The Snake Pit Book: Daily Diary Comics 2001 2003

Remember when you were a kid and you had those little "flipbooks?" You know the ones that I'm talking about, where they had a different picture on each page and when you fanned the pages, the moving pictures approximated a crude animated story. In many ways, that's what Ben "Snakepit" White's The Snakepit Book reminds me of. Published as a zine since the summer of 2000, Snakepit is a daily three-panel strip describing the writer/artist's day. Taken individually, the rough-drawn strips portray the daily grind of its punk protagonist - work, play, love and loss - in excruciating repetition.When taken as a whole, however, The Snakepit Book, collecting three years of daily strips, fascinates like the flipbooks of our youth. White is a friendly music fan, musician and punk aficionado, and what he lacks in artistic direction he more than makes up for with unflagging spirit and dedication to the DIY aesthetic. The Snakepit Book is a charming, entertaining read, best experienced by tasting a week or so of White's life at a time. During the couple of weeks that it will take you to digest the book, White's charming autobiographical tales will have fired your imagination, forcing the reader to take a closer look at their own daily accomplishments.Personally, I also appreciate the song titles listed at the top of each day's strip, White's creative and often times appropriate song choices providing a running soundtrack to the story. A member of punk band J Church, White's extensive musical knowledge and far-ranging tastes mirror my own, his song-a-day approach leading me to dig into my own record collection to rediscover some of the tunes he matches so well to the daily strips. Highly recommended, White's Snakepit strip breathes new life into a stale zine medium, The Snakepit Book an entertaining read that is full of energy and intelligence. (From the ALT.CULTURE.GUIDE webzine)

Now, first off, this book isn't for everyone. If you're not pretty open-minded, you won't like it. If you don't like to laugh, you won't like it. If you don't enjoy the simple pleasure of watching a human life unfold before your very eyes, you won't like it. As far as I'm concerned, The Snake Pit Book (as well as the local Snake Pit zine and the Snake Quarterly and the Snake Pit Annuals) contains some of the funniest and most real comix you'll ever read. This is the personal zine taken to the next insane level. You wouldn't think an endless series of daily comix about a guy getting either drunk or stoned or both and falling in and out of love and just sort of struggling with the endless hassles of everyday life could be funny and also somehow inspiring. But you'd be wrong. So, unless you're all uptight and weird (in a bad way), buy it and get ready to be a part of the weird (in a good way), wonderful, awful, exciting, boring, and very real world of Ben Snakepit, the Punk Everyman.

Ben Snakepit has not only created an uninspired legacy, a cartoon diary of his life that sums up an entire day in three tiny ink drawn panels, but his work about his life that became his life is an everyman triumph of genius. His zine turned novel, Snakepit, is a comic strip diary, a summation of a punkrock/slacker lifestyle that, upon first appearance is totally unenviable. But the greater truth lies in that the documentation when taken as a whole reveals that he has probably accomplished more then most people ever will. The various bands and recordings, exaggerated substance abuse and the plethora of trips to the local copy marts to craft his art. We could only wish our lives were as full. This book is highly recommended and a must for anyone who enjoys zines, comix or punk rock.

This book is a all-time classic in punk rock-literature...This book includes the first three years in the live of Ben Snakepit (regular: Ben White), who lives in Austin ,TX. It contains a three-panel comic strip for each day plus a corresponding theme song for each day...The first years covers a lot of Ben getting drunk, making out with some hot girls, waking up with "worst hangover ever", getting late to work, taking bong hits, 40s, getting migas, hating leap days, touring the world, singing "hybrid moments" on stage with the methadones.....All in all it is impossible to put down this book. I immediatly felt in love with it (and all following books and comics of Ben) and still after 10 years it was awesome to remember some stories that I've nearly forgotten....I really can't tell how often I'ver read his books... Its a constant in a crazy fast changing world. Highly highly recommended.Cheers to Ben! He's an awesome guy, does nice music (check out Ghost Knife) and give me a smile each day, when enjoying Snake pit books and comics!