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Dharma Punks #1-2
The Dharma Punks
A hip metaphysical exploration of life, love, friendship, punk rock, blowing things up... and the art of meditation.
It's Auckland, New Zealand. October, 1994. And a group of anarchist punks have hatched a plan to sabotage the opening of a multinational- fastfood restaurant, (Bobo's), by blowing the building sky-high come opening time.
Chopstick has been given the unenviable task of setting the bomb in the restaurant the night before the opening, but when he is separated from his accomplice, Tracy, the night takes an unexpected turn.
As they search the city streets for each other in the hope of making their rendezvous on time, a series of fateful meetings and events from their past conspire against them, forcing the friends to deal with more than just the mission at hand.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that there is more at stake here than was first realised, and that the outcome of the night's events will change all of their lives in ways they never could have imagined...
The Dharma Punks is a 384 page, eight-part comic which has received rave reviews and won the Eric Awards 2003 "Best Serialised Comic" and the Eric Awards 2004 (The Gotham Comics - Staedtler NZ Award) for "Best Comic".
It's Auckland, New Zealand. October, 1994. And a group of anarchist punks have hatched a plan to sabotage the opening of a multinational- fastfood restaurant, (Bobo's), by blowing the building sky-high come opening time.
Chopstick has been given the unenviable task of setting the bomb in the restaurant the night before the opening, but when he is separated from his accomplice, Tracy, the night takes an unexpected turn.
As they search the city streets for each other in the hope of making their rendezvous on time, a series of fateful meetings and events from their past conspire against them, forcing the friends to deal with more than just the mission at hand.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that there is more at stake here than was first realised, and that the outcome of the night's events will change all of their lives in ways they never could have imagined...
The Dharma Punks is a 384 page, eight-part comic which has received rave reviews and won the Eric Awards 2003 "Best Serialised Comic" and the Eric Awards 2004 (The Gotham Comics - Staedtler NZ Award) for "Best Comic".
424 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2014
About the author
Ant Sang
20 books23 followersAnt Sang, who lives and works in New Zealand, is an award-winning cartoonist. He is the author and illustrator of graphic novels 'The Dharma Punks' and 'Shaolin Burning'. He was one of the original creatives on the successful animated television series bro’Town. His latest graphic novel, 'Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas', is a collaboration with author Michael Bennett.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 26, 2018
Review/personal story explaining why I loved this book so much.
Punk rock was probably my first Dharma. I know that sounds weird, but it was the first thing that helped me learn that the world is not what we think it is, that we have to wake up and pay attention if we are ever to understand the nature of reality. It certainly helped that I was an angry, lonely, alienated teenager when I discovered that the Clash, Black Flag and other bands had put how I felt into words and noise. To my mother’s great exasperation, I found that noise blissfully soothing... I felt sure I would find some kindred spirits among other punk rockers: after all, if we all connected to this sound and this spirit, we were bound to have a lot in common! I started collecting records and spending as much time as my broke, teenage ass could with other punk rock kids. There was a great comfort in knowing I wasn’t alone in feeling like there was no place for me in a society full of people obsessed with their clothes, their money, their status… Didn’t they understand that none of that would matter once they were dead?
