PeePee PooPoo #1. Caroline Cash. Silver Sprocket. 36 pp. $9.99.
Caroline Cash is back! Her fourth comic book has just released and it looks terrific. The PeePee PooPoo series recently won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, has won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Minicomic in 2023, and the Broken Frontier Award for Best Periodical. Of great interest to comic strip fans, Cash took over the Nancy comic strip during Olivia Jaimes’s hiatus. Cash started PeePee PooPoo with issue #69, then #420, and followed by #80085. And now we have #1, a “first issue,” an opportunity to re-introduce herself to new readers.
I am ramping up my own new comic book series, Pop Culture Super-Sleuth, and I can tell you from that experience that it’s a ton of work, a labor of love but work all the same. A key thing I want to make note of is that Cash is a very well organized phenomena: just like a political campaign, Cash has a well-oiled machine, thanks to Silver Sprocket, keeping things flowing with production as well as promotion. Pee Pee Poo Poo is a comic book series with the ambition of placing itself among the best ground-breaking indie comics. Well, the stars have indeed aligned as each new issue has been celebrated within social media and grass roots word-of-mouth. Momentum has built over a period of time. The style, content and approach all add up. Unabashed autobio comics are a staple of indie comics and go through up and down cycles, but, when done with gusto, like Cash’s work, they can be a hit. If done right, they can even be considered a voice of a generation. Once the momentum is in place, the machine is running at full steam.
What do I like about this new issue? Well, what I’ve loved all along. Cash is showing us once again that she is in it for the long haul. She’s a born storyteller spinning yarns with a seemingly effortless abandon about travel, relationships, sexuality and just being a human being. It doesn’t matter, in the big picture, really, if you’re gay, bi, or whatever. What really matters is that you have something to say and you express it, which is what Cash does so well. This issue is playfully numbered as #1 but that’s significant. I think it’s safe to say that this is a nice pause, a chance to say hello again, while at the same time continuing to celebrate her wonderfully uninhibited comics. There will be nods to the giants from time to time. Yes, Cash is walking down the same path of such greats as R. Crumb, Julie Doucet and Daniel Clowes and she can rest assured that she is leaving behind her own distinctive footprints. I love the scene, by the way, in one of her comics where she’s walking barefoot through TSA. I’ve done that and, well, it’s definitely a unique experience.
