Back, Crack & Sack (& Brain)

In this hilarious graphic memoir, Rob Wells takes the comics tradition of self-mockery and

abasement to a new level, regaling us with the workings of all his bodily plumbing, the

mechanics of masturbation, and his worries about the size of his penis, while his graphic

avatar, a portly man with his right hand perma-thrust down the front of his pants, frets

about making a public spectacle of himself by soiling his pants in public.

For our amusement, Wells drops his trousers and undergoes all manner of undignified

procedures at the hands of an array of – mostly unlikeable – doctors and feckless or

bullying nurses. The book is not kind to the medical profession, yet there is much for

healthcare professionals to glean here: good doctors will recognise their rude and

condescending colleagues and sigh with sympathy at Robʼs pain. Rude and patronising

doctors will roll their eyes and tut at his dysfunctional illness behavior. This is a study in

complexity theory with no simple mechanical cures, a case of chronic pain and medically

unexplained symptoms, where most of the attempts at cure come to nothing, while patient

communication and kindness go lacking, leaving our man increasingly skeptical of the

benefits of modern medicine.

I loved this book. It made me laugh out loud on just about every page. Wellsʼs pacing and

visual humour is first class. Filthy and puerile, yet wise and weighty, the book ends how it

begins: a man in a teeshirt, naked from the waist down, telling us rather too much about

his most intimate problems. Excellent.