There was lamentation throughout the land at the news that Dennis Worden was discontinuing his Stickboy comics with issue #6. Worden has pretty much turned his back on comics; as the Stick himself said in #6, “The comics industry is one of the most pathetic ratholes in existence! Populated by emotionally crippled ego freaks who have gone insane within the stifling confines of their minuscule world.” But although the travails of Worden’s long-suffering, philosophical-minded stick figure have come to an end in print, Stickboy is still with us – as an articulated, three-dimensional puppet starring in his very own video.
Stickboy #1 is a 90-minute video zine which was (to quote the end credits) “written, performed, produced, directed, edited and screwed-up by Dennis Worden.” Along with the ruminations of Stickboy, viewers are treated to the cavorting of other dolls and puppets (including another familiar Worden character, the Floating Skull); an 18-year-old’s six-minute video of himself getting a Stickboy tattoo; a hilarious segment of new hand gestures formulated to express degrees of contempt “less stringent” than a full-fledged flipping of the bird; and a quick look through the pages of the currently unavailable Stickboy #2 comic. (Worden fans with a decent pause in their VCRs will be in heaven with this one!) There’s also some footage from the 1942 U.S. Department of Agriculture training film Hemp for Victory. Hemp, which was suppressed in the ‘30s by big-business interests rather than for its high, made a comeback in World War II as a useful source of rope, material, etc. The government produced Hemp for Victory to teach farmers how to grow it – and if you think you’d enjoy the sight of fields of waving hemp with strains of “My Old Kentucky Home” on the soundtrack, then you really ought to get this video. Worden also throws in hardcore record reviews, covering some forty recordings (almost all on vinyl), including those made by the bands Tall Dwarfs, Gila Monster, New Bomb Turks, Drunks With Guns, Rancid Hell Spawn, Beat Of The Traps, and Dr. Gunni, with healthy excerpts played and a fun look at the personalized art of their sleeves and labels.
If Stickboy #1 has a problem, it’s that a video isn’t a comic book. Three panels of Stickboy talking are three separate drawings and three opportunities for Worden to nuance and develop his character. Three minutes of the Stickboy doll talking on video equals one take in which nothing you’re looking at is going to change. Nevertheless, Worden’s puppets are usually very funny as they alternately rag the video and insult the viewer. Stickboy discharges his MC duties by remarking, “I hope you enjoy this video. I don’t know how you’ll enjoy it, unless you’re a pathetic moron. But I hope you enjoy it anyway. We have no story, no plot. I’m host to a big load of crap. And if you like it, please stay away from me, ‘cause you’re a very, very sick person.” Another doll, who elsewhere greets the audience with “Good evening, ladies and pricks,” apologizes profusely for what he calls “this horrible, horrible video.” (But the doll keeps gagging on his own contrition and blows his lines in retake after retake.) Only a Casper The Friendly Ghost doll offers any affection, expressing the same heartfelt wish in all his appearances: “Blow me!”
The video ends with a look at several of Worden’s paintings. “The poor sap is destitute,” we’re told, and so all art collectors should consider his wares. All collectors of funny, crazed DIY video shouldn’t just consider Stickboy #1; they should buy it. ($15 from Dennis Worden, P.O. Box 192, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92692.)
(This review first appeared in Brutarian No. 10, 1993.)
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NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 