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It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that every Thursday afternoon, the C-VILLE editorial staff holds its collective breath. That’s when Emily Flake sends in her latest "Lulu Eightball" comic, and it becomes clear what perverse subversions—or whatever you want to call them—we’ll be printing in the following week’s paper for all of our fair city to see. However, it’s a great comfort to know that many of our readers think said subversions are drop-dead hilarious.
Take the comic with the banner "Features of the iPhone" from a recent issue: In one of the panels, Flake writes, "Secret keystroke summons Steve Jobs [co-founder of Apple]; obligates him to perform sex act." Above it is a drawing of an average female user saying, "That was fast," and a drawing of Jobs saying, "Yup. So why’re you still dressed?" Flake doesn’t have a twisted mind. Rather, she cuts straight to taboos, and through them generates takes on life that seem both sinister and sincere. Flake’s right—isn’t she?—that sexual power and business power are in bed together somewhere in the recesses of the human psyche.
Smoking, once a cultural norm, is now essentially a taboo subject. And so there’s no one better than Flake to get to the heart of the drama of an addicted smoker trying her damndest to quit. These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves is a longer version of a "Lulu"-style cartoon piece titled "Smoke Break," which C-VILLE published last year.
True to form, These Things is drop-dead hilarious—as hilarious as a book that’s about the good chance that a smoker might drop dead from her allegiance to a nasty vice can be. Flake expertly intersperses information about the dangers of smoking with jokes, often within the same panel. In one, under a drawing of a haggard, stooping, gap-toothed woman saying, "Wheeze…wheeze… will-you-make-out-with-me? Wheeze…wheeze," are the words: Emphysema, receding gums, fertility problems, stroke—all shit you can get from smoking." This dual approach ensures that the book comes across as neither too flippant nor too curmudgeonly. Smokers will feel pleasantly reprimanded and maybe even teased into kicking the habit. Nonsmokers will get a kick out of feeling like saints. And plain ol’ general "Lulu" fans will rejoice anew over Flake’s versatile talent.