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REVIEW: Day and Age: Year One
Book Title: Day and Age: Year One
Book Description: Day and Age: Year One is an comic book style autobiography from writer/artist Andrew Oh. Andrew was raised in Maryland. After high school he moved halfway across the country to attend college at SMU. Shortly after graduation Andrew was in his first serious relationship.
The relationship ended a couple months before the pandemic hit in 2020. We all know how that went. Day and Age: Year One is a collection of weekly comic strips done over the course of a year that covers all of the key topics of the time. Topics like social distancing, online dating, and pandemic grooming standards are brought up.
Mr. Oh also touches on some everyday life things like how to interact with your neighbors, what to do when you discover that you have a cockroach problem, and “Should I return my ex’s shit when I move out of my apartment?”
Book Author: Andrew Oh
Book Format: Paperback
Publisher Logo:
Illustrator: Andrew Oh
- Story(3.75)
- Interior Art(2.75)
- Cover Art(3.25)
- Dialogue(2.75)
- Mechanics(4)
- Editing(2.5)
Summary
2020 had highs, lows, and mehs for everyone. During the pandemic, some taught themselves a new skill. Some found time to indulge in a hobby they had long forgotten about. Others went through the year just trudging along and hoping the pandemic would be over soon. From my observations, most of us did all three at various points of 2020.
Day and Age: Year One is the perfect time capsule for 2020. There are enough relevant events that we can all remember dealing with. Best of all, it kept any and all political bias out of the equation. There was no blaming the chain of events on liberals or conservatives. It was all about day to day life during that time.
This cover is a perfect summary of the majority of the past 18 months. It isn’t too exciting, and there’s a caption asking what we’re all thinking: “When is this going to be over?”
The interior artwork is not quite as detailed as I would have liked. Given the style of the book, I think it fits perfectly. This title isn’t depicting kaiju death dragons that are bigger than skyscrapers. Nor is it a series about superheroes that are owned by a fictitious mouse.
This is Andrew Oh’s everyday life that he’s willing to take the chance of letting the world see it. He has the same dilemmas that I’ve had:
1. During the pandemic one of my best friends came to town for a visit. We faced challenges trying to figure out how to do the social distance thing.
2. We’ve both had the burden of dealing with unwanted ”house guests” in our homes. He had roaches. The first place I lived in after moving out had mice.
3. Social protocols. I too have wondered how long you are obligated to hold on to your ex’s stuff before saying, ”Screw this”, and donating it to charity. Personally there’s what I call the “breakup equation”. The equation is: weeks holding their stuff = .15(time together) – (number of times lied to plus times cheated on) squared. When the equation hits zero it’s time to get rid of it.
There were times the lettering was a little difficult to read. As the book went along those instances went away for the most part.
As a geek on a budget Day and Age: Year One is well worth the price of admission. There are plenty of laughs and moments that leave the reader feeling empathy for the writer. I promise you, you’re not being catfished. There’s a good story here.
For those of you wanting your own copy of Day and Age: Year One, you can get your copy at www.Andrew-Oh.com
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