_____ as a goat

This book is heralded as the ultimate comic book. It is credited as the book to give someone who has never read a comic book, whose only reference point to superheroism being film, TV and a stand up comedian's description of a sci-fi convention. This was the book that challenged the notion "comics are for kids". Countless creators today name it in their all-time favorites list and identify it as the reason they do what they do. It is an indelible benchmark.

And I just don't get it.

It is a good read and the storyline is intriguing and thought-provoking. The art is easily one of the best examples of sequential art and is phenomenal in its ability to advance and progress the story.

But outside of its time - that is, today - does it really hold up to its hype?

I will read it again to find out, but I have a suspicion that it will be nothing more than the comic industry's "Scarface", sitting prominently on the shelves, and pointed to in the best cliché fashion on a Mother's Basement episode of MTV's Cribs.