Pedro and Me by Judd Winick graphic novel challenge
I never watched The Real World on MTV but I've certainly heard of it. Seven strangers are put into a house to live together all the while being filmed 24 hours a day. I guess it is like Big Brother, my summer guilty pleasure, but without the money at the end, which would eliminate a lot of the nastiness. Pedro Zamora and Judd Winick were a part of the third season, in San Fransisco.
Judd wrote this graphic novel in 2000 to document 'friendship, loss and what I learned' during his time in the house. Pedro joined the house as a person living with HIV to educate and provide a face for people to know someone with HIV. Winick describes their meeting, their time on the show, and their friendship and then Pedro's decline. Winick is a cartoonist, so the pictures are great, and the story is very compelling and emotional, and well worth while. I would think anyone who watched that show would very much enjoy this book as would someone wanting a greater awareness of AIDS/HIV, or people who enjoy memoirs.
Man...I used to love that show. The year with Pedro and Judd was one of the best. And it certainly brought AIDS awareness to people in a time when everything was so unsure. Pedro was such a great guy. It sure was a loss. I must read this one!
ReplyDeleteI remember Pedro he seem like a nice guy. I didn't know that Judd made a graphic novel that's cool.
ReplyDeleteI loved Pedro on his season of Real World. But to get the goodness of Pedro, you had to put up with the awfulness of Puck. Puck was the original reality show bad guy.
ReplyDeleteJudd also did some illustrations for some of the Dummies Guides.
stephanie and confuzzled - Pedro and Judd seemed like such good friends, and Judd talks about how nervous he was in the beginning.
ReplyDeletectoan - Puck is barely mentioned, just that he was there in the house. I guess it's the old adage 'if you can't say anything good...'
Judd's bio mentions the Dummies Guides.