Stuffed!, by Eichler & Bertozzi
Stuffed!
Written by Glenn Eichler
Illustrated by Nick Bertozzi
First Second Books, 2009. 128 pages.
In Stuffed!, a new graphic novel by Eichler and Bertozzi, a corporate benefits administrator inherits his late father’s amateur museum of oddities. Hidden amongst the nick-knacks and curiosities is a very lifelike statue of an African male, replete with loincloth and what appears to be the broken shaft of a spear. Tim’s father always called the statue ‘The Bloodthirsty Savage’. But Tim’s family doesn’t want the statue around in their suburban home. So Tim takes ‘The Savage’ to a museum, kicking off a convoluted, hilarious journey to give the figure a proper home.
It soon turns out The Savage — which they tactfully rename ‘The Warrior’ — is in fact a real, stuffed man from Eastern Africa. But returning him to his homeland is not nearly as simple as it seems. Add to this mixture a crazed hippie brother, museum bureaucracy, memories of a horrible father, a few diplomats, and racial politics and you get one hell of a nutty fruitcake.
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–Deji Olukotun
