Plot
Brilliant cartoonist Tim Hensley (Wally Gropius) returns with his first new comic book since the acclaimed “Sir Alfred No. 3” in 2015! This is a gorgeous, oversized one-shot comic magazine (there is no Detention #1 — it's a joke, folks!) strictly limited to 2000 copies and available only through the direct market! Hensley "adapts" in his own absurdist fashion an acknowledged classic of American literature, “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” by Stephen Crane into a 44-page, oversized, full-color comic book titled “Detention #2.” Crane’s 1893 novella tells the story of Maggie, a Bowery waif on the cusp of maturity who becomes tragically embroiled with a barkeep named Pete. Hensley satirically frames his version of this brutal tale of slum life as a study aide à la Classics Illustrated, created for those being punished by remedial instruction.
What the Critics Are Saying (in 1896):
The New York Tribune:
“To read its pages is like standing before a loafer to have one’s face slapped twice a minute for half an hour.”
Town Topics:
“I can recall no title that approaches Maggie in the illustration of drunkenness, promiscuous pugilism, joyless and repellent dialogue, and noise.”
The Nation:
“Maggie is impossible to weep over; we can feel only pity the gutter is so dirty and turn in another direction.”
The Richmond Times:
“His inattention to grammar is to be regretted.”