future when the main character speaks in contemporary lingo. The characters are only fun to look at when Shaw goes into full experimentalist mode. Not that these experiments are new... he clearly draws from material typical of Highwater Books, Drawn and Quarterly, Picturebox. Shaw's vision is more easily read then, say, C.F. even if C.F. is better with both writing dialogue and drawing the figure. Shaw's figures are definitely a serious drawback, stiff when you need them to be limber with emotions that go between extreme or blank.

In future works, I think he would serve himself by better combining his eagerness to lay out new narrative paradigms with his ability to infuse with more emotion into his stories.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really want to like Shaw's work. I feel like he and I have some comics interests in common. I love the druggy weirdness of this premise and really enjoyed the way he visually played with the concept of identity, ego, shared experience, telepathy, etc. He also did some unconventional and cool things with color. I guess my issue with the work is that it feels very arbitrary. It all felt like it was made up as he went along and was peopled with uninteresting characters that were puddle-deep at best. I was shocked to see interviews with Shaw describing this as a comedy. There were some weird things and some absurd, slapstick-y things, but nothing felt like it was supposed to be funny to me. I guess I read it wrong.

[Felipe Assis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trata-se de um livro totalmente psicodélico com drogas alucinógenas, abdução, ensino médio e etc, só que diferente de vários livros do gênero que costumam ser excessivamente turvos e sem tanto sentido, nesse tudo se amarra, nada é à toa... Eu terminei de ler e fiquei espantado por ter entendido kkk e isso não quer dizer que o livro seja fraco ou acessível demais e sim que o Dash Shaw usou todo seu talento, equilibrando perfeitamente sua bizarrice com sua lucidez, para mitar, aliás acho que esse é o melhor livro dele até aqui. Com certeza irei ler outras vezes pra poder pegar ainda mais detalhes. Infelizmente acho muito difícil sair no Brasil, dada a edição que é cheia de balagandãs.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roughly ten years ago, a little book by Chris Ware called Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth brough me back to comics after a nearly ten year hiatus. It took some bold choices both in story and art, and really stretched the boundaries of comics. Now Dash Shaw's Bodyworld has done it for me again, taking those next steps into the future of comics.

Now that I've tossed out the hyperbole, let me explain. Set in year 2060, the US underwent a 2nd civil war that's never really explained. The main story focuses on "Professor" Panther, a man whose sole job is to seek out, try and record the results for newly discovered psychotropic substances. One of these substances is an oddly shaped plant that suddenly appears in the woods behind a private high school in Boney Borough, Va. There's some high school drama as a backdrop, adding some odd, very Charles Burns-ish layers to the story. Turns out that when this new plant is smoked by two people near each other their minds develop telepathy between each other. Not in a Professor Xavier mind-reading kind of telepathy but a merging and mixing of the two minds. The drug only exacerbates everyone's problems and issues, creating choas in the little community. Visually, it's stunning. Shaw mixes ink, paint and digital effects to create an odd, slightly disturbing look, especially when he goes very abstract to represent the drug-induced states.

Don't get me wrong---this is far from a perfect book. Many readers will be put off by the disjointed narrative, the heavy drug use and rampant sex. Some will look at the art and see it as sloppy. The influences on it---Charles Burns, Gary Panter, PK Dick, Philip Jose Farmer, Terence McKenna----weigh very heavily at times. But if you're in the right mindset Shaw has created a fantastic, trippy ride to enjoy here and I really look forward to his future as a cartoonist and storyteller.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not even going to pretend I know exactly what the hell is going on in “Bodyworld.” Dash Shaw’s work is wholly unique and you either drink the Kool-Aid or you don’t. If you liked the cringe-y family drama of his breakout graphic novel “Bottomless Belly Button,” the irreverent lunacy of his animated film “My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea,” or the deadpan humor of his recent “Cosplayers” series, there’s a lot to like in “Bodyworld.” Me? I’m fully on board.

“Bodyworld” is the story of Paulie Panther, a researcher, part-time professor, and full-time stoner who arrives in the planned future utopia of Boney Burough to investigate the hallucinogenic properties of a plant that grows on the grounds of the local high school. He floats in and out of the lives of various citizens - an alluring teacher, a disenchanted teen girl, her sensitive ex-boyfriend, etc. - while also, thanks to his botanical studies, floating in and out of their minds as well (the plant has an ill-defined telepathic effect on the user). That synopsis makes “Bodyworld” sound pretty coherent but here’s the truth: it’s not. “Bodyworld is a psychedelic mind-fuck crammed full of sci-fi concepts, abstract sequences, and more than a little casual drug use. Shaw’s style in this book isn’t as clean as it is in “Bottomless Belly Button” or “Cosplayers,” but his character design is innovative and his plot meanders along in the best way. “Bodyworld” started off as a webcomic, which is evident in its languid pace and unusual orientation on the page. One thing is always certain with a Dash Shaw book: it’s gonna do and be exactly what Shaw wants it to.

