The Boulevard of Broken Dreams

by Kim Deitch

The newest addition to Pantheon's growing list of graphic a visually beautiful, narratively intricate, and powerful book by one of the most original, and–until now–least recognized comic artists at work today.

The place is New York City in 1933. The the Fontaine Talking Fables animation studio. Teddy Mishkin–definitely alcoholic, possibly insane–is hard at work on the latest cartoon short for Waldo the Cat, the "star" of Fontaine's stable of animated characters. But little does anyone (except Teddy) realize that Waldo is real–and that he is Teddy's insidiously helpful assistant.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Comix, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Historical Fiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2002

About the author

Kim Deitch has a reserved place at the first table of underground cartoonists. The son of UPA and Terrytoons animator Gene Deitch, Kim was born in 1944 and grew up around the animation business. He began doing comic strips for the East Village Other in 1967, introducing two of his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. In 1969 he succeeded Vaughn Bodé as editor of Gothic Blimp Works, the Other’s underground comics tabloid. During this period he married fellow cartoonist Trina Robbins and had a daughter, Casey. “The Mishkin Saga” was named one of the Top 30 best English-language comics of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal, and the first issue of The Stuff of Dreams received the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 2003. Deitch's recent acclaimed graphic novels include The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Shadowland, Alias the Cat and Deitch's Pictorama, done in collaboration with his brothers Simon and Seth. Deitch remains a true cartoonists’ cartoonist, adored by his peers as much as anyone in the history of the medium.

Reviews

[Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchased this at a local used bookshop full of wondrous stuff. I paid $25 and thought the guy was pulling a fast one on me. When I got home, much to my surprise I discovered that it was signed by Kim Deitch and Kim had also provided a little caricature of himself on the title page. I was beside myself. I wanted to run back down to the bookshop and kiss the owner.

Like everything Deitch this is another masterpiece. It’s a long involved tale of an early pioneer of American animation… toons to you. His inspiration originates from some kind of mental issues where he hallucinates a walking, talking, at times menacing character called Waldo the Cat. Those who’ve read Dietch’s Alias, The Cat will be well acquainted with Waldo (The Cat).

The story is just a marvelous account of how each succeeding Golden Age animator rips off the ideas of their predecessors leading up finally to a villainous animator clearly based on Walt Disney.

Kim & his brother Simon are gifted illustrators and the psychedelic graphics blow the mind. Fleischer Brothers Studios’ and Paul Terry’s Terrytoons’ anthropomorphic type characters run rampant throughout the narrative and anyone old enough to have watched the classic black & white cartoons on early TV will get a special kick out of this.

The ending is so sweet & endearing- and funny! -don’t forget the funny!- I’m certain I’ll be rereading this lengthy graphic novel again.

Recommended to the aged & Firesign Theater freaks!

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set primarily in the early 20th century, this is the story of a burgeoning cartoon studio that becomes famous producing animated shorts featuring Waldo the Cat. Except he's real but can only be seen by the head animator! The story follows disturbing events that led to the downfall of the studio and the wreckage remaining years later.

Anyone who has read Kim Deitch before will recognise many of the same themes prevalent in this book as explored in previous books: the early days of cinema/animation, early 20th century curios, unreliable narrators usually drunk/on drugs, and the hinting that Waldo is a demon in cat form. This is all well and good but after reading most of Deitch's books ("Shadowland", "Alias the Cat!", "The Search for Smilin' Ed", "A Shroud for Waldo") it's getting a bit repetitive and boring.

Don't get me wrong, I still like his work, I mean his artwork is always brilliant and inventive, his layouts imaginative and drawing style instantly recognisable - but coupled with a mediocre story where there's no real main character and the theme seems to be anti-corporate art, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" isn't a very involving read and rambles at times. The characters have an on-again-off-again romance but compared to, say, the inventiveness of "Smilin' Ed" or "Shadowland", "Boulevard" is a drab and uninteresting book set in drawing studios or run down apartments. Waldo pops in now and then but doesn't play a big part in the story.

Deitch is a wonderful comic book artist and writer and I had hoped "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" would be a masterwork but it's a disappointing and fairly minor piece. I recommend others to seek out "The Search for Smilin' Ed" or "Shadowland" for better examples of Kim Deitch's brilliance.

[Julesreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deitch is trippy, but holistically so. His books make for simple reads, but don’t overlook how transfixing they are. Weird dude. Good dude!

