Tantrum

Cartoonist, screenwriter and playwright Jules Feiffer's long out-of-print classic, "Tantrum", returns in this Fantagraphic edition, featuring new covers by Feiffer and an introduction by acclaimed Sandman creator Neil Gaiman.

The story of suburban disenchantment, "Tantrum" is the story of respectable and responsible businessman, Leo Quog, who, in the throes of a mid-life crisis, willfully regresses to the age of two. Having been two before, Leo demands his rights as a toddler: cuddling, cooing, tummy rubbing, and, most importantly, piggyback rides. In Leo's case, youth is definitely not wasted on the young. Feiffer has the uncanny ability to capture the frustrations of everyday life, while showing the lengths we'll go to escape from it.

It may seem crazy to say that there is nothing silly about a graphic novel whose central plot centers on a 42-year-old man who wills himself into the form of a 2-year-old boy. But this conceit, coupled with Jules Feiffer's trademark eye for social criticism, enables Tantrum to tackle heavy-duty adult themes: the weight of responsibility and the price of freedom. If you have ever experienced melancholy about where your life has gone, you should read Tantrum; it is written with a wisdom that only comes with age. The frantic quality of Feiffer's super-quick sketchy lines adds to the intensity and impatience of the work. The novel's best moment involves a Daliesque scene in which a woman is trying to diet herself into nothing but her pure essence. In the hands of a lesser writer, the vignette could come off as being in incredibly bad taste or pointlessly out-of-place, but Feiffer artfully, and with poignant skill, ties this woman's struggle to the 2-year-old's adventure.