But I could never get behind senseless violence and destruction that a lot of the people on the scene embraced. I mean, sure, covering the walls of a shop with big anarchy graffitis is fun, but it doesn't do a damn thing besides making more back-breaking work for the poor kid earning minimum-wage who's going to have to clean it up the next day. The "Man" couldn't care less about things like that, it absolutely doesn't affect them. And jaywalking is not “breaking the law” so much as putting yourself in the way of cars: how the Hell are you going to fight the system with a pair of broken legs? But explaining that to some of the kids I hung out with was a total waste of breath, and I became disenchanted with the scene really fast. That was the point where if someone had showed up and told me they would give me a way to change things, I would have listened... and perhaps ended up doing something spectacularly dumb - just like what Chopstick and his friends have planned... But it didn't happen: I simply took a step back, still loving the music but finding many of the people on the scene silly at best, and hypocritical and dangerous at worse. The punk ethos was still in my heart, but I couldn't take slackers who all wore the same band shirts seriously when they ranted about revolution and anti-conformism…
Buddhism, when I discovered it a few years later, was actually a very natural fit: it rejected materialism, arbitrary division between human beings, violence and hate. Yes, it’s bleak when a philosophy’s foundation is the idea that life is suffering, but when you understand that this suffering is caused by our denial that everything (even ourselves) is constantly changing, you start looking at life - and living it - very differently. We try to make the impermanent permanent and get mad when it doesn’t work, and when you understand that mechanism, it becomes easy to break some habits of mind and drastically change one’s life.
The parallels between what I got from punk and what I got from Buddhism were so obvious to me: they were both about changing the world by looking at it differently, about taking care of your fellow humans and the planet we share with them, about questioning the agreed-upon concept of “reality”. In my view, punks are people who see other humans suffering for all kinds of reasons, who refuse this status quo and try to change the world to lessen that suffering; that’s what bodhisattvas do, too, in their own way. Obviously, some people are attracted to punk for other reasons, and some people are attracted to Buddhism for other reasons, but I always saw them as two perfectly compatible things.
I found this book more or less by accident, when I was randomly browsing at the big bookstore near my office. I am not a underground comic book connoisseur, so I’d never heard of “Dharma Punks” before, but I understand that it was quite a cult phenomenon when it first came out in the early 2000’s. Naturally, the title caught my eye, and the synopsis made me think of a skinny little 17 year old with a bad Manic Panic dye job I used to know…
Chopstick and his friends are anarchist street punks who live in a warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand, circa the mid-90’s. A few years before the beginning of “Dharma Punks”, Chopstick was introduced to Buddhism by a friend, and has since been trying to use meditation to make sense of what he sees around him. Meanwhile, he and his friends have gotten involved with a rather dubious character who hired them to make a impressive anarchist statement: blowing up a fast food restaurant on its grand opening night. As they get ready to put the plan into action, Chopstick and his friend/accomplice Tracy get separated, and the night takes on a very different turn from what was planned, with white supremacist skinheads, enigmatic Goth chicks and the ghost of Kurt Cobain getting tangled up in the action.
As you can imagine from the previous paragraphs, this graphic novel took me back and reminded me of people that I once knew and of emotions that I had once felt very, very deeply. The artwork is stark, black and white, thick lines, few details, but the ones you see really matter. The story weaves flashbacks in through the narrative, fleshing out the characters and their motivations perfectly. I loved that the female characters were as tough, as strong, as flawed and as human as the male ones. I loved that Chopsticks makes a stand that brings together his politics and his rejection of violence.
Despite how hefty it is, its a short read, that I would enthusiastically recommend to anyone who likes good graphic novels, especially those who smile to themselves when they hear this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7RUe...
Punk rock was probably my first Dharma. I know that sounds weird, but it was the first thing that helped me learn that the world is not what we think it is, that we have to wake up and pay attention if we are ever to understand the nature of reality. It certainly helped that I was an angry, lonely, alienated teenager when I discovered that the Clash, Black Flag and other bands had put how I felt into words and noise. To my mother’s great exasperation, I found that noise blissfully soothing... I felt sure I would find some kindred spirits among other punk rockers: after all, if we all connected to this sound and this spirit, we were bound to have a lot in common! I started collecting records and spending as much time as my broke, teenage ass could with other punk rock kids. There was a great comfort in knowing I wasn’t alone in feeling like there was no place for me in a society full of people obsessed with their clothes, their money, their status… Didn’t they understand that none of that would matter once they were dead?
