Early Book Review: I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic by Tommy Siegel

 

I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic by Tommy Siegel is currently scheduled for release on October 6 2020. Tommy Siegel’s comics began as doodles in the back of a van as a touring rock musician, and quickly earned a viral global fanbase and shout-outs from cultural heavyweights ranging from Ringo Starr to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  With comics titled “Choose your social anxiety coping mechanism” and “What your coffee drink of choice says about you,” the book offers commentary on our phone-obsessed, social media-driven culture, as well as a series of relationship comics starring his popular Candy Hearts characters.

I Hope This Helps is a comic collection that had me just as interested in the commentary of the reasons behind his drawings, and some of how individual pieces came together. I did recognize some of the work from social media, but a good deal of it was new to me. I have to admit that when I started the book I was not sure I was going to enjoy it. The art style was not my favorite. However, the underlying humor and commentary of the text and some of the pieces quickly changed my mind. Some were just downright silly, others very witty. I really came to appreciate Siegal's intelligence and what they had to say. I also enjoy that they never took themselves too seriously and laughed at themselves and the insanity that is the current state of the world around us.