Lady Gaga Bio Comic: Low On Gaga, Big On Bill

Lady Gaga cover.jpg
Bluewater Comics has made a name for itself in non-comics circles thanks to its line of biographical books featuring such luminaries as Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Nancy Pelosi and Stephenie Meyer. 

Last week, the publisher released the Fame: Lady Gaga bio comic, and with it, Bluewater did the impossible: It created a biography that barely features its subject.

In a nutshell: It's terrible. A third of it is about  Gaga; the rest is about the protagonist dreaming about fucking Lady Gaga and/or being Lady Gaga.




​In fact, Gaga is like Godot in this book; she's talked about, described and dreamed of, but never appears in the flesh (except on the final page). Instead, we learn about the pop star through the eyes of Bill, a mid-30s music schlub who is just discovering the glory that is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. The book might be billed as a bio, but read deeper, and you'll find it's truly a wildly unhinged cautionary tale that reads like a cross between Grant Morrison's Invisibles and the Gaga-themed episode of Glee.

What little we learn about the intimate thoughts of Lady Gaga is more than made up for by the comic's audacious attempt to prove how sinister the singer's lust of spectacle can be on her audience. The book paints a horrific picture of what Gaga exposure can do to a man older than 30 who is fixated on the glam rock of Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie and Queen and disillusioned by the modern music scene. Just look at what happens to Bill after he catches his first glimpse of Gaga on TV and then buys The Fame. (That's according to the text in this well-researched tome; the art shows Bill actually buying The Fame Monster.)

He starts having gender-bending dream conversations
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Kristoffer Smith/Bluewater Comics
Bill relates to Lady Gaga so much that he doesn't just want to follow her, he wants to become her. Anyone else flashback to Buffalo Bill's skin suit from Silence of the Lambs?  

He obsesses to the point of becoming delusional
Lady Gaga delusion.jpg
Bill is so infatuated with Lady Gaga that the site of his nagging-yet-loving wife transforms into the visage of Gaga during lunch. At least that's my reading of the scene. Of course, he might simply be eating some of McDonald's brand new Chicken McKetamine Sandwich.

He bursts out into song inappropriately
Lady Gaga outburst.jpg
I'd chill out, cube neighbor. It could be a lot worse. He could be singing Ke$ha.

He loses his personal identity
Lady Gaga performance.jpg
Bill finally embraces his inner-Gaga by dressing up as her and staging an impromptu public concert with the Gaga in his head. He's finally found the release he's needed for his creativity spirit ... which means co-opting the music, look and style of a pop star and discarding schmucky Bill. 

It's this final mindfuck that shows the writer never planned to write a tell-all. His intentions were deeper, revealing Gaga to be an infectious human meme that preys on the world's self-proclaimed outcasts as a way to add to her own media empire. She's like an alien Queen, spawning face huggers that impregnate "freaks" around the world in order to incubate her army of "fans" before they gut-bust out of their hapless hosts. Just read the comic's last page if you don't believe me.

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Kristoffer Smith/Bluewater Comics
 
Beware, world. If this book is to be believed, Lady Gaga is coming for us all, one fat-assed data entry dork at a time.

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