But I could never get behind senseless violence and destruction that a lot of the people on the scene embraced. I mean, sure, covering the walls of a shop with big anarchy graffitis is fun, but it doesn't do a damn thing besides making more back-breaking work for the poor kid earning minimum-wage who's going to have to clean it up the next day. The "Man" couldn't care less about things like that, it absolutely doesn't affect them. And jaywalking is not “breaking the law” so much as putting yourself in the way of cars: how the Hell are you going to fight the system with a pair of broken legs? But explaining that to some of the kids I hung out with was a total waste of breath, and I became disenchanted with the scene really fast. That was the point where if someone had showed up and told me they would give me a way to change things, I would have listened... and perhaps ended up doing something spectacularly dumb - just like what Chopstick and his friends have planned... But it didn't happen: I simply took a step back, still loving the music but finding many of the people on the scene silly at best, and hypocritical and dangerous at worse. The punk ethos was still in my heart, but I couldn't take slackers who all wore the same band shirts seriously when they ranted about revolution and anti-conformism…
Buddhism, when I discovered it a few years later, was actually a very natural fit: it rejected materialism, arbitrary division between human beings, violence and hate. Yes, it’s bleak when a philosophy’s foundation is the idea that life is suffering, but when you understand that this suffering is caused by our denial that everything (even ourselves) is constantly changing, you start looking at life - and living it - very differently. We try to make the impermanent permanent and get mad when it doesn’t work, and when you understand that mechanism, it becomes easy to break some habits of mind and drastically change one’s life.
The parallels between what I got from punk and what I got from Buddhism were so obvious to me: they were both about changing the world by looking at it differently, about taking care of your fellow humans and the planet we share with them, about questioning the agreed-upon concept of “reality”. In my view, punks are people who see other humans suffering for all kinds of reasons, who refuse this status quo and try to change the world to lessen that suffering; that’s what bodhisattvas do, too, in their own way. Obviously, some people are attracted to punk for other reasons, and some people are attracted to Buddhism for other reasons, but I always saw them as two perfectly compatible things.
I found this book more or less by accident, when I was randomly browsing at the big bookstore near my office. I am not a underground comic book connoisseur, so I’d never heard of “Dharma Punks” before, but I understand that it was quite a cult phenomenon when it first came out in the early 2000’s. Naturally, the title caught my eye, and the synopsis made me think of a skinny little 17 year old with a bad Manic Panic dye job I used to know…
Chopstick and his friends are anarchist street punks who live in a warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand, circa the mid-90’s. A few years before the beginning of “Dharma Punks”, Chopstick was introduced to Buddhism by a friend, and has since been trying to use meditation to make sense of what he sees around him. Meanwhile, he and his friends have gotten involved with a rather dubious character who hired them to make a impressive anarchist statement: blowing up a fast food restaurant on its grand opening night. As they get ready to put the plan into action, Chopstick and his friend/accomplice Tracy get separated, and the night takes on a very different turn from what was planned, with white supremacist skinheads, enigmatic Goth chicks and the ghost of Kurt Cobain getting tangled up in the action.
As you can imagine from the previous paragraphs, this graphic novel took me back and reminded me of people that I once knew and of emotions that I had once felt very, very deeply. The artwork is stark, black and white, thick lines, few details, but the ones you see really matter. The story weaves flashbacks in through the narrative, fleshing out the characters and their motivations perfectly. I loved that the female characters were as tough, as strong, as flawed and as human as the male ones. I loved that Chopsticks makes a stand that brings together his politics and his rejection of violence.
Despite how hefty it is, its a short read, that I would enthusiastically recommend to anyone who likes good graphic novels, especially those who smile to themselves when they hear this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7RUe...
November 16, 2014
The art is marvellous; the only thing better is the narrative. And it's weird, because for a story about anarchist terrorists blowing up a multi-national fast food restaurant chain while pursued by murderous skinheads, it's a small, quiet, domestic narrative about mate-ship, and the meaning of life, and making families you choose yourself.
Although it would technically fail the Bechdel test, the female characters are wonderful: vivid and unsexualized, bold and strong, afraid and uncertain, just like they're people! And they utterly resonate with me as representing what New Zealand women are actually like.
