The Thousands

If you’ve been to NGV’s recent Mad Square exhibition and want to know more about featured artist George Grosz – or felt disappointed with the lack of Robert Crumb-style comic strips explaining what’s going on – then you’d do worse than getting The Many Faces Of George Grosz #1. An eccentric German artist who disagreed with the whole ‘Deutschland’s the best, Jews and blacks are rubbish’ thing, Grosz’s tendency for multiple identities is emphasised here as a proto-Dadaist form of Devil’s advocate.

For instance, his first appearance in the story sees him pretending to be a Dutch businessman hoping the war will go on longer and therefore make him more money – a satirical statement against wartime capitalism that backfires when the liberals around him assume he’s just a dickhead. But, by the time he’s claimed to also be a cowboy, a spy and the inventor of a perpetual motion machine, the whiff of bullshit becomes too hard to ignore.

This issue is essentially all exposition, giving the impression the proper adventure starts in the next installment. But, if you believe Grosz’s view that art could be a weapon, then this comic could be seen as a water pistol that somehow shoots out Wikipedia pages – fun, yet informative.