One Model Nation

Written by C. Allbritton Taylor
Art by Jim Rugg and Cary Porter

This is a real oddball of a graphic novel.  It's written by a guy who's in the Dandy Warhols, and it's about a German industrial band who were famous in 1977.

One Model Nation were right in the thick of things in late-70s Berlin.  They were performing in illegal venues, and their concerts frequently became the scene for shoot-outs between the Red Army Faction and the police.  The band themselves were apolitical for the most part, but they seemed incapable of separating themselves from the time and their surroundings.

The book chronicles their time, as they have their studio tossed by the police, and as they argue with each other.  They end up getting involved with the Baader-Meinhof Gang (one of the guys is perhaps dating Meinhof I think), and lots of stuff happens.  The problem is that it's none to clear for someone who hasn't spent years studying post-war Germany.  I think that a lot more exposition is needed, as the writing doesn't always make it clear as to what the context is to these different scenes.  I would have been happy with at least a foreword to explain some of the politics.

Rugg's art is the best thing about this comic, which is not really a surprise.  While lacking the wild excesses of Street Angel and Afrodisiac, Rugg does a great job of portraying the band members as individuals (which is not easy when they all have the same hair cut and dress the same), as well as showing the austerity of Berlin after the war.  This is an entertaining comic, although it never quite recovers from the flaws in its writing.