Rock And Roll Terrorist: The Graphic Life Of Shock Rocker GG Allin (2020) Book Review

Last year Reid Chancellor released Hardcore Anxiety, a graphic novel dealing with punk music and mental health. Now he’s following that with Rock And Roll Terrorist: The Graphic Life Of Shock Rocker GG Allin, which deals with similar subjects, but focuses on one extreme example. GG Allin was a punk rock vocalist and songwriter known mostly for his outrageous and violent behavior on stage. Clearly a damaged person, he seemed to both confront and court death during his performances, and planned to commit suicide on stage. A graphic novel seems the perfect way to tell his story, for you need both that visual element and the sort of freedom that the medium provides to accurately portray his life and his performances.

Reid Chancellor inserts himself into the beginning of the book, opening with illustrations of himself at his drawing table, issuing a warning that this graphic novel contains some, well, graphic material. “You will see some gross stuff,” he says (p. 3). And then: “There will be times when you ask yourself why. Why is this happening?” (p. 4). Of course, that seems to prove the subject worthy of the telling, doesn’t it? It also shows a bit of Reid Chancellor’s sense of humor. The book then gets going with a depiction of a concert performance, where GG Allin is introduced as “The Scum of the Earth” (p. 8), which incidentally was the name of the fictitious band in an episode of WKRP In Cincinnati. The name of GG Allin’s band at this point is GG Allin And The Murder Junkies, and as GG Allin says during an appearance on The Jerry Springer Show, he is there to “put the danger back in rock and roll” (p. 14).

We are given information on GG Allin’s earlier bands as well, including Malpractice and The Jabbers, when GG was originally a drummer before becoming the front man. I’d love to find copies of some of those early records. But, again, it was what he did on stage, perhaps more than the music itself, that earned him his notoriety. And yes, the book shows him shitting on stage (hey, Reid Chancellor warned us at the beginning). Interestingly, we see him buying Ex-lax before the show, so that first time was nothing spontaneous. He had planned it. GG Allin lived one way, regardless of whether he was on stage or at home, and so his personal life was pretty rocky. Though it was those around him that really suffered, and we see some of that with regards to the women in his life. GG Allin says: “I don’t get off tour and wear normal clothes. This is me. I am GG Fuckin’ Allin year round” (p. 123). Indeed.

The book in some ways moves like a film, and we get flashbacks to his childhood and an explanation of his name. And what a seriously screwed up childhood it was. There was something quasi-religious about GG Allin’s beliefs and rhetoric, and that seemed to stem from his very birth, when he was given the name Jesus Christ Allin by his father. Much more shocking is the image of his father digging graves for the family. But being given the name Jesus Christ had a lasting impact on his life. For example, at one point he is depicted as saying: “My body must be broken for them. They’re coming to witness the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ on that stage” (p. 66). A documentary film was made about GG Allin’s life, directed by Todd Phillips (who would go on to direct Bittersweet Motel, Old School and The Hangover), and the book contains some material about that film, and about GG’s reaction to it. The book also depicts GG Allin’s funeral, and even that was a sort of performance. He lived a wild life, and you certainly don’t need to be a fan of his work to appreciate his story and this book.

Rock And Roll Terrorist: The Graphic Life Of Shock Rocker GG Allin was released on September 1, 2020 through Microcosm Publishing.