Bright, weird, and off-kilter, “Bodyworld” is an inspired trip. It may take a few chapters for the high to kick in but, when it does, it’s a blast. I recommend just giving in and riding it out. Dash Shaw is a comics alchemist.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

a slice from the 80's as raw revisionism takes root in the mainstream. taking equal parts panter and burns with another equal of archie comics, shaw spins botany conspiracy and robo-controlled outerspace zombies and mixes them in a not so riveting soap opera. read it once and you've seen it. if someone is going to pawn themselves off as a graphic novelist of merit, you gotta insist the work is readable more than once. it has that seen it been it done it quality. if i were gary panter i'd sue this moron for stealing my best techniques. the product is so bland, he's gotta spell our 'mirror neurons'. add to the toilet asap, avoid this emo junk.

[Raina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crazy crazy, literally trippy book.

For one thing, it's challenging to read this book. The content is sideways, so that the spine is at the top of the pages. Also, you have to fold out a flap at the top (and bottom?) of the book with a map of the community where the events take place.

It's about a small planned community in a futuristic world. A ne'er-do-well comes to town and does research on a new plant found in the woods there. The plant causes consciousness and identities of people to merge. And much body sharing ensues. Plus some nontraditional sexual relationships.
Crazy, but relatively easy to follow, and definitely engaging and innovative.

[Betzim Gdolot · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Dash's best books. It follows professor Panther who is researching how plant substances affect the human mind and physiology. A very well paced story with great characterization, beautiful world building and genius mix between abstract art that makes sense in the story and adds to its trippy vibe. Dash tried some experimental paneling and book structure, as the book is read vertically and it accruals works really well, adding to the vibe of the whole book.

Great read, highly recommended

[Benny · Rating 5 out of 5]

idk what the hell was going on but the art in here is so incredible. The panels smeared with paint ?? Hello?!?!?!????? The way Shaw mashes the traditional comic format around into whatever the hell he feels like doing is just. scrumptious . unreal

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Panther's job is to update a guidebook to the mind-altering effects of drugs. When a new plant is discovered in the forest next to a school in Boney Borough, Panther is sent in to evaluate it. Boney Borough is an experimental planned community, developed after an unexplained civil war - this story takes place in 2060. Panther slowly discovers this new drug has some very strange effects - when smoked in proximity to another person a strange sort of mind-sharing telepathy develops. Much totally weird drama ensues.

This story started out as a webcomic, and apparently the odd format is a concession to make it printable - long vertical pages. There is a map that folds out to aid in figuring out where in the town the story is taking place. I didn't feel that was completely necessary nor did you really need to know where the characters were, spatially. We would have done fine with "at the school", "at the motel on the outskirts of town", "in the forest near the school" - I don't know. I suppose the chosen method of map coordinates is shorthand for that, but those are pretty much the only locations that did matter, and having to look back at the map and translate where E17 or B3 or M13 was every few pages pulled me out of the story every time. Plus, the colors in the map were similar to each other and broken up weirdly enough that I also had to translate what the color in the selected square meant for every coordinate on the map. I feel like the editor should've asked "is the map and locations necessary to the story at all?" There shouldn't be a barrier of entry to reading a comic, not that I started this intending to nitpick.

The reading experience was like doing drugs, which maybe was intentional. I wasn't a huge fan of the art, but figured out how to parse it at least by probably the first third. The story was weird, the characters were weird but pretty well built. I'm reminded a bit of the titular story in Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang as the odd stylistic choices in the drawings were meant to convey the effects of smoking the plant, just like Chiang's story is arranged to reflect the narrator's mind. Also, Asterios Polyp for the experimentation with the format and art, Charles Burns' Black Hole for the tone and some themes, and for some reason it also reminds me of Oyvind Thorsby's webcomic Hitmen for Destiny. I'm not sure I'd recommend this book to anyone unless they were an experienced comic reader who wanted something weird and trippy and didn't mind so-so art or sort of convoluted story.

