Comic Relief: Reviewing the Danica Patrick Graphic Novel

June 25, 2011 at 9:14am by Andrew Smart

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Danica Patrick is famous. We know this to be true. Indeed, Danica Patrick is you-have-permission-to-wear-sunglasses-and-smoke-cigarettes-inside famous. What we don’t know is: Why? In Fame: Danica Patrick, an ambitious, steaming piece of graphic literature geared toward the ’tween set, authors C.W. Cooke and P.R. McCormack set out to answer that very question.

According to Cooke and McCormack, Patrick’s rise to fame went something like this: STEP ONE: Emerged from the womb on March 25, 1982. STEP TWO: Became a cheerleader. STEP THREE: Got her GED. STEP FOUR: Rode a no-win streak right to the IRL. STEP FIVE: Led Indy for 19 laps. STEP SIX: Became a role model to young women everywhere.

And, as we know, if  you’re an enterprising young woman who wants to be a hot commodity on the American fame market, you can either take off your clothes or succeed in a man’s game. According to Cooke and McCormack, where Patrick seems to have really taken her fame game to stratospheric levels is having the audacity to do both. Swimsuit Issue pictorials? Check. Too-hot-for-TV Super Bowl commercials? Check. Beating a bunch of  boys in a race-car race in Japan? Konnichi check. You don’t have to know what “IRL” is an abbreviation for to know that’s a big deal. We know we’d heard of  V-J Day before. We’re just happy  to finally know what it stands for. And parents think comic books are a waste of time! News flash, parents: It’s time to stop thinking and start knowing! Read it and weep!

Tags: book review, Danica Patrick, race car driver |

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