The Snake Pit Book: Daily Diary Comics 2001-2003

By Ben Snakepit

Book Overview

By now you know the drill: Ben White draws his life everyday in 3 comic panels. This was his first book, collecting quite a few various zines. After describing dozens of various Snakepit titles I'm going to defer to the wisdom of Jimmi Payne's Punk Zine, Taken individually, each strip resembles what a friend would say if you asked what they had done that day. Ben sifts through the minutiae of life as well as the full experience of time in a day. This is different than James Kochalka's work as there is no pretense at narrative or point. The narratives in Snakepit open up on the macro level. If Snakepit is to be read on the toilet, a mere bowel movement is enough time to live months through the protagonist's eyes. Patterns emerge and story arcs materialize and years of common actions load into a highly concentrated snapshot that wakes you up to the ongoing machinations of life beyond your present day. This has led many to label Snakepit an existential text. Introduction about doing cocaine by Aaron Cometbus.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1621067149
• ISBN13: 9781621067146
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Ben Snakepit Rocks Big Time!

Now, first off, this book isn't for everyone. If you're not pretty open-minded, you won't like it. If you don't like to laugh, you won't like it. If you don't enjoy the simple pleasure of watching a human life unfold before your very eyes, you won't like it. As far as I'm concerned, The Snake Pit Book (as well as the local Snake Pit zine and the Snake Quarterly and the Snake Pit Annuals) contains some of the funniest and most real comix you'll ever read. This is the personal zine taken to the next insane level. You wouldn't think an endless series of daily comix about a guy getting either drunk or stoned or both and falling in and out of love and just sort of struggling with the endless hassles of everyday life could be funny and also somehow inspiring. But you'd be wrong. So, unless you're all uptight and weird (in a bad way), buy it and get ready to be a part of the weird (in a good way), wonderful, awful, exciting, boring, and very real world of Ben Snakepit, the Punk Everyman.

The Faux Futility of Life

Ben Snakepit has not only created an uninspired legacy, a cartoon diary of his life that sums up an entire day in three tiny ink drawn panels, but his work about his life that became his life is an everyman triumph of genius. His zine turned novel, Snakepit, is a comic strip diary, a summation of a punkrock/slacker lifestyle that, upon first appearance is totally unenviable. But the greater truth lies in that the documentation when taken as a whole reveals that he has probably accomplished more then most people ever will. The various bands and recordings, exaggerated substance abuse and the plethora of trips to the local copy marts to craft his art. We could only wish our lives were as full. This book is highly recommended and a must for anyone who enjoys zines, comix or punk rock.

Snakepit a guilty pleasure for the Reverend

Remember when you were a kid and you had those little "flipbooks?" You know the ones that I'm talking about, where they had a different picture on each page and when you fanned the pages, the moving pictures approximated a crude animated story. In many ways, that's what Ben "Snakepit" White's The Snakepit Book reminds me of. Published as a zine since the summer of 2000, Snakepit is a daily three-panel strip describing the writer/artist's day. Taken individually, the rough-drawn strips portray the daily grind of its punk protagonist - work, play, love and loss - in excruciating repetition. When taken as a whole, however, The Snakepit Book, collecting three years of daily strips, fascinates like the flipbooks of our youth. White is a friendly music fan, musician and punk aficionado, and what he lacks in artistic direction he more than makes up for with unflagging spirit and dedication to the DIY aesthetic. The Snakepit Book is a charming, entertaining read, best experienced by tasting a week or so of White's life at a time. During the couple of weeks that it will take you to digest the book, White's charming autobiographical tales will have fired your imagination, forcing the reader to take a closer look at their own daily accomplishments. Personally, I also appreciate the song titles listed at the top of each day's strip, White's creative and often times appropriate song choices providing a running soundtrack to the story. A member of punk band J Church, White's extensive musical knowledge and far-ranging tastes mirror my own, his song-a-day approach leading me to dig into my own record collection to rediscover some of the tunes he matches so well to the daily strips. Highly recommended, White's Snakepit strip breathes new life into a stale zine medium, The Snakepit Book an entertaining read that is full of energy and intelligence. (From the ALT.CULTURE.GUIDE webzine)