Neil Strauss is best known for "The Game," a book/pickup strategy/talk show ticket that purports to teach even the schlubbiest guy able to score with the hottest women. It's no surprise, then, that his first detour into comic books is cynical, sex-crazed, and icky icky poo. Which isn't to say that it's bad, exactly.

How to Make Money Like a Porn Star (titled after Jenna Jameson's memoir, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, which Strauss co-wrote). It chronicles the rise and fall of one fictional Claudia Corvette, porn's umpteenth Hot Young Thing, as she struggles against rival performers, an evil Svengali, pesky Arab kidnappers and her own dark past. A collage of mini comics, movie posters, flashbacks, and coloring book activities supplement the main narrative. Bernard Chang's art is versatile, fluid, and a perfect match for this postmodern tragedy.

Strauss's parodic takedown of the porn industry works best when it sticks to its main targets--the absurd scale of the industry, some men's dependence on porn, empty materialism, our collective cultural hypocrisy about sex. But the missteps are many: A more repulsive, unredeemable cast of characters never existed--it's hard to care about any of them. Cheap jokes and low blows abound. The gross-out shocker of an ending falls flat. How to Make Money Like a Porn Star is also full of bizarre racism and persistent (and often completely gratuitous) sexualized violence. Parts of the book that were probably meant to titillate made me feel kinda sick. I couldn't put the book down, but afterwards I felt like a needed to take a shower. And never have sex again.

Despite it's flaws, this book is a must-read (if you can stomach it) for those interested in porn, comics, and pop culture. If only it wasn't too goddamn misanthropic to be any fun.