19 | January | 2019 | Through the Shattered Lens

Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

And so the first (arguably) “major” release of 2019 in the “alternative” comics world is upon us — never mind that Charles Forsman and Max de Radigues’ Hobo Mom is actually about five years old and is just now being released in an English-language version, publisher Fantagraphics Books is understandably, given the pedigree of its creators (Forsman’s notable critical and commercial successes including The End Of The Fucking World and I Am Not Okay With This, while de Radigues, who hails from Belgium, is probably best known on this side of the pond for Bastard), giving it the “For Your Consideration” full-court press, but hold on just a second : its physical dimensions alone clearly mark this as something of an “also-ran” project, seeing as it clocks in at a mere 62 pages, and a significant chunk of those are wordless.

How much storytelling is really going on…

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Britney Spears certainly did not invent the “I don’t need my cheating boyfriend to feel strong” genre of music but, over the past 20 years, she’s done a lot to popularize it. Stronger was the first great “I don’t need you” song from Britney and I’ll admit right now that I’ve got the song memorized. It’s a great one to sing along with. “I’m not your property?” Hell yeah! “I don’t need nobody.” Uhmmm, okay, the grammar could use some work but still …. you go, girl!

(Technically, that’s a double negative so, when Britney was singing “I don’t need nobody,” she was actually saying that she does need someone. I used to frequently point that out, mostly because I was annoying like that. “I don’t need anybody” may be the correct way to phrase the sentiment but nobody sounds better than anybody when it’s sung aloud. Anyway, I’m just kind of rambling right now….)

As for the video, I guess the first question we should ask ourselves is, “Is Britney in the future?” Now, seen today, the video might not seem extremely futuristic but, way back in 2000, this was like some serious Matrix shit going on. Even in the future, though, Britney still has trouble finding a good man. Upon finding her boyfriend cheating on her, Britney announces, “Whatever,” and then proceeds to drive a car and dance in a chair. Apparently, Britney can use her magic chair to make people trip and fall. Past, present, or future, you don’t want to get on Britney’s bad side. Whenever I’m watch this video, I’m amazed by both how good a dancer Britney is and also how bad everyone else in the video is. Watching everyone else dance in the spinning future night club, I was reminded of the infamous “Hanging Out With My Family” dance scene from Birdemic.

This video was directed by Joseph Kahn, who began his career in the 90s and who has directed videos for basically everyone. He’s worked with both Britney Spears and Taylor Swift, which means that we’re pretty much living in Joseph Kahn’s world now, whether we realize it or not.

Enjoy!