Tedward is his name and, "Tedward," is the title of the hardcover Fantagraphics book collecting an assortment of his adventures, which I was able to acquire (some stuff was previously published in individual comics or such). Tedward has a lot of awful stuff happen to him, but he kind of has it coming. Tedward is a loser, but thankfully, he is entertaining to watch in his misadventures that occur due to how much of a dud of a human he is. Created by Josh Pettinger, we laugh at much of, "Tedward," because it is funny and because of how glad we are the awful things witnessed aren't happening to us.
Within the, "Tedward," book a variety of vignettes occur, some end up forming an over-arching story with consequences and some just portray how amazing a job Tedward does at achieving nothing but failure. He gets roped into a job that sounds more like an MLM by the minute and involves him using a pressure washer on attendees at sex parties. He drives away a first date with off-putting comments and extreme acts of love-bombing (this comic is guest-illustrated by the fantastic Simon Hanselmann, a friend of Josh Pettinger). Oh, and the one woman he may have a chance of a relationship with due to shared interests and her being patient with his awkwardness, ends up falling apart when he tells the police he thinks she altered a television that requires quarters to operate.
I especially enjoyed the story with a fellow Tedward meets who eagerly proposes they become best friends due to their shared interest in mopeds, but that whole ordeal ends violently when the man is more degranged than friendly (that incident is maybe a little less Tedward's fault, one could argue). Still, Tedward gets himself into bad situations and, through his own actions, makes them a lot worse. If Tedward were a real person, he'd be someone you look at with both disdain and pity. He's a pretty shitty guy, but his only skills are paper machie and saying the worst possible thing in a social situation so you almost feel guilty expending any energy disliking him--the guy sucks so why pile-on him?
Pettinger's art helps impart a great deal of the, "Vibe," we feel when reading about Tedward. He's both metaphorically a square and a literal blockhead with his awkward haircut. His fashion sense (or lack thereof) stands out amongst everything else. The world around Tedward pops with life--but he's a black hole of a human being. During a moment towards the end when Tedward has a near-death experience, the sudden shift of art into a fantastical and sci-fi look for a number of pages helps to only further emphasize how dull and dreary Tedward is when he's alive in our World--if you can call Tedward's existence living.
Pretty much everyone else around Tedward has something (good or bad) that makes them interesting. Tedward, however? His biggest claim to fame is he once invented faulty, "Sex trousers," that make it easer than with regular pants with a zipper to take your penis out. Then, without having to take off your pants, you can have intercourse and avoid what Tedward believes is the worst part--legs touching. As I said, he is a black hole of a human, but watching him negatively impact the lives of anyone he encounters is fascinating--I highly recommend buying/getting from the library/etc. a copy of, "Tedward." He might be awful, but the book about him is great!
5 out of 5 Stars.
