{"id":2354,"date":"2013-03-31T16:59:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T16:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/?page_id=2354"},"modified":"2023-02-23T16:29:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T16:29:57","slug":"robert-sergel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/secretacres.com\/?page_id=2354","title":{"rendered":"Robert Sergel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nBIO<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert Sergel<\/span> was born in Boston, MA in 1982. He has a degree in Photo & Imaging from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In the mid-2000’s he was a member of the web comic collective TRANSPLANT. He now draws the Ignatz-nominated comic series ESCHEW<\/em>, a portion of which was featured in the 2011 Best American Comics anthology<\/em>. He currently lives in Cambridge, MA.<\/p>\n

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\nIN PRAISE OF ROBERT SERGEL<\/span><\/p>\n

Sergel<\/span> (Space<\/em>) returns to the theme of confused adolescence in this entertaining graphic novella, presented in precise, high-contrast black-and-white drawings. The trouble begins with middle schooler Cole reading aloud to his classroom from his report on the Bald Knobbers, gangs of masked men who dispensed vigilante justice in 1880s Missouri. An impressionable sort, Cole reveals his admiration: \u201cThey were kind of like comic book heroes.\u201d His report continues as background narration for Cole\u2019s outside-the-classroom activity: donning a homemade Bald Knobber mask to mete out his own brand of petty vengeance against perceived enemies, which include his divorcing parents, a school bully, and his mother\u2019s new boyfriend. (Cole empties used cat litter into the boyfriend\u2019s cereal box.) Not unexpectedly, Cole\u2019s acting out results in much conflict, and justice is not served. Though the true extent of his transgressions is left ambiguous, the story ends with the suggestion that any lessons Cole may have learned are not necessarily taken deeply to heart: \u201cEveryone tried to be more civil… because they had to be.\u201d Sergel\u2019s visuals skillfully juxtapose the heated emotions of the story with the posed, deadpan quality of his characters, loading this snappy, pocket-sized parable with equal amounts of drollery and poignancy\u2014and just a touch of menace.<\/p>\n

– Publishers Weekly<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s more packed in this deceptively small book than seems readily apparent. Bald Knobber isn\u2019t a particularly violent book, in that the only real fighting is between grade school kids, but it\u2019s set in the shadow of violence. There\u2019s something intrinsically absurd about gangs of masked men going to war against one another, especially so when we\u2019re discussing actual human beings from our own country\u2019s actual history. The uncomfortable truth with which Bald Knobber leaves the reader is the assertion that much of this country\u2019s history is the history of violence smoothed over not by justice but by time. (Hint: Google the real Bald Knobbers after you read the book and see if any of the names jump out at you.) \u2026The sense of rigid claustrophobia emanating from shabby circumstances saturated with ambient violence seems very much of the moment, and the current moment perhaps closer to the circumstances of the original Bald Knobbers than we\u2019d care to comment.<\/p>\n

– The Comics Journal<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s surprising is that Sergel is able to put an unexpected spin at the end of the tale of dysfunction. One of the aspects missing from Cole\u2019s investigation into and retelling of a historical event is the understanding that history has a perspective and that often reflects the agenda of the person or group doing the retelling. In many cases, this has caused history to be injected with the dichotomy of good versus evil, of parsing out moral aspects to the different sides and therefore creating the political divisions that sustain American anger. But Sergel\u2019s ultimate solution is to turn away from that binary and look beyond the surface on all sides. Which doesn\u2019t mean he lessens the power of Cole\u2019s hurt, but instead widens the possibilities in the emotional give and take that\u2019s portrayed. I\u2019m sure the Bald Knobbers were actually pretty complicated too.<\/p>\n

– Comics Beat<\/span><\/p>\n

MORE PRAISE FOR ROBERT SERGEL<\/span><\/a>\n