But the thing that's extra special is this is my city and that sense of familiarity brings me exceeding joy. I said in another review that the thing about growing up in New Zealand is you soon learn that everywhere real is somewhere else. Sang makes Auckland real too.
Although it would technically fail the Bechdel test, the female characters are wonderful: vivid and unsexualized, bold and strong, afraid and uncertain, just like they're people! And they utterly resonate with me as representing what New Zealand women are actually like.
But the thing that's extra special is this is my city and that sense of familiarity brings me exceeding joy. I said in another review that the thing about growing up in New Zealand is you soon learn that everywhere real is somewhere else. Sang makes Auckland real too.
October 16, 2015
A great story representative of New Zealand where it was written. You can feel a connection with the characters as though they are real people.
September 13, 2015
This has to be one of my favorite books of the year, so far. Andy Brown, the publisher of Conundrum, told me that they were describing this as New Zealand Love's answer to Love & Rockets. I had thought of that as I was reading the book, originally, but now it makes perfect sense to me. And it isn't just the punk connection. This is a complex and sophisticated story, with Sang manipulating narrative time in fascinating ways. I must reread this again so as to further appreciate it in time for our discussion of it on the upcoming episode of the podcast.
Read
October 24, 2017This gripping graphic novel follows a group of New Zealand punks, as they grapple with identity, loss, idealism, and the temptations of violence. The style is raw, the feelings are vivid.
— Christine Ro
from The Best Books We Read In June 2017: https://bookriot.com/2017/07/03/riot-...
— Christine Ro
from The Best Books We Read In June 2017: https://bookriot.com/2017/07/03/riot-...
January 13, 2017
This is the story of Chopstick a young asian punk in Auckland NZ in the eighties. It follows a dramatic night on the streets with punks, skinheads, goths and direct action activists. The art is beautiful, inky and poignant. Sometimes the women look too old cos of the style and sometimes the characters look too alike. The movement and scenery and clothing is really well done though.
I thought the characters were lacking, none of them were really fleshed out and most of them weren't very likeable. The storyline was flimsy too, tried to fit in too much and ended up not doing any of it very well.
I did enjoy it though, partly just from excitement of seeing a NZ based comic :)
I thought the characters were lacking, none of them were really fleshed out and most of them weren't very likeable. The storyline was flimsy too, tried to fit in too much and ended up not doing any of it very well.
I did enjoy it though, partly just from excitement of seeing a NZ based comic :)
February 4, 2020
3.5 Stars!
I could relate to this as it concentrates on a music scene which I was very much into at the exact time this was set, even if I did experience it on the other side of the world. This has echoes of “Romper Stomper” and Craig Marriner’s “Stonedogs”. There are also elements of many other coming of age graphic depictions from the likes of Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes etc, but this has a doom laden edge which hovers over the action like a morose cloud.
The art work is dark and gritty which goes along with the mood of the narrative. A big problem with the drawing is that three of the characters in here look almost identical, which is a real pain and leads to avoidable confusion. The story is compelling, but also a little messy at times. Buddhism can often be used as a lazy substitute for signifying profound and enlightened, and there is a bit of that going on here, too often the characters seemed too one dimensional and not properly developed.
But this also has a lot going for it too, Sang nails the angst of being that age and he captures the authenticity of the music scene, which adds balance and substance. He also touches on all the melodrama, peer pressure and struggle for identity which most people encounter during their late teens and early twenties, and overall this is an enjoyable read.
November 20, 2017
I really loved this and can see why it was so popular, the story is wild and fun and the philosophical discussions were really cool and interesting. I just wish the characters were easier to distinguish- the brush and ink style made for beautiful artworks but I think also contributed to all of the characters having v similar faces (as well as all being punks, so dressed v alike) and it made it hard to follow the story sometimes (esp in the flashbacks). Overall tho, it was pretty fucking cool and v beautiful.
