Superficially resembling 1960s teenage humor comics, Tim Hensleys graphic novel Wally Gropius is actually an acute satire of power, celebrityhood, and modern culture that tells the story of the titular character, who bears a closer resemblance to a teenaged Richie Rich or a classmate of Archie Andrews at Riverdale High than he does the famous Bauhaus architect whose name he shares.

Wally is the human Dow Jones, the heir to a vast petrochemical conglomerate. When the elder Thaddeus Gropius confronts Wally with the boilerplate plot ultimatum that he must marry the saddest girl in the world or be disinherited, a yarn unravels that is part screwball comedy and part unhinged parable on the lucrativeness of changing your identity.

Hensleys dialogue is witty, lyrical, sampled, dada, and elliptical all in the service of a very bizarre mystery. Theres sex, violence, rock and roll, intrigue, and betrayal all brought home in Hensleys truly inimitable style. Created during an era when another well-off W was stuffing the coffers of the morbidly solvent, Wally Gropius transforms futile daydreams and nightmares into the absurdity of capital.

Originally serialized in Fantagraphics' house anthology Mome, the story is presented here in a larger format with additional, previously unseen material.

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  9/26/2022