[Ben Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this book provide a fascinating insight into the first steps of the mainstream cartoon industry, it provides an incredibly convincing and realistic cultural backdrop, due to the fact that the author Kim Deitch's father did work in that era. One can really perceive the emotion told through these panels due to the convincing setting, like when the player of a horn looks at his cartoon adaptation as it's playing the horn onscreen. The initial fascination with cartoons in the 1920's is an incredibly interesting reaction to read about, and the way cartoons were creatively utilized back then, such as blending them with traditional vaudeville acts, will keep you turning the page. There is an abundance of cultural references, whether it be old Bing Crosby songs or the now defunct automats of NYC. But references isn't the only redeeming quality of this book. The story is perplexing and dramatic, intertwining several different points of view all while chronicling the relationship of the imaginary cat Waldo and his destructive motives and influence to whoever can see him. The art is good, while not being outstanding it fits the style and theme of 1920's cartoons well. Overall, this book succeeds in its medium by exhibiting incredible emotion as well as a profound sense of realism. It's almost a wonder why there hasn't been any film adaptation of this yet.

[Robert B. Miller]

Read by Marcie, Spring 2007:
"There is some explicit language and nudity, that would be more appropriate for older adolescents. I chose the book because the title sounded interesting. This is a story about people in the cartoon industry. The star is a man named Ted Mishkin, who is a cartoonist. He has a brother Al Mishkin. The brothers were separated for a while as children, and Ted put into an orphanage. To compensate for his loneliness, he develops an imaginary friend, Waldo the cat. Ted draws his friend Waldo, and his career is born . His brother Al works in the industry also. Al is a womanizer and disloyal to everyone. Ted finds him in bed with Lillian, the girl he has loved from childhood, and has a nervous breakdown and lands in a mental institution. In the end, people have ups and downs in the industry and most of the older people die off. Al's son now sees the mischievous cat, Waldo, that his uncle used to see. He is now in the cartoon business. Ted and Lillian finally marry in their old age."

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, what a trip. A freaky, freaky terrifying trip.

I love anything doing with turn-of-the-century animation, and this book delivers on the silent terror of black and white films.

Ugh. SO, SO GOOD.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Deitch frames this utterly peculiar tale as a piece of his own history, telling of a meeting with Nathan Mishkin, a animator who'd worked with Deitch's father (Deitch's father, btw, really was one of the big guys in animation in the middle part of the century). Nathan Mishkin was the son of Al Mishkin, and nephew of Ted Mishkin. From there, he flashes back (and forth - jumping along the timeline is a hallmark of Deitch's comics) to young Ted and Al as young animators learning the business, meeting the fetching Lillian (Ted's dream girl, Al's weekend fling) and trying to stay ahead of the commercial curve. Waldo the Cat Demon torments Ted, who boozes, and Al makes commercial decisions at the expense of artistic integrity...

This book doesn't have the same love of old movie serials, vaudeville routines and pop culture trash that Deitch's books typically have. It's a more character-driven piece, with the animation industry and Waldo being a backdrop to the piece. It's filled with great twists, surprising character connections, and some strong characterization. And it is relentlessly fun.

Kim Deitch continues to climb toward the top of my favorite cartoonists list.

[Ian Coutts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book, I realized that have been aware of Deitch's work for years, going right back to an adolescence spent (or misspent) reading the classic underground comics. But I never put a name to the comics I read. Generally, I was never a fan of his style, although I found it charming here. For me the book's highlights were the focus on the early history of animation (Deitch's father, Gene, was an animator, so he has some insight into that world) and the comic's intricate structure. We loop back and forth in time, revisit events from different perspectives -- and I don't know what all. Waldo the cat (that's him on the cover) appears to be a demon, not just a cartoon character, there's a magic incense burner that generates hallucinations, a mammoth that goes to college and on it goes. Good fun and very good work.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Tip of the Hat to the Early Day of Animation

The author in various ways retells stories from the early days of animation using the jaundiced lens of his signature creation, Waldo the Cat. Anyone who knows the author's work should be familiar with this evil character - a singular demonic figure - based on the plethora of black cats which roamed the screens of black and white cartoons in the 1920s and 30s.

Walt Disney is openly displayed here, but lesser known pioneers like Winsor McCay and Max Fleischer are given pseudonyms. The story is weird, no two ways about it, half spiritualism and half human frailty, but for those who can read between the lines it is a brutal examination of life, love, mental illness, and art. The entire package is wrapped up in a busy artistic style reminiscent of those old cartoons. It is beautiful and intense to look upon.

[Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this book was very visually interesting I don't think it was for me. This tells a story of a medium being cheapened over time and the people who suffered through this commercialization. I think I can mostly say that I was just overwhelmed most of the time while reading. There was so much to take in from the characters, the connections between them, how Waldo functioned to others and to the creators, the history of all cartoons, the distance of humor and understanding between now and then, etc. I have to be honest I spent most of the time looking at the pictures, because I had to limit the amount I took in or I felt overwhelmed and anxious. I just wanted better for Lillian and Mishkin, I felt like I was hurting along with them in an unproductive way.

[Ruth Collier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think there's anything like a Kim Deitch book. You finish it with your head spinning, and feeling nostalgic for a world you've never actually lived in.
The illustration is charming, whimsical, sometimes simple and at other times there is so much detail packed into a page you could spend ages looking at it if you weren't so eager to get on with the story. Either way, there will be more details your spot on a re-read.
As usual the story has just enough of a real world hook for it to feel just within reach of reality. I know all writers are storytellers, but Deitch's work feels like listening to an uncle tell tall tales, some of the elements are outlandish but there's just enough truth for you to never quite know how much your leg is being pulled.

[Pedro Lira · Rating 4 out of 5]

demorei bastante pra iniciar essa leitura porque eu sentia que seria baixo astral, então queria estar num momento de humor mais estável.
li, foi baixo astral mas gostei bastante.

o retrato da loucura de Ted, suas crises em especial, mas com toda a criatividade fora da curva que esteve presente justamente por conta daquela, é comovente. como também é comovente e, de alguma forma revoltante, a situação sempre difícil e oprimida na qual Lili é posta pelos homens no poder.
o enredo todo é trágico. os momentos de redenção são rapidamente ofuscados por mais miséria.

devemos falar sobre o traço do autor. é uma coisa de outro mundo. você consegue imaginar facilmente todos os movimentos dos elementos da página, que não são poucos, diga-se de passagem, e de uma forma muito sutil todos eles são razoavelmente familiares. não se fazem mais como antigamente.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel somewhat guilty rating this when it was so clearly not meant for me. I can recognize Deitch's craftsmanship on creating the feel of a classic underground comix, and he clearly loves the time period and genre being discussed here, but there's so much about the "using a crowded and line heavy style to discuss people with broken lives in oblique ways" that just doesn't do it for me.

It's very well done, just not to my taste.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

My high hopes for this were not entirely met. Had trouble following the details of the seemingly repetitive stories about the rises and falls of this cartoon studio. Not interested enough to go back and clarify. Part of the problem may be that Deitch fills up each frame with so many characters and details its hard to know what matters. Waldo is a great character, as are Al and Lillian. But I didn't feel the magic with this project.

[Ron Herbst · Rating 4 out of 5]

What comes from the mind of Kim Deitch is not for everyone, but I enjoyed this graphic novel quite a lot. It's a story, jumping forward and backward in time about an early animation studio and its eccentric staff. You'll experience heyday and decay, love and betrayal. Also an evil (evil?) imaginary friend that only crazy people can see, who becomes a mistreated star of cartoons. So much fun. So much to look at. I had to read it twice to catch all the subtle storytelling.

[Lucas Surjus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book. Kim Deitch was often accused by colleagues of plagiarising Felix, the Cat, when creating his own character Waldo, to which Deitch replied that around the 20s and 30s there were actually dozens of this little black humanoid cool cat. In this piece, he dives into the hypothesis of this black cat being a demon who haunts cartoonists.

[Ricky Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really dug this book! I wasn't expecting it to go where it did. It explored aging and the concept of legacy fairly well while also exploring mental health. I was ready for the feelings! Sometimes the detailed cross hatching left the page a bit cluttered and it was hard to tell what was going on but that's the style, you just have to really pay attention. Great read.

[Salomão Diniz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arte fantástica (5 estrelas neste quesito) e história não linear em excesso. Faz um panorama legal sobre a história da animação, mas o drama em si não me pegou. A narrativa é muito quebrada, não é confusa mas um pouco desnecessária. 3.5 estrelas.

[Cintia Andrade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tudo que há de perfeito em um quadrinho: uma narrativa pensada de tal maneira que a forma é essencial para a condução da história, a arte não ilustra o que está sendo dito - a arte É o que está sendo dito. Extremamente bem pensado e realizado. Perfeição.

[Phillip Lozano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bizarre and sublime work by one of the true masters of graphic storytelling. Nearly impossible to explain without a generous essay. Highly recommended.

