“I want you to keep in mind that I’d just as soon not be dismissed as some drug-addled clown.” While this question of image and public perception isn’t one that troubles the majority of us, it was certainly an issue that plagued Hunter S. Thompson. By turns described as the great American iconoclast, the great American outlaw, the great American hedonist and, depressingly far less regularly, the great American writer, Thompson carried for years a justified fear that he had succeeded best in becoming a caricature of himself. It’s true that the legend very nearly eclipsed the man. Despite his fairly prolific literary and journalistic output, Thompson is still, even after his relatively quiet final years and untimely death, best known for his excesses rather than for his creativity and innovation. With Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith aim to redress this fact by offering an account of Thompson’s life that highlights those achievements and events of which the man himself was most proud.

After a brief introduction, Gonzo begins properly with the incident of the mailbox that will be familiar to readers of Thompson’s Kingdom of Fear. This act of childhood rebellion and the defiance of authority that followed it were considered by Thompson to be the defining moments of his life, the moments in which the chaotic and rebellious pattern of his adulthood was begun. What follows is a chronological whistle-stop tour through Thompson’s life that takes in all of his newsworthy moments, including the launching of his career as a journalist, his time in Puerto Rico, the fateful visit to the Kentucky Derby, his time riding with the Hell’s Angels and hanging out with the Beats, his war of words against Nixon, his political campaign to be elected Mayor of Aspen, and his ultimate arrival at literary success and celebrity status.

Gonzo is generally well-written by Will Bingley although there are many points in the book where greater use of dialogue and text would have been appreciated. It is actually a very quick novel to read since it relies very heavy [more so than the majority of recent real-world graphic novels] on the illustrations rather than on the written word. The majority of the panels are accompanied by only a few words or a sentence. This often works well as the art is so good in Gonzo but the book would have been even better if Bingley had added more text to explain Thompson’s motivations and actions during many of the key episodes of his life. Gonzo aims to be an accurate account of the real Hunter S. Thompson rather than a rehash of the myth and so it is a real risk to just let big events play out without discussing what was really inspiring Thompson at the time.

Bingley has produced a good chronological account of Thompson’s life that helps to clarify all of his toing and froing and to illustrate how he developed as both a writer and as a person. It is a generally thorough account although there are a couple of noticeable omissions. First, the 80s and 90s are only given a page each and, although Thompson was certainly not producing his greatest work during his period, this is woefully inadequate. It would have been better to have a longer book that detailed Thompson’s despair during those two decades about being trapped in his own image, his recycling of old material and also his politics and the highpoints that did occur [for example, the filming of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas]. By concentrating on the most productive and ‘entertaining’ period of Thompson’s life, Bingley is once again risking writing a biography of Thompson the myth rather than Thompson the man. Secondly, there are a few important characters from Thompson’s personal life that are either underrepresented in the book or not featured at all, most notably Thompson’s second wife Anita and his son Juan.

Despite, or perhaps because of, Thompson’s colourful life, Anthony Hope-Smith has chosen to illustrate Gonzo entirely in black and white, and shades of grey. Hope-Smith has produced an excellent ‘version’ of Thompson that is noticeably different from the Doonesbury persona and the illustrations of Ralph Steadman. His Thompson is vital and explosive and even on the quieter panels seems to capture the frantic way in which Thompson lived his life. His supporting characters are realistic in the main and their appearance is in-keeping with the text, although when famous faces [for example Bob Dylan] appear there is a tendency for them to be in their clichéd [or perhaps iconic?] outfits and poses which are not always appropriate to their position in Thompson’s life story.

The Foreword by Alan Rinzler is an interesting addition to the book. Rinzler was Thompson’s editor for all of his earlier [and best] books and is at pains to point out that he and Thompson had a professional relationship rather than their being firm friends. However, Rinzler knew Thompson well, which is not to say that he particularly liked him as a person, and so can write authoritatively about his work. The legacy left by Thompson is a puzzle to Rinzler too: “Why isn’t Hunter S. Thompson taken more seriously? As his editor and literary goad for 35 years over four of his best books, I’m sorry to see that the public spectacle of Hunter as the King of Gonzo – a brain-addled, angry, deeply depressed, self-destructive lout – has prevailed in the popular consciousness while the real story of this ground-breaking prose artist and investigative journalist has all but disappeared.” This really is a puzzle since, when he was on form, Thompson really was exceptionally good at what he did. Rinzler has justifiably harsh things to say about the originally and worth of Thompson’s later works and it is clear that, despite their personality clashes, he had great respect for Thompson’s literary talent and so feels disappointed and almost let down by what Thompson allowed himself to become. The insight that Rinzler is able to provide into the life and character of Thompson is informative in itself and also serves to illuminatie Thompson’s motivations and self-view.

Gonzo is a great, innovative biography of a great, innovative man. Hunter S. Thompson lived a truly extraordinary life and despite the complications that surround his image – whether he is seen as author, liar, freak, bum, addict, psychopath or visionary – he was one of the most significant figures of 20^th century American letters and so, in his books and articles, has left an immense and important legacy. Always remember: “No sympathy for the Devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

Bookmark to