GG Allin Rock And Roll Terrorist Activity And Coloring Book (2020) Book Review

As a companion piece to Reid Chancellor’s new graphic novel on the life of GG Allin, Rock And Roll Terrorist: The Graphic Life Of Shock Rocker GG Allin, a coloring book has been released. Titled GG Allin Rock And Roll Terrorist Activity And Coloring Book, this too tells GG Allin’s story, providing some details not in the graphic novel.

For this one, Reid Chancellor provides a written introduction, rather than including drawings of himself, as he does in the other book. As with the graphic novel, this introduction does contain a warning, but also an appeal to look at the factors that contributed to GG Allin’s personality and on-stage antics, to view him as a human rather than just a spectacle. Reid writes, “I hope that by exposing even some of his worst actions it can help us to understand ourselves, people around us, and how some coping mechanisms, left unchecked, can result in some severely destructive behavior.” In addition to the introduction, Reid Chancellor offers some words at the end regarding GG Allin’s upbringing and mental health: “Sometimes I wonder what GG would have been like if he would have accepted the help that was offered to him multiple times in his life.”

The book contains some of the same art work as the graphic novel, but enlarged so that we can add our own color to it. There is also a crossword puzzle, as well as a maze, but mostly this is a coloring book. On one of the pages, we are encouraged to “Draw in GG’s tattoos,” and on another page to “Create your own flyer for GG Allin,” and on yet another to “Connect the fuckin’ dots.” There is some humor in the way Reid Chancellor tells the story here. For example, he writes: “As Tracy was preparing to become a mother, GG decided he should go to Peoria, IL and shit on stage.” No, this is not a children’s coloring book. As Reid Chancellor jokes at the beginning, “Get your red and brown crayons ready.”

GG Allin Rock And Roll Terrorist Activity And Coloring Book was released on October 13, 2020 through Microcosm Publishing.