Old Guy: Superhero: The Complete Collection

By William Trowbridge

“When has geezerhood been handled so appealingly? . . . A true American hero is born.” —Albert Goldbarth, National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of Saving Lives 
 
Meet Oldguy: your regular aging superhero whose powers have dwindled over the years, and whose very mechanics are seriously fizzling. In seriocomic misadventures, Oldguy valiantly attempts to continue his former heroism in a somewhat wry version of Faulknerian endurance, defeating his enemies time and again—if not through superhuman abilities, then at least by “outliving the sons-a-bitches.” With its comic book-style illustrations, Oldguy inhabits a space all to itself—not strictly a poetry collection, not quite a graphic novel, but a hybrid sure to delight.
 
“An exhilarating read that I didn’t want to put down except to laugh and to shake my seventy-eight-year-old head in admiration.” —Ron Koertge, author of Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 3, 2019
• ISBN: 9781597098427

William Trowbridge

William Trowbridge is the author of six full poetry collections and four chapbooks, including the poetry comic book Oldguy (Red Hen Press, 2016). His new collection is Vanishing Point (Red Hen Press, 2017). His awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference scholarship, a Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award, and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, Yaddo, and The Anderson Center. The former Poet Laureate of Missouri (2012–2016), he teaches in the University of Nebraska Low-residency MFA in Writing Program and lives in the Kansas City area.

Book preview

OLDGUY: SUPERHERO

feels like a young guy in a bad costume.

The arms and legs sag, and the waist’s

too tight. Where there should be a large S,

golden star, or lightning bolt, there’s what

looks like a zero, and on his trunks, Depend.

The boots look more like flannel slippers.

Some lout’s made off with his super-hearing

and X-ray vision, leaving only an Ampli Ear

and Coke-bottle lenses. Like certain sheep,

he doesn’t fly so much as plummet. He hasn’t

smashed through a good wall or door

since before he can remember, which is

a little after breakfast. Speeding bullets

and tall buildings must now be turtles

and molehills. He has no fear

of an erection lasting more than four hours,

but he’s depressed and often flatulent.

His best tactic, the long wait, accounts

for the demise of many a foe, that

or rambling on and on and on and on,

which can paralyze from as far as ten feet.

He’s not handsome like Clark Kent or rich

like Bruce Wayne, but in the prolonged run

he can be a deadly opponent, if he doesn’t

mix you up with someone else.

OLDGUY: SUPERHERO,

COUNTERTERRORIST

Oldguy’s in line for his Social Security check

when a man enters carrying a gun and