October 23, 2018
Intense, emotional and surprisingly deep. The story shows many familiar Auckland locations. A weird mix of Anarchy, rebellion, sensitivity, and buddhism.
All of them topics that are top of my mind recently. Fit my mindset like a glove.
Great expressionist graphic novel with lots of heart and depth to it.
All of them topics that are top of my mind recently. Fit my mindset like a glove.
Great expressionist graphic novel with lots of heart and depth to it.
September 25, 2015
Spectacular work from a New Zealand creator Ant Sang collecting an 8-issue series from 2001-2003. If all New Zealand comics creators are as good as Ant Sang and Dylan Horrocks, I need to move to New Zealand.
August 18, 2020
Very striking art, beautiful story, and vivid characters. This is one of my favourite graphic novels I've read in a while.
August 11, 2021
Dharmapunks focuses on a series of events that unfurl over the course of just a few hours (with a few flashbacks to the past), but is really a deeper meditation on human subjectivity, trauma/grief, and possibilities for internal transformation. It is a story that blurs genre; it is somewhat of a crime thriller (the protagonist Chopsticks, a Chinese, Buddhist, punk living in Auckland, NZ is involved in a plot to blow up a new fast food chain on its opening day when his efforts are thwarted by a gang of Neo-Nazis), but is perhaps more-so a character study (we get deeper insight into Chopstick’s religious/political philosophies, and how he uses them to justify his apathy and callousness towards human life—his own and that of other people— in the wake of acute grief and loss). While the graphic novel deals with heavy themes, the intimate scenes between Chopsticks and Mewt (a mysterious non-verbal woman he meets at the site where his close friend committed suicide), and the intrigue generated by the political schemes keeps the story moving with some much-needed respites. I felt like the art style got better as the story went on, with some panels growing increasingly surrealist to give us a sense of the protagonists’s inner life. Highly recommend, but strong content warning for suicide!
4.5 stars!
CW: suicide and self-harm; neo-Nazis and racialized violence/hate crimes; explosions; anti-Asian racial slurs; possible misgendering/transphobia (a gender non-conforming character is called ‘boygirl’ and it’s not clear if it’s consensual or affirming)
4.5 stars!
CW: suicide and self-harm; neo-Nazis and racialized violence/hate crimes; explosions; anti-Asian racial slurs; possible misgendering/transphobia (a gender non-conforming character is called ‘boygirl’ and it’s not clear if it’s consensual or affirming)
November 1, 2023
Punky, cool and charming, this showcases what NZ can deliver to the graphic novel world. A bit of a coming of age (finding oneself) novel that touches on anarchy, race, suicide, love, friendship and Kurt Cobain. What’s not to love?
September 6, 2017
2.5
The art was good, but not enough detail in the story. Did love the character of Mewt though.
The art was good, but not enough detail in the story. Did love the character of Mewt though.
November 18, 2018
I really loved this book. Great art. Great story. Well worth the read.
December 23, 2019
Read for the Own Voices: Oceania task.
October 7, 2020
Amazing. One of the best local (NZ) comics I've ever seen and read. Only just caught up with this now - missed it completely at the time. Genius.
Read
June 29, 2024Big fan of the style Aotearoa New Zealand culture through comics.
May 26, 2019
What a surprising gem of a comic! Ant Sang's "The Dharma Punks" has all the elements I usually love in a dramatic graphic novel--unique characters, sharply crafted visuals, a quickly building & well paced story line--while at the same time holding a big surprise at its center as it is also a quiet meditation on loss, spiritual searching, & the magic of random meetings.
The main character, Chopstick, seems to move like a ghost between the two contrary worlds he inhabits--one of passionate action & another of quiet detachment. When this young asian man with spiky hair is not meditating, he is playing in his punk band. When he is not considering the sayings of the Buddha, he is participating in a plot to bomb the grand opening of a chain burger joint. When he is not talking with his anarchist friends, he is sadly thinking back to the recent loss of a complicated friend. And yet in every case he is striving so hard to be in the moment that he appears caught between his thoughts and his actions, unable or unwilling to commit to actually being present for what is, only waiting for what he thinks should be.
