A fascinatingly warts'n'all portrait of controversial and confrontational Do-It-Yourself indie underground comic publisher Todd Loren, who achieved considerable notoriety with his unauthorized series of comics on real-life rock stars that led to lawsuits (including winning a landmark First Amendment case brought by the New Kids on the Block that enabled Todd to keep on doing what he was doing), becoming a pariah in the comic community (rival publisher Gary Groth paints a damning picture of Loren as a crass and shameless schlockmeister opportunist who exploited talented novice artists and took cruel advantage of their naiveté), earning as many detractors as defenders (Alice Cooper, Mojo Nixon, and even Gene Simmons of KISS endorsed Loren's comics), and meeting a grim untimely demise by being stabbed to death in his condo at age 32 on June 18, 1992. Director Ilko Davidov allows such interview subjects as writer Spike Steffenhagen, writer/editor Jay Sanford, groupie artist Cynthia Plaster Caster, writer Steve Crompton, artist Robert Williams, and Todd's father Herb Shapiro to talk openly and honestly about their thoughts and feelings concerning Loren, his adversarial sense of humor (Loren published a horror comic that savagely mocked Tipper Gore and her vehement pro-censorship stance), his extremely private and paranoid personality (many of his closest friends were unaware that he was gay until after he was killed), the fact that Loren paid them peanuts, and the police's lackadaisical investigation of his brutal murder. Filled with amazing artwork, further galvanized by a great rocking soundtrack (Mojo sings the terrific ending credits song "You Can't Kill Me"), and unfolding at a constant snappy pace, this compelling depiction of a complex and contradictory person makes for always engrossing and often exciting viewing.
Review of The Story of Rock 'n' Roll Comics
