MixedCleveland Review of BooksArtist Derf Backderf, an Ohio native, is himself a most remarkable comics sensation ... Kent State is meticulously researched, and unlike Pekar, the scriptwriter, Backderf is in total artistic control of his material. It bears the artist’s characteristic punk style ... It would have been better, in some ways, if Backderf had captured the specialness of the Kent State scene. But this is his narrative, and it more or less accurately captures the existing scholarship ... Backderf might also have worked harder to capture the conservative and avowedly racist context or vibe in parts of Ohio, linked intimately to Kentucky and the South since before the Civil War ... The artist keenly observes that military intelligence experts working at the Pentagon had spies on Kent’s campus ... It would be unfair to charge Backderf with any lack of accuracy or lack of sympathy for those who suffered most. What this observer of antiwar activities on three other campuses...finds limiting is the absence of a certain softness or Flower Power optimism ... This is the vibe unseen in Kent State, and perhaps Barkderf cannot find it there in 1970. I would like to think otherwise.
Ben Katchor
PositiveThe Cleveland Review of Books... longtime Katchor devotees will be startled at the balance of text-and-art, so much in favor of his prose that this book might be described as \'self-illustrated.\' His art is less dense, reflective, and ironic than in earlier works, but that is not much to say in a Katchor creation because the complexity never leaves our eye. Indeed, this author is arguably the most thoughtful or depth-seeking in the whole field of comic art, at least in the English language ... His art, then, is most unusual but suited to the text of the dairy restaurant and its menu ... Stories of individual owners, who represent family these businesses’ struggles to survive, are most touching ... For readers who glimpsed it themselves, Katchor’s reflections are a cause to remember the talkative waiters, lingering ambiance, and almost indigestibly thick sandwich meat—always to be washed down with celery-tonic soda—of Yiddishkayt ... Overall, The Dairy Restaurant is best served small and repeated servings.