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining saga of high school, the near-future, and psychotropic plants, innovatively designed and packaged. Not so much in the panel layouts (mostly a static 12-squares-per-page) as in the odd spatial attention (maps and map references), mixed-media art style, and dense-ly packed panels with chaotic overlays as a window to characters' mental states. In fact, the art style is beautiful despite often fairly perfunctory character drawings: somehow the simple-messy line drawings gain a kind of elegance from their surroundings. I am quite enjoying this so far.

...

Now that I've finished, I can comment more on the plot, as well. Starts off intriguingly but in the manner of many serials the plotting seems a little uncertain. Tangents are picked up and dropped (diegunk addiction? character backstories? entire unresolved character arcs?) though certain motifs are skillfully conserved throughout (super-organisms, single functioning units made up of many semi-independent parts, like an ant colony, being the big recurring piece). But there's a big unneccessary shift in frame of reference at about 2/3s. Why go through all that trouble to make the story completely ludicrous and crisis-scaled, only to narrow back to the personal, the whole constricting into a sort of eulogy for a single character. Although, honestly, the personal-scale story is probably far more worth-telling anyway. Even so, I get the idea that the whole was mostly constructed as a vessel for the (indeed striking) interludes of psychotropic empathy where the art and plotting get most frantic and interesting. Which might be enough?

[David Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't just my favorite graphic novel or even book, but my favorite work of fiction in any format. I actually have a signed hardback copy from when I met the author in person at the Small Press Expo.

The story follows Professor Paulie Panther, whose job is tracking down and experimenting with newly discovered hallucinogenic plants to add their effects to an encyclopedia of drugs. To be honest he's a bit of a shitty person. He travels to Boney Borough to experiment with smoking a plant that turns out to grant sort of telepathic abilities, where the people who take the drug can send and receive not only thoughts, but also somatic sensations and emotions. In addition, people connected by the drug permanently have facets of their personalities etched on each other, like a scar.

The art conveys these telepathic interactions in fantastic, experimental ways that at the same time avoid traditional psychedelic cliches. Without spoiling anything, the story comes to a satisfying crescendo that plays with the idea of super-organisms as the effects of the new drug proliferate among the citizens of Boney Borough. Definitely a must read. Whenever people ask what graphic novels they should read, this is always at the top of my list.

My only complaint is nothing else Dash Shaw has written even remotely resembles this masterwork. His first graphic novel, Bottomless Bellybutton is good and stands on its own merits, but doesn't explore any similar themes.

[George Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fantastic experiment and a major contribution to the comic art form. It should be in any collection of remarkable new work. What I value and respect in this book is the astonishing use of colour (aha- you can see i am English!) and the overall palette, the design of the book itself especially the mirrored cover (part of the new maturity of graphic novels is that the books are becoming artforms in their own right, not just fat comic books), the idea of creating grid references for the locations and mixing maps with story images (surely other artists will pick up on this) the layering of multiple images in the drug sequences, the experiments with panels and pacing. I like to just pick it up every now and then and flick through it.

What I did not like so much was the flat and stereotyped characterisations. One aspect of this was Prof Panther's cartoon violence and self harming which added nothing to his character and seemed like immature writing. The plot was one note (druggy finds drug, gets high, gets into trouble) and I yearned for it to go further. Dash Shaw's talent is clear and he he has broken new ground with this book, so he deserves recognition as a pioneer, but others will go further.

(later note- having just read more books by Shaw, I would change that last sentence to say that DASH SHAW will go further- he is still young and has so much talent)

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are you a drug addict botanist with above-average writing ability? Get paid to travel the world trying to get high off of new botanical species and reporting on their effects. This is an experimental graphic novel, with character shape-shifting and interesting visual effects, as the author tries to impart the experience of a new drug, a leaf, that causes a person to feel the memories and bodily sensations of other people in their immediate physical proximity. This new kind of leaf has been found in Boney Borough, a boring suburb where high school students can't wait to leave for New York City, even though in the book's somewhat post-apocalyptic future, everywhere except Boney Borough is unsafe.

[Erik Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious and weird with inventive use of the medium. Set in the future about a botanist that researches plants by smoking them who travels to a town called Boney Borough. Some really great stuff.

[Michael Shea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awesome beginning, but then it kind of fell off a cliff.

[Yelyzaveta Distefano · Rating 5 out of 5]

literally the best comic/graphic novel i have ever read, highly recommend to anyone, seriously funny and dark, interestingly stylized.

[MechaComicReviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Body World by Dash Shaw is one of the weirdest and most experimental comics I have ever read. Shaw plays around with our perceptions on almost every page, and the various mixed media sequences and collages are more so inspired to challenge us than to tell a coherent story.

