…..with a little throwback to Comic Book Holocaust in there (panel 8), gotta love that.  

rootfish:

Johnny Ryan’s take on the Jersey Shore.

1) Spencer Grasso

2) Prison Pit is a graphic novel based around the fighting and survival of the main character Cannibal Fuck Face. The adventure of Cannibal Fuck Face begins when he is held captive by robot-guards inside of a spaceship. After fighting his way out of captivity and landing himself on a vast planet, Cannibal Fuck Face runs into a steroid crazed Nazi Monster. This roid rage maniac threatens to take Cannibal Fuck Face’s life unless he retrieves a slorge (the creature that secretes the steroids). The rest of the graphic novel depicts Cannibal Fuck Face’s journey of kicking ass and taking names while in search of the slorge.

3) The artwork in Prison Pit uses very high contrast black and white to create each gruesome image. The images are abstract because they are exaggerated from what people actually look like, but still resemble humans. The crude/sketchy lines used to create the content add to the overall gritty genre of this graphic novel.

4) I think the authors intention while creating Prison Pit was to entertain his audience as well as to force the reader to fill in the blanks that he intentionally left. Johnny Ryan throws the reader into the middle of the plot with literally no background information. By doing this he allows a more personal reading experience of filling in missing information which varies from reader to reader.

5) The biggest strength of Prison Pit is the brutality and rawness that transfers between gutters. Prison Pit almost makes you uncomfortable while viewing the imagery, yet it makes you want to see how much farther the envelope gets pushed, keeping you very intrigued.

6) The weakness in Prison Pit comes from the lack of background information about the plot. The author throws the reader in what seems to be the middle of a storyline, potentially forcing the reader start the novel confused. This problem could simply be solved by providing some simple character and plot information prior to the climax of the story.

7) I would recommend Prison Pit to anyone who gets a kick out of violent and explicit content. The age range I would consider being interested in this graphic novel would be around 15 to 25. I am into gruesome video games and was a big wrestling fan when I was younger which could have contributed to the enjoyment I got out of this book. I would recommend this book to my cousin because he and I share similar interests.

8) Prison Pit is a series of graphic novels. Currently there are Prison Pit Book 1,2, and 3. All of which include Cannibal Fuck Face and grotesque violent content.

9) 5/5

CASSIE MCCARTHY

QUESTION 2: 

Yet another epic addition to Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit series, Prison Pit: Book 3 does little different from Book 1 and 2 but is still just as enjoyable and well worth the wait. It is hard to say what the Prison Pit graphic novels are actually about, all I know is they are extremely grotesque, unforgiving, and absolutely fantastic. In these three books we are introduced to intense monsters, on what we assume to be an alien world, with names such as Cannibal Fuck Face, Plaque, Apocalypse Tongue, and Mass Murder. All of these characters are grotesque humanoids with different strengths and characteristics, for example Apocalypse tongue has an appendage that comes out of his face and can swallow other monsters whole. I can only imagine the best way to describe them is He-Man characters on steroids with more disgusting mutations.  

There are a limited number of characters in book three, some repeats from 1 and 2, and a few new faces. The book opens with a nameless, new monster who we quickly learn is looking for Cannibal Fuck Face for unknown reasons. This character is dropped to the surface of the alien planet, which I assume is called Prison Pit. Soon after the creature runs into a gang of unfriendly humanoids who want to rip his skeleton out and drink his blood. What pursues is a violent blood bath between the new comer and monster gang. Creatures are split in half, appendages are torn off, and buckets of blood are spilled, I don’t want to ruin the outcome of this battle for any perspective reader so I won’t tell you who wins. 

Later on in the book we leave the surface of this planet and go underground where we find some sort of lair. Inside is Cannibal Fuck Face, our hero and main character of sorts who is trying to escape the underground structure. He is stopped by some sort of Alien priest, they engage in battle and again I wouldn’t want to ruin the outcome! But the story leaves off with the promise of another story, to be released soon I hope!!!

QUESTION 3:

The style that Prison Pit Book 3 is drawn in perfectly accentuates the story. The drawings remind me of something my guy friends might have drawn in third grade, muscle men, with imaginative and perhaps impossible designs. They are crude, scratchy pen drawings with excellent and descriptive surface textures that draw you in and even make the reader feel a bit ill. But with all of the chaos, Johnny Ryan manages to bring balance and readability to every panel, for example there are clear and organized panels on every page, he does not go over board with texture and uses it only when necessary, and there is a great balance between black and white. 

QUESTION 4:

A first glance one might think that Ryan created this book simply for shock value or to entertain. However this graphic novel challenges ideas about what a story can be. Prison Pit doesn’t have a clear followable story, with beginning, middle and end. In many ways this graphic novel is not reader friendly. Much like the characters we are thrown into this world of murdering monsters with no background knowledge and no idea of what is going on. Characters are thrown at us left and right, and Ryan never pauses to introduce them, on the contrary a great percentage of the text is gruesome sound effects, and petty  insults. It’s a bit like a really violent children’s cartoon where the characters bash each other’s heads in for our amusement. Reading this graphic novel feels rebellious and lends itself well to the Do It Yourself (D.I.Y.), Zine (self published comics), and punk culture. 

QUESTION 5:

Perhaps it’s biggest strength is how unforgiving and uncensored Prison Pit is, and that is important, as we should always be pushing our boundaries and questioning what is comfortable.

QUESTION 6:

Perhaps the only thing I would personally like to see more of in Prison Pit is world building, there is a lot of focus on the characters and the backgrounds often go unnoticed. It seems like Ryan could really flesh out some of the grotesque characteristics  of the world that these characters live on. In Book 1, there is this pussing tree that an alien is licking at, and that image left an impression on me, even inspired a print of mine. Since then the backgrounds have been just that… backgrounds. In making comics McCloud mentioned that you should think of the space characters exist in as environments, that are just as important as the characters themselves. A second idea is that Johnny Ryan include some kind of stickers, cut-outs or other interactive material in the back of his comics. One of my favorite graphic novelists Junko Mizuno includes stickers and postcards in the back of her books, and I  thought it was really fun to have some sort of image from the comic you can take with you. 

QUESTION: 7

Typically I recommend the Prison Pit books to people I think would appreciate the crude aesthetic, and who would not take offense to the violent nature of the book. This is usually people my age, mid to late twenties, college and graduate students who have some background in art or appreciate punk aesthetic. When I first read Prison Pit: Book 1, sure I was a bit shocked by how gruesome the story was but I also found it hilarious and exciting. I think it takes an open minded person, perhaps with a strong stomach?  To enjoy this graphic novel. 

QUESTION 8: 

If you would like to check out this series definitely start with Prison Pit Book 1, each book has something great to offer. If you become a fan of Johnny Ryan also check out Comic Book Holocaust 1 and 2, which are hilarious but may require reading graphic novels by other artists.

Stars: 5/5!