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Long Live My Happy Head review – comic book artist illustrates his own mortality
Scottish artist Gordon Shaw talks cancer and comic books in this tender study of a man facing an uncertain future
Gordon Shaw is a Scottish artist and comic book creator who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in his early 30s; this documentary shows him coming to terms with his condition by transforming it into graphic art, an open-ended autobiographical project which takes the form of zines, pictures and exhibitions.
Shaw has the inspired idea of taking the notorious buzzing and deafening clangs experienced by people undergoing an MRI scan and converting these sounds into an electronic musical event, which people would experience from within a scanner-style enclosure. (“It’s horizontal techno, but of course you can’t dance!”) He calls his tumour “Rick” (the way Dennis Potter called his cancer “Rupert” after Rupert Murdoch, but “Rick” doesn’t seem to be anyone he dislikes) and this film shows him fighting the growth with humour and honesty.
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