On the face of it, the book is about a drug addict professor named Paulie Panther who travels around the country (in a not-too-distant future America) to try new drugs that have been discovered to write about them, and he comes to the mostly quaint town of Boney Borough to investigate a totally out of this world drug that makes you have a psychic connection and become one with those around you. The story is all-too-common with the older Panther starting a relationship with the just graduated Pearl after being rebuked by Jewel, and Pearl breaks up with Billy to do so. However, this is really doing the comic a disservice because it’s clearly about the art.

The comic is bound at the top so you are meant to read the pages and panels lengthwise and downwards. It can be a little confusing and Shaw does this on purpose to unsettle you before the drug visual effects kick in. It starts as a simple 3x4 panel grid comic but then the art breaks out of the confines of panels and linework and just morphs into layers of strangeness. It looks like a mix of traditional media such as gouache and oil paint while using digital for some coloring and linework. I still don’t have a clear answer to whether its uniqueness makes it good or it’s just too weird to enjoy it. Either way, it definitely makes you think and challenges the conventions of a comic book that is getting increasingly harder to do.

[Cessar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's become a type of cliche to describe any work of art with trippy visuals as "the closest thing to being on drugs without being on drugs," but I've personally only felt it truly adequate twice now: the first time while watching Enter the Void (2009), and the second while reading BodyWorld by Dash Shaw. And I think the feeling is more than valid, as both works deal with drug usage and a way of depicting it that surpasses preconceived boundaries in each of their mediums.

This book stands as an authentic feat in the static world of comics, going to great lengths to put the reader in the multiple characters' minds —figuratively— as they themselves are forced into each other's minds —literally. As with most hard-drug trippings, the result is dizzying, often awkward, miraculously touching, always enlightening, and ultimately tragic in how the walls that keep us protected (and isolated) from those around us must always come back up in the end. However, these intricate ideas never come as a heavy weight to the reader thanks to Shaw's oddball humor delivered through the more than bizarre circumstances surrounding the residents of Boney Borough, a futuristic post-Second Civil War landscape teeming with both a sense of doom and the human stubbornness not to succumb to it.

Definitely recommend for anybody looking for something different!

[Chelsea Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I've read this twice... I did have some deja vu as I was reading it. But I guess I gave it 4 stars the first time around, and I didn't like it as much this second time. Would I feel this way about most books if I reread them?
Anyhow, this is a futuristic drug book about swapping brains with people in your proximity when you are high. I wish the futuristic part was explored more... it's supposed to be rural virginia in the future, which is supposed to contrast with a trash world out in the urban areas, but that contrast doesn't quite get drawn till some wordless art at the end. I liked that part! I also liked thinking about the idea that in 2060 a device that records a voicemail and transcribes it to a Word document will still be a cool thing!

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly love the way the book was made. Having you open it up like a pocket notebook really makes it fun to read and helps it pop off the shelf. I loved the colors and textures used throughout the book to help portray the character's drug trips. It really helps to give some life into the story.

The story itself is interesting and a bit odd. Aliens force a man to plant seeds of an alien plant all over the world, so that the aliens can eventually take control of the unsuspecting humans. The diolauge isn't very interesting, and the character's actions can seem a bit meaningless at times, but the book was still interesting enough for me to want to read it again.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it’s true what they say: “Everywhere you go, there’s stupid fucking people there.”

Dammit. It’s true in the future, too.

This was Weird. Definitely with a capital “W”. I enjoyed the story…it was different than anything I expected; different from just about any comic I’ve read. You have to stick with it, but IMO, it was worth it.

I have to admit, it’s probably not for everyone, but if you let the psychedelic door open for you, you’ll probably enjoy it.

[Brenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grabbed this book from my local library thinking it would draw a comparison to Charles Burns or Daniel Clowes but it lacked any depth or coherent storyline. This came off like an failed edgelord experiment. It has drugs, self loathing, sex, existential dread, and sci-fi elements. How is it those topics became so boring here?

Why two stars instead of one? I did like some of the blending of art styles used so if you just looked at it without trying to read or comprehend it, it's worth that.

[Hexagon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Similar to "Rusty Brown", the illustration and colouring is quite beautiful. It was one of the first things that attracted me to the book when I saw it at the library.

I was thoroughly upset that the professor died at the end!! I understand everyone had their vengeances against him, but that was too cruel. The hive mind worked too strong.

R.I.P. Prof.