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Dec 18, 2015 Web Exclusive By Zach Hollwedel

Cartoonist Robert Triptow’s Class Photo is an inventive, humorous, and decidedly raunchy chronicle of the fabricated lives of five-dozen actual 1937 graduates of P.S. 49 in New York City. While in college, Triptow stumbled across a forgotten class photo. Though he has been unable to find out who any of the children or school administrators posing in the picture really are, he’s spent decades concocting zany biographies for each of them.

Over the course of the self-declared bathroom reader’s 64 black and white pages, Triptow documents each of their histories in a couple panels to a page at most. From playboy Chard Whitlow to prostitute-turned-preacher Trixie Trotlikk, Triptow’s eccentric class members almost unanimously lead colorful, sex-driven, and scandalous lives. Others, such as Vince Vermicelli, were tough guys who routinely doled out knuckle sandwiches. Kay Kunkel stands out as one of the few who led a morally upstanding life, so much so, that she was raptured into Heaven before dying. Triptow’s imagination and penchant for R-rated humor shine in this short but satisfying original graphic novel. (www.fantagraphics.com/classphoto)

Author rating: 7/10