[Danilo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the art, the story could've been better structured

[Jodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always knew there was a reason early animation scared the living hell out of me. Who knows how many fun characters were actually delusions, demons sent to plague their creators?

[Tanvir Muntasim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nostalgic and haunting insider's take on the beginning of the Hollywood animation industry.

[angelofmine1974]

No stars DNF

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/w6g3T4MeqlM

Enjoy!

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot to unpack here. LOVE the artist's style.

[Bira Dantas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good script and 90% underground.

[Digi M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't get it at first, as the first few pages jump to and from tenses. But the drawings always intrigued me.

1/4 the way through, it caught my full attention. A story of loss, compromise, creation and love.

I'll have to read it again, in order to appreciate this great original work.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/551536.html[return][return]To be honest, after I'd read the first quarter, I thought I was probably going to have to write this up as a dud. Deitch's style is very close to Robert Crumb's; I find it crowded and grotesque, I had difficulty telling the difference between some of the characters, and it all seemed to be about the difficult life of the graphics artist (though specifically here on animated films rather than dead tree comics).[return][return]But then I started reading the next section, and suddenly realised that this was a rich, multi-layered narrative, where the same events were told over again from different points of view, and that was in fact saying much more about human relationships than about the comics writer's lonely life. I put it down with difficulty last night, half way through; then read it to the end this evening and then went back to the start to pick up things I had missed first time round. I still don't much like the drawing style, but am prepared to put that aside for the story.[return][return]What's it about? Well, on one level it's about the Mishkin family, Ted Mishkin being the graphic ilustrator who is the central character, and their various professional acquaintances; but on another, we have the cryptic figure of Waldo The Cat, visible only to Ted (and later to his nephew Nathan) and in a sense his Muse, but also the star of the cartoons that he writes successfully. There's also a certain amount of history of the industry mixed in - I assume that the depiction of vaudeville cinematography in 1910 is more or less accurate, and the skewering of Walt Disney in person is a brief delight. An animated excerpt (with no spoilers for the rest of the plot) can be found here. On balance I would recommend this, but it makes you work harder than I sometimes like to do.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic novel by Kim Deitch, whom Art Spiegelman calls "an American Original." This is a graphic novel about cartoons, which is interesting. Ted Mishkin and his brother Al stayed at a settlement house when their mother "was going through some hard times." She eventually married a tailor but could only take one boy into her new home. Ted, the younger brother, stayed at the settlement house alone, and it was then that he started to see Waldo the blue cat, his imaginary friend/hallucination. When Al would visit on the weekends, Ted would draw Waldo. Eventually Al went into the cartoon business with Fontaine Fables and found Ted a job as an animator. The studio liked Waldo and incorporated him into their cartoon business; therefore Ted's hallucination, his sickness, became a commercial success and Ted was encouraged to focus on Waldo, this fascinating mix of art vs personality disorder. Waldo was evil; he tormented Ted, driving him to drink, which became Ted's crutch. Ted spent significant time, off and on, in the Berndale Acres Sanitarium, where his condition was studied by Dr. Reinman, a psychiatrist.

Deitch's graphics are jam packed; there is nothing spare about them. The book is gritty; there is nudity, sex, and fabulous scenes of Ted's drunken debauchery. Ted is the artist, and Al is the businessman who wants to capitalize on Ted's talent. It is a credit to Deitch that Al is a complex character who also does seem to love his brother.

Cover art by Chip Kidd (heart, heart).

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This book really suprised me. I was little luke warm on Deitch's work in Best American Comics 2006, but this was really enjoyable and artful. Kind of an alternate history of cartooning in the 20th century The Boulevard of Broken Dreams tells the story of Deitch's most recognizable character Waldo the Cat.

Waldo has all the mischeif of early cartoons and none of the cuteness of the commercialized Disney characters that became so popular. Waldo's fictional creator Ted Mishkin is a tortured genius, and Waldo comes out of his darkest places. The thing is, when Ted's creating a Waldo cartoon the way he wants to, he finally has this menace under control.

In the end, the reader learns that everyone on the business side of this business was corrupt - kind of an obvious trope for cartoons or comics, where the creator reaps so little of the financial benefits of his/her own work.

Anyway, Deitch's art is superb. The way he deftly interweaves the reality of the story with Waldo, the way we see Lilian reflects in Waldo's love interest, just brings us closer to the heart of these characters. This book is also a blast to read and really well written.

I love closely inspecting Deitch's big, detailed panels of Ted's murals in the rehab hospital.