The main story unfolds over the course of the night before the bombing as Chopstick wanders his New Zealand city pondering his role in the violent protest. The dark, tightly cropped, heavy-lined drawings are full of other figures plunging towards the fateful event--thrashing punks, anarchist vegans, a gloomy goth, racist skinheads, and the chatty ghost of Kurt Cobain who Chopstick avoids or engages with. Yet the deepest moments occur during the brief time Chopstick spends with a mysteriously mute, seemingly troubled woman he discovers as she stands precariously on the railing of a high bridge. In fact, this free thinking & embodied woman is a perfect blend of the contrasts that Chopstick is divided over and he is healed by his time with her. There is a particularly moving sequence when he surrenders completely to the moment while skinny dipping in a hidden water hole shaded by a bodhi tree under a star threaded sky. The time he spends with her, naked and alive, is of such startling open hearted beauty found in the midst of such chaos, that I was moved to tears.
Of course the story doesn't end there as the next day comes and Chopstick must make his decision about his role in the bombing, but I will not spoil that for you!!
I highly recommend this story to anybody who has ever felt lost, has ever been found, or loves the mystery of it all.
July 5, 2015
This was a sucker punch back to my late teens. Replace Auckland with 1990s Christchurch and it is exactly right. The intensity, the beauty, the plans to change the world. The sanctuary in an abandoned cemetery, a park at night, the botanical gardens after hours. The artwork threw me back to grungy student flats with Dead Kennedys posters on the walls and Noam Chomsky books on the coffee table, nights on New Brighton beach, the sea and the stars. It's wrenching and beautiful and I inhaled it in an afternoon. Definitely one for the re-read shelf!
April 26, 2016
I really loved this book - and loved it to the point that I really don't think I have anything particularly interesting to say about it. The art is a dramatically contrasted black and white, but is very easy to read visually. As for the story, I wouldn't say that it was the most original story ever, but it was interesting and fast paced. This book is a wonderful fusion of art and storytelling.
I don't really think I have too much to say about this book beyond that - I'd like to read more of Ant Sang's books, but apparently his work, beyond this one book, isn't readily available in my area.
I don't really think I have too much to say about this book beyond that - I'd like to read more of Ant Sang's books, but apparently his work, beyond this one book, isn't readily available in my area.
May 16, 2016
A difficult book to get into - mostly due to my difficulty in identifying which character was who from page to page - but the ending when it all comes together made the journey worth it.
Amazing detail in very heavy black-and-white drawings, heavy on the black.
Amazing detail in very heavy black-and-white drawings, heavy on the black.
December 23, 2016
Ce livre est vraiment intense, les dessins sont très bien fait. Jamais je n'aurai pensé apprécier ce livre mais en fait si et je l'ai terminé en moins d'une heure. L'histoire est très bien rédigée, les personnages attachants. Hâte de lire le tome 2!
September 14, 2015
Blah blah blah...... Decent moments. A bit whiny. Unnecessary inclusion of some sub themes.
July 16, 2016
A great Saturday morning read. Highly recommend this.
October 31, 2016
Marvelous!
The story carries a very deep meaning and makes your heart bleed.
Art is very simple and creates the exact atmosphere around you.
DO NOT MISS an opportunity to read this book.
The story carries a very deep meaning and makes your heart bleed.
Art is very simple and creates the exact atmosphere around you.
DO NOT MISS an opportunity to read this book.
August 25, 2019
The art was great! To quote Chopstick, "Emaho!"
February 15, 2022
As much as I loved the idea and the art in this, it really wasn't my thing and I really struggled to read the whole thing. Awesome art, though.
June 22, 2015
the world is an illusion, but something does matter
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews