#IReadsYou Review: GOOD ON BOTH SIDES - A (th)ink Anthology

GOOD ON BOTH SIDES – A (TH)INK ANTHOLOGY #5
KEITH KNIGHT PRESS/Microcosm Publishing

CARTOONIST: Keith Knight
ISBN: 978-0-9788053-5-7; paperback; 6" x 7.5" x 0.4" (June 2022)
128pp, Color, $20.00 U.S.

Good on Both Sides is a new collection of the socio-political, single-panel comic strip, (th)ink.  Debuting in 2000 on the now defunct website, Africana.com, (th)ink is the creation of Keith Knight, a cartoonist, comics creator, and musician.  Knight is also the creator and an executive producer on the recent Hulu series, “Woke.”  (th)ink currently appears in several outlets, including the Nib, Daily KOS, Antigravity, and The Funny Times.

Good on Both Sides, the fifth (th)ink paperback collection, takes its title by paraphrasing Donald Trump's moral equivalency after the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.  It covers (th)ink episodes published during the early years of Donald Trump's masquerade as the 45th President of the United States.  Knight captures the absurdity of the time under an absurd leader and chronicles and depicts everything that made non-white supremacists cringe.

THE LOWDOWN:  In a sense political cartoonists are a dime a dozen.  The truth is that I have a hard time finding many that are really bad at their chosen professions.  What makes Keith Knight different?

I first became acquainted with Knight's work in late 2006 when I received a copy of Are We Feeling Safer Yet? (2007), the second (th)ink collection.  Sadly, I lost touch with him and had not thought of him until I heard about his Hulu TV series, “Woke,” last year.  I recently reconnected with him to request a copy-for-review of Good on Both Sides.  On the back cover of this book is a quote from Dawn Tol, part of which reads, “Keith Knight has never been more overtly Black.”

That is what makes Knight different from other political cartoonists.  He is Black.  Yes, there are other African-American political cartoonists (Walt Carr, David G. Brown), but for now, we are talking about Keith Knight, who is from a particular tradition.  That tradition involves Coloreds, Negroes, Afro-Americans, African-American, etc. who do not bite their tongues, metaphorically or otherwise, for the sake of propriety and for the feelings of good White folk and cautious, fretting Black folk.

I had forgotten just how screwed up the first half of Trump's occupation was … because the second half turned into … well,you know.  Knight's commentary via political cartoons is both incisive and relentless.  I won't say that he is “unapologetic” because apologizing is irrelevant in the context of what Knight does.  It isn't just Trump that is wrong with this country; it is also the rotten culture and society.  Honestly, much of that rot comes from White racism, supremacy, and privilege:  those that perpetuate it; those that enjoy the advantages while letting someone else do the dirty work; and those who benefit and give nominal lip service in criticizing it.

In Good on Both Sides, nothing and no one is spared.  Warts and all, Klan robes and hoods:  Knight reveals the stains without a thought for decorum.  Political commentary, words, pictures, or cartoons need that, especially when so many commentators want us to “turn down the temperature.”  Knight is the triple truth, Ruth.

Good on Both Sides isn't all about Trump.  As I said, there were plenty of awful people during that time who deserve Knight's punches.  Knight also offers several nice memorials and tributes to such luminaries as W.E.B. Du Bois, Dick Gregory, and Josephine Baker, to name a few.  I am not crazy about everything in Good on Both Sides, but it's close.  I could have read another hundred pages just to see what Knight has to say about the time period this collection covers.

Keith Knight's political cartoons are timely, and many are timeless.  The timeless ones will always have bite, but the timely will cut like a knife for years to come.  And Good on Both Sides is just plain funny.  I laughed a lot, and I practically always need that from political cartoons.  I encourage you, dear readers, to get a copy of Good on Both Sides.  Maybe if enough of you read it, someone will get the notion to shortlist Mr. Knight for a Pulitzer Prize.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of great political cartoons and of Keith Knight's work will want to read Good on Both Sides.

A

★★★★+ out of 4 stars

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


You can buy copies of Good on Both Sides at indie book stores or at the following online shops: here or https://keithknight.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-good-on-both-sides-the-new-th-ink-collection and here or https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/1446.


Find Keith Knight on the Internet:
https://keithknightart.com/
https://kchronicles.com/
https://twitter.com/KeefKnight
https://www.patreon.com/keefknight
https://www.instagram.com/iamkeithknight/?hl=en
https://keithknight.bigcartel.com/
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/1446
https://www.facebook.com/keithknightcartoonist/
https://www.gocomics.com/thekchronicles


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: ARE WE FEELING SAFER YET? - A (th)ink Anthology

ARE WE FEELING SAFER YET? A (TH)INK ANTHOLOGY #2
KEITH KNIGHT PRESS/Top Shelf Productions

CARTOONIST: Keith Knight
ISBN-13: 978-0-9788053-0-2; paperback; (January 2007)
128pp, B&W, $12.95 U.S., $16.95 CAN

Keith Knight is a cartoonist, musician, and television creator and executive producer (Hulu's “Woke”).  Knight also produces a weekly multi-panel strip, The K Chronicles, and he has previously contributed to MAD Magazine and ESPN The Magazine.

One of Knight's other comics is (th)ink, a socio-political (mostly) single-panel cartoon.  It began life in 2000 as a digital comic on the now defunct website, Africana.com.  Over the years, (th)ink has appeared on numerous websites and has been published in daily and alternative newspapers (including the San Francisco Chronicle, The Rocky Mountain Chronicle, and the Haight Ashbury Beat).  It currently appears in the Nib, Daily KOS, Antigravity, and The Funny Times, to name a few.

Published in 2007, Are We Feeling Safer Yet? was the second paperback collection of Knight's (th)ink cartoons.  What follows is the edited and revised text of a review of Are We Feeling Safer Yet? that I wrote for another website in late 2006:

THE LOWDOWN:  Although Knight probably calls (th)ink a comic strip, it's more like an ongoing editorial cartoon.  Knight's work is certainly related in terms of comic strips to work of cartoonist, Garry Trudeau, who is best known for his award-winning newspaper comic, Doonesbury.  As an African-American cartoonist, Knight's work is similar in tone to Aaron McGruder newspaper comic strip, The Boondocks.  However, while, Trudeau and McGruder deal with a cast of continuing characters and use them to comment on politics, society, and culture, Knight's cast is America itself.  Essentially, that is what an editorial cartoonist generally uses as his cast – our nation, even if, as a group, editorial cartoonists seemed fixated on politicians and in particular, the sitting President (in this case George W. Bush).

Knight is sharp and clever, and his humor and commentary are even sharper.  He is, though, not mean-spirited, and he only draws blood when he has to do so - such as when he uses a guy discovering that his color and white laundry have been mixed to comment on integration (p. 46).  Sometimes he cuts a subject because they handed him the blade, as in a cartoon featuring Snoop Dogg which comments on the rapper-actor's behavior on stage (p.78).

Knight is probably often compared to McGruder because both are Black cartoonists/commentators and both take the Bush Administration to the shed, but there, the similarity ends.  Knight belongs on the editorial page.  Because he uses Black characters and often deals with African-American or Hip-Hop culture doesn't make him different from white cartoonists and commentators who ply their trade on our nation's newspaper editorial sections.

Keith Knight is a funny guy, but he is astute like the good editorial cartoonist should be.  What Knight says with pen and ink makes sense, and he's ready for the big time. [End of text of original review.]

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Keith Knight and (th)ink will want Are We Feeling Safer Yet?

A
★★★★+ out of 4 stars

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


Readers can buy copies of Are We Feeling Safer Yet here or at https://keithknight.bigcartel.com/product/are-we-feeling-safer-yet-th-ink-book-2 or https://lastgasp.com/products/are-we-feeling-safer-yet-a-think-anthology?_pos=1&_sid=19da0e2ca&_ss=r.


Find Keith Knight on the Internet:
https://keithknightart.com/
https://kchronicles.com/
https://twitter.com/KeefKnight
https://www.patreon.com/keefknight
https://www.instagram.com/iamkeithknight/?hl=en
https://keithknight.bigcartel.com/
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/1446
https://www.facebook.com/keithknightcartoonist/
https://www.gocomics.com/thekchronicles


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: NOW #9

NOW: THE NEW COMICS ANTHOLOGY #9
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

CARTOONISTS: Theo Ellsworth; Raquelle Jac; Keren Katz; Noah Van Sciver; Emil Friis Ernst; Ben Nadler; Ethel Wolfe
DESIGN: Jacob Covey
EDITOR: Eric Reynolds
COVER: Raquelle Jac
BACKCOVER: John Ohannesian
ISBN: 978-1-68396-371-4; paperback (September 2020)
120pp, Color, $12.99 U.S.

NOW: The New Comics Anthology is an alternative-comics anthology series launched in 2017 and edited by Eric Reynolds.  NOW is published by alt-comix and art comics publisher, Fantagraphics Books.  Over its four-plus decades of existence, Fantagraphics has published what is probably the most diverse collection of comic book anthologies in the history of North American comic books.  That line-up includes such titles as Anything Goes, Critters, Mome, Pictopia, and Zero Zero, to name a few.

NOW: The New Comics Anthology #9 offers a selection of seven cartoonists and comics creators, as well as a back cover “comics strip” from John Ohannesian.  NOW #9 holds to Eric Reynolds' creed (from NOW #1) that NOW would showcase “...as broad a range of quality comic art as possible...”

The contributors list includes a Leroy favorite, Noah Van Sciver.  But let's take a look at each of NOW #9's cartoonists' contributions:

THE LOWDOWN:  The illustration that acts as NOW #9's cover art is entitled “Nine,” and  is produced by Texan, Raquelle Jac.  It is a beautiful piece that reminds me of the drawings and doodles high school students commit to their tablets to pass the time or to ignore a teacher.  It is a striking image, a slice-of-surreal life that embraces a selection of the myriad variations of apartment living.

“The Real Me” by Theo Ellsworth:
This is a one-page comic that reminds me of the work of cartoonist/illustrator, Jim Woodring.  It has an unsettling quality, and I really felt that the subject of “The Real Me” was talking to me.

“Misguided Love” by Raquell Jac:
This story is the cover times 41.  The autobiographical story, “Misguided Love,” with its garish and sometimes subdued colors, is beautiful to look at.  Unfortunately, it is an ugly read.  There is just too much clutter, and some of the panels are drawn as to be impossible to read.  All of it is static between the author and her audience.  What I actually can understand or interpret is interesting, but this is way too obtuse in its graphical storytelling.

“The Raindrop Prelude” by Keren Katz:
The story offers some of the most beautiful drapery that I have seen in a comic book in a while.  The art has a Japanese woodblock printing quality, and the story involves, in a way, one of composer and pianist Frederic Chopin's 24 “Preludes,” specifically the “Raindrop” prelude.  The story is composed of several single-page illustrations (for the most part), and I felt my imagination floating through the story, while also trying to linger to keep looking at the pretty art.

“Spacehawk” by Noah Van Sciver:
This story is a tribute to cult cartoonist, Basil Wolverton (1909-1978), and his first character of note, the kooky “Spacehawk.”  Of course, Van Sciver's art does not match the peculiar nature for which Wolverton was known, but he captures the kookiness.

“Zoom” by Emil Friis Ernst:
At times, there is a Moebius-like quality about “Zoom.”  I could see it having a place in Metal Hurlant from long ago.

“Quarryhouse” by Ben Nadler:
I have mentioned in previous reviews that I once read a review of an Annie Lennox album (perhaps, in Spin Magazine), in which the reviewer said that every LP needed at least one great song.  I believe that every volume or issue of a comics anthology needs at least one great story.

“Quarryhouse” is the first of NOW #9's two great stories.  A mixture of Hey, Wait... era Jason and Acme Novelty Library-era Chris Ware, “Quarryhouse” takes place over a sixty-hear period – 1989, 2019, and 2049 and involves a tragedy (similar to the one in Hey, Wait...).  Depending on how one reads “Quarryhouse,” each time period introduces a new theme to the story.  I also believe that author-cartoonist Ben Nadler suggests that different generations of a family are connected much more deeply and intimately than by bloodline alone.  They share stories, pain, curses, guilt, and obligations, and are tethered by the need to reach across time to help one another.

“How Mums Annoy You” by Ethel Wolfe:
The 2013 Martin Scorsese film, The Wolf of Wall Street, was an adaptation of the 2007 memoir of the same name by notorious stockbroker and trader, Jordan Belfort.  The film received criticism because some people interpreted it as glorifying Belfort's criminal behavior and nihilistic lifestyle.  In answer to this, the film's screenwriter, Terence Winter, said that the film was about two things:  people don't change, and they never learn.”

NOW #9's second great story, “How Mums Annoy You,” is a story of abuse that focuses on an Internet “celebrity” who is also a predator and a manipulator of the young women who follow him.  Ethel Wolfe (a pen name used by the cartoonist John Harvey) may not realize that his story has a theme:  people don't change and they never learn … and they lie to themselves and others.  If Hollywood really paid attention to alternative comics, this story would have been optioned for film or television already.  It is a bracing read that left me wanting more.

“Art” back cover strip by John Ohannesian:
Meh.

So, in conclusion, the cover art and two great stories, “Quarryhouse” and “How Mums Annoy You,” are what make NOW #9.  There ended up being a little controversy about one of the contributors some months after this issue was published, but I'll let you find out the details for yourselves, dear readers.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of classic alternative-comics anthologies will want to discover NOW: The New Comics Anthology.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


https://www.fantagraphics.com/
https://twitter.com/fantagraphics
https://www.instagram.com/fantagraphics/
https://www.facebook.com/fantagraphics/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtLxEaspctVar287DtdsMww


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

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Amazon wants me to inform you that the link below is a PAID AD, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on the ad below AND buy something(s).

#IReadsYou Book Review: STRANGE PLANET

STRANGE PLANET
HARPERCOLLINS/Morrow Gift – @WmMorrowBks and @HarperCollins

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR-CARTOONIST: Nathan W. Pyle – @nathanwpyle
ISBN: 978-0-06-297070-1; hardcover; 6.00 in (w) x 6.00 in (h) (November 19, 2019)
E-ISBN: 978-0-06-297069-5 (eBook)
144pp, Color, $14.99 U.S., $18.50 CAN

Strange Planet is a new book of cartoons from author and cartoonist, Nathan W. Pyle.  Pyle is known for his bestselling books of cartoons, NYC Basic Tips and 99 Stories I Could Tell.  Strange Planet is a new hardcover book (6 in x 6 in) that collects cartoons Pyle posted on an Instagram page entitled, “Strange Planet,” beginning in February 2019.

Strange Planet chronicles the lives of the alien inhabitants of a world that is similar to ours.  They resemble the infamous “gray aliens,” except they are blue.  They share a few characteristics with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or “Roger” from the American animated television series, “American Dad!,” but Strange Planet's aliens are soft, cuddly, and fluid.  They look like leaner versions of beloved cartoon character, Casper the Friendly Ghost.

In a world of bright pinks, blues, greens, and purples, the inhabitants of Strange Planet narrate their emotions and act out scenarios that are extremely familiar to humans.  They throw parties.  They believe in the tooth fairy, but call teeth “mouth stones” and the tooth fairy “magical mouth stone being.”  They call their sun a “star,” so they call sunburn “star damage.”  And sweet dreams are referred to as “Imagine Pleasant Nonsense.”  So relax, perhaps in your “rest chamber” (bedroom), and enjoy a cup of “hot leaf liquid” (tea) or jittery liquid (coffee) and enter the the peculiar, but familiar world of Strange Planet.

Nathan W. Pyle has a knack for presenting the ordinary as something worth reexamining.  Strange Planet is a webcomic that exists in “The Twilight Zone” that is situated between beloved newspaper comics like Gary Larson's The Far Side and Scott Adams' Dilbert.  In Strange Planet, everything is familiar, but filtered through a florescent-colored dream-shake made of Nehi grape-infused milk, pink ice cream, orange “Kool-Aid,” and blue food coloring.

Ultimately, however, Strange Planet is sweet, endearing, and funny.  Through these delightful alien inhabitants, we the readers learn to love the mundane and the ordinary, the things that dominate our everyday lives.  Pyle makes us appreciate that we don't have to have amazing, star-studded, lives to enjoy the small, seemingly insignificant moments in our lives.  Even the amazing and the super-stars (as Jameis Winston said) have small, seemingly insignificant moments in which they can find delight – don't they?

With its compact size, Strange Planet is the perfect (and handy) gift book for the holidays.  That's when we'll need these Strange Planet inhabitants to make us laugh at ourselves.

7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

Strange Planet Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nathanwpylestrangeplanet/?hl=en
https://www.nathanwpyle.art/strangeplanet
http://www.nathanwpyle.com/
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/nathanwpyle


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.


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Review: THE ENVIOUS SIBLINGS and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes

THE ENVIOUS SIBLINGS AND OTHER MORBID NURSERY RHYMES
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY – @wwnorton

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Landis Blair
ISBN: 978-0-393-65162-1; hardcover – 7.3” x 7.3” (October 8, 2019)
240pp, Color, $20.00 U.S., $27.00 CAN

The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes is a book collection of nursery rhymes and cartoons from comics artist, cartoonist, and book illustrator, Landis Blair.  A hardcover book (7.3” x 7.3” dimensions/trim size), The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes is a collection of rhyming vignettes or stories.  Each vignette/story is divided into multiple verses; each verse has its own page featuring a cartoon that illustrates the contents of the verse.

The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes (which I will occasionally shorten to The Envious Siblings) contains eights vignettes/stories.  They are “The Malicious Playground,” “My Suspicious Sister,” “The Envious Siblings,” “The Refinement Tree,” “The Awful Underground,” “Honourable Beasts,” “Grounded,” and “Danse Macabre.”

I am not familiar with Landis Blair's prior work, but it is obvious that he is influenced by Edward Gorey, the American writer and artist whose drawings were macabre and unsettling.  In fact, Blair holds Gorey for special notice in the acknowledgments page at the back of the book.  The contents of The Envious Siblings can also be favorable compared to the work of Roald Dahl (renowned author of children's books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Quentin Blake (children's author best known for illustrating Dahl's books), Charles Addams (legendary cartoonist at The New Yorker and creator of what became known as “The Addams Family”), Shel Silverstein (beloved children's book author and illustrator), and Tim Burton (director and filmmaker known for his 30+ year career making films with macabre sensibilities).  I would also add to that list cartoonist and comic book creator, Richard Sala, who is far lesser known than the aforementioned authors and visual artists, but whose work is also true to the spirit of Edward Gorey.

I have seen the term “pop macabre” used to describe the work of Charles Addams and Tim Burton.  I assume that the term separates Burton and Addams from horror novelists like Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Clive Barker, “masters of the macabre” who emerged in the last quarter-century of the twentieth century.  The authors' novels were sometimes both macabre and violent, while Addams and Burton's work is macabre, but gentle and humorous.

I would call Landis Blair more “pop gruesome” than “pop macabre,” but the stories and cartoons in The Envious Siblings are both gleefully gruesome and grotesquely macabre.  They have a kind of absurdist horror to them that, to me, redefines the nursery rhyme, the fairy tale, and the folk tale.  Or perhaps what I see as a redefinition is actually a cartoonist and visual artistic voice that is truly unique.  Edward Gorey may have inspired Blair, but Blair has gone on to create his own aesthetic, the way American blues music inspired The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, before Jagger and Richards took those influences and invented their own sound for the Stones.

I want to pick a favorite story in The Envious Siblings, and I actually think a few of the stories here would get Landis Blair jailed in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes.  First, there is the pantomime comic strip (of sorts), “The Awful Underground,” a sort of Brothers Grimm fairy tale-warning about getting lost.  It mixes a bit of Shel Silverstein and Maurice Sendak and has a blood-chilling ending.  I really don't want to spoil this, so I'll say no more.

Right after that is “Honourable Beasts,” a Satanic Aesop's Fable about talking to strangers.  The ending is ghastly, just not the way you think it would after reading the first 15 pages of this 16-page tale.  And right after that (dear Lord) is “Grounded,” a middle-grade (not nursery) rhyme about an incorrigible child in a test of wills with his exasperated and none-too-bright parents.  About that ending, all I can say is “Wow!”

All the stories here are delightfully macabre, but these three are the little monsters that stand out.  If every music album needs one great song, The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes has three great rhymes/songs and that makes the entire book a great work of the macabre and the gruesome.

If you like Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein, and Tim Burton... and Richard Sala, do I have a book of cartoons for you!  The Envious Siblings and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes is a must-have, and its author, Landis Blair is a revelation.  Encore! Encore!, you sick and devious new master of the macabre.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

https://www.landisblair.com/
https://twitter.com/LandisBlair
https://www.instagram.com/landisblair/


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: THE CARTOON GUIDE TO BIOLOGY

THE CARTOON GUIDE TO BIOLOGY
HARPCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

AUTHORS: Larry Gonick and Dave Wessner
ART: Larry Gonick
ISBN: 978-0-06-239865-9; paperback (July 30, 2019)
320pp, B&W, $19.99 U.S., $24.99 CAN

I first discovered the work of cartoonist Larry Gonick when I found an issue of the comic book series, The Cartoon History of the Universe, which told the history of the universe and of Earth in the medium of cartoons and comics.   The Cartoon History of the Universe was initially published in comic book installments (by Rip Off Press), and ran for nine issues from 1978 to 1982.  I can't remember which issues I bought, but it was several of them – until I could no longer find a store that stocked the series.  The Cartoon History of the Universe was eventually collected in three large-sized trade paperbacks.

Gonick has also adapted the format he used in The Cartoon History of the Universe to produce or co-author a number of “cartoon guide” books.  They include such titles as The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, The Cartoon Guide to Sex, and The Cartoon Guide to the Computer, to name a few.  Gonick's publisher, WilliamMorrow (an imprint of HarperCollins) sent me a review copy of The Cartoon Guide to Algebra a few years ago.

William Morrow also sent me the latest “Cartoon Guide” from Larry Gonick, The Cartoon Guide to Biology, which Gonick co-authors with Dave Wessner, a professor of biology at Davidson College.  The publisher describes The Cartoon Guide to Biology as “a hilarious and informative handbook to the science of life.”  In words and pictures (cartoons), Gonick and Wessner explain the inner workings of the cell, the hows and whys of gene expression, the whatnot of sexual and asexual reproduction, and beyond, with a warning about “Disruption.”

I remember my science text books as being illustrated by photographs.  I suppose that if anyone dared publish a science text book illustrated with cartoons, especially during the 20th century, that publisher would have (1) gone bankrupt; (2) been laughed at; (3) and been unable to get a meeting with the salesmen, middlemen, and assorted gatekeepers within public school text book sales and distribution networks.

Seriously, it is not just the cartoons that make these “Cartoon Guides” work; it is also the sense of engagement.  The text and cartoons are not delivered as dry lecture or as mere explanation; instead they are like storytelling.  From the development of the study of biology to the secrets of cells and then, proteins, sugars, fats, and more, Gonick and Wessner tell a story.

Readers will enjoy the sections on respiration and photosynthesis.  Of course, Chapters 12 and 13's trip through reproduction will also be of interest.  Those chapters are full of sly humor, with a cartoon reference to the X-Men and some mocking of “mansplaining” the “planting of seed.”  The book ends with a warning about climate change, but adds encouragement for the those future biologists.

I won't act like The Cartoon Guide to Biology is perfect; sometimes reading the terminology can end up being a quick trip down the black hole of disinterest.  Still, if only school science books were like The Cartoon Guide to Biology, at least little, maybe science and students would come together and engage more often.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: THE CARTOON GUIDE TO ALGEBRA

THE CARTOON GUIDE TO ALGEBRA
HARPCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

AUTHOR/CARTOONIST: Larry Gonick
ISBN: 978-0-06-220269-7; paperback (January 20, 2015)
240pp, B&W, $18.99 U.S.

I first discovered the work of cartoonist Larry Gonick when I found an issue of The Cartoon History of the Universe, a history of the world in comic book form.   The Cartoon History of the Universe was initially published in comic book installments (by Rip Off Press), beginning in 1978.  I can't remember which issues I bought, but it was several of them – until I could no longer find a store that stocked the series.  The Cartoon History of the Universe was eventually collected in three large-sized trade paperbacks.

Gonick has also adapted the format of The Cartoon History of the Universe in order to produce or co-create a number of “cartoon guide” books.  They include such titles as The Cartoon Guide to Genetics, The Cartoon Guide to Sex, and The Cartoon Guide to the Computer, to name a few.

The latest “Cartoon Guide” from Larry Gonick is The Cartoon Guide to Algebra, a comprehensive and also comical illustrated guide to algebra.  On its back cover, The Cartoon Guide to Algebra playfully asks several questions:  “Do you think that a Cartesian plane is a luxury jetliner?  Does the phrase “algebraic expression” leave you with a puzzled look?  Do you believe that the Order of Operations is an Emmy-winning medical drama?”  Well, The Cartoon Guide to Algebra promises to put the reader “on the road to algebraic literacy.”

I am not a fan of algebra, although I once was – for about two minutes in high school.  I would not bother with this book, except that I am a fan of Larry Gonick, obviously because of The Cartoon History of the Universe.  I found this “math book” to be readable, because I remembered some algebra.  I think that high school students that don't like algebra may not have any interest in this book or even if some of them will understand it.

Actually, I see The Cartoon Guide to Algebra as a book aimed at adults that need to learn algebra for some reason.  However, I think that smart young readers and teens, familiar with comics, may also embrace this title.  Truthfully, I would rather learn algebra from Larry Gonick and The Cartoon Guide to Algebra than from an instructor.  He is a good “explainer,” and his books are fun to read.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: ET TU, BRUTE? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors

ET TU, BRUTE? THE DEATHS OF THE ROMAN EMPERORS
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY – @wwnorton

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Jason Novak
ISBN: 978-0-393-63573-7; hardcover – 5.6” x 7.3” (June 12, 2018)
208pp, Color, $16.95 U.S., $22.95 CAN

Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors is a book of cartoons from cartoonist, Jason Novak, whose work has appeared in such periodicals and journals as Harper's, The New Yorker, and the Paris Review, to name a few.  Et Tu, Brute? is a work of history told via cartoons, and it compiles the deaths of all the Roman emperors, from the establishment of the Roman Empire (27 BC) to the fall of Rome and the end of the “Western Empire” (476 AD).

Did you know that Julius Caesar was not the first emperor of Rome.  Caesar had proclaimed himself provisional dictator, but he was murdered before the role of Roman emperor was codified.  Still, Caesar's brutal fate and his ghost seemed to have haunted the role of emperor, as the first emperor, Augustus, who was Caesar's adopted nephew, Octavian, would learn.  When the Roman Republic became an empire (27 BC), it got an emperor, and suddenly Rome, what it was – body and soul – became embodied in a single frail and imperfect human being.

And many of those emperors found their lives snuffed out, often murdered by colleagues and fellow citizens, the way Julius Caesar was.  See Nero stabbing himself in the throat.  Witness Tiberius smothered in his sleep by his successor.  Cartoon Caligula is killed by his own praetorian guard in a single cartoon illustration.

Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors chronicles the death by murder, disease, mutiny, war, etc., and by unknown causes of every emperor.  It begins with Augustus being poisoned by his wife in 14 A.D. to the mysterious fate of Romulus Augustus after the fall of Rome in 476 A.D. and the end of the Rome's “Western Empire.”  Et Tu, Brute? carries readers on a bloody romp through the first five centuries of the Roman Empire, but it is a journey illustrated in over ninety 5.6” × 7.3” cartoons, each one with a wry and wicked sense of humor in depicting the demise of an emperor and occasionally a would-be-emperor.

I am a huge fan of the kind of humor and political cartoons found in magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals.  I especially love the singe-panel vignettes and single-page illustrations found in men's magazines such as Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, and the Humorama line.  If I had to pick a favorite periodical for cartoons it would be the venerable magazine, The New Yorker, and my favorite cartoonist is the late and eternally great Charles Addams, one of the grand old masters of The New Yorker.

In Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors, James Novak's cartoons recall the work of a author and illustrator who plied his trade in a vein similar to Addams, the late master, Edward Gorey.  Novak's drawing and graphic style are more about sensibility rather than about composition, in this case a macabre sensibility.  Novak is at once mercurial and then, representational.  His compositions erratically balance sparse line work and brushstrokes that slap ink around as if by a drunken cartoonist's hand.  And that works for his subject matter, particularly in Et Tu, Brute?

This book is both witty and morbid, but there is power in the way Novak draws these cartoons, in what he presents to his readers.  He conveys that fate is fickle and life and existence – if they can be embodied or personified – have a twisted sense of humor.  Dear reader, you don't have to know much about the Roman Empire to like this book.  You can simply enjoy Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors because cartoon history is a great way to learn a little history and because this cartoon history is a macabre blast to read.

8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: ABRIDGED CLASSICS

ABRIDGED CLASSICS: BRIEF SUMMARIES OF BOOKS YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO READ BUT PROBABLY DIDN'T
HARPERCOLLINS/Harper Design – @HarperCollins @harperdesignbks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: John Atkinson
ISBN: 978-0-06-274785-3; hardcover – 5.813” x 7.813” (June 5, 2018)
160pp, Color, $19.99 U.S., $24.99 CAN

Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read But Probably Didn't is a new book of cartoons from author John Atkinson.  The book presents more than a 150 cartoons that offer humorous commentaries on a little over 100 well-known novels and works of literature.

Abridged Classics: Brief Summaries of Books You Were Supposed to Read but Probably Didn’t is exactly what the title says.  It is a summary of over 100 well-known novels and books, but these are irreverent summations in which author John Atkinson cleverly describes the plot or story of each book in the fewest words possible.  Each summation is accompanied by one or two funny, color illustrations, which you can also describe as cartoons.

In what his publisher describes as “humorous super-condensed summations,” Atkinson takes on and skewers the work and writings of some of the most revered authors from the United States, Great Britain, Europe, and Russia.  Atkinson's laugh attack takes on authors who wrote from several hundred years ago to more than a millennia ago (the Bible, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare).  He pokes fun at authors of the modern literary cannon (Jane Austen, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain) and at world famous and beloved authors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Ayn Rand, and J.R.R. Tolkien).

Did you know that Henry David Thoreau's Walden is really about a man who sits outside for two years and nothing happens?  Did you know that William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch is simply a story about heroin and an orgy?  To Kill a Mockingbird is about the fact that neither kids nor adults really understand racism.

Can you sum up Shakespeare's Macbeth in a single sentence? John Atkinson says “Old ladies convince a guy to ruin Scotland.”  For Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Atkinson gets it in less than six words? “Everyone is sad. It snows.”  This may be what you need, dear readers, – the classics and irreverence.

John Atkinson describes the perennial classic novel, Catcher in the Rye, by author J.D. Salinger as “Moody teen complains a lot. He has a red hat.”  I discovered, many moons ago, that a close friend of mine had tried several times to read Catcher in the Rye and hated it too much to keep reading.  I was surprised that he felt that way because I did also.  After the third attempt at completing the novel, I realized that I just didn't give a f**k about Holden Caulfield and cared even less about what he had to say.

I like Atkinson's Abridged Classics, and not because his commentary says “I don't give a f**k,” but because he takes the starch of being classic and revered out of the novels.  He pokes fun, and mostly in an accurate way.  The Scarlet Letter may not necessarily be a “Puritan tale of adultery, mockery, and embroidery,” but it is fun to think of it that way.  However, when Atkinson says that Gulliver's Travels is a story about a “Hapless sailor is stranded on different lands inhabited by sociopolitical metaphors,” well, he is telling the truth.  When I first read the novel, a long time ago, I found myself thinking of it that way.  Important work of Western literature or not, Gulliver's Travels can accurately and humorously be described in exactly Atkinson's words.

With its mock, leather-bound cover design, Abridged Classics is right on target.  I wish it were a longer book, and hopefully, Atkinson will offer a future volume.  There are so many more books and novels, classics, beloved, bestsellers, etc. that need to be abused or skewered by one of his “humorous super-condensed summations.”

8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: HOW TO DRAW Characters for the Artistically Challenged

HOW TO DRAW CHARACTERS FOR THE ARTISTICALLY CHALLENGED
HARPERCOLLINS/Harper Design – @HarperCollins @harperdesignbks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: John Bigwood
ISBN: 978-0-06-269152-1; paperback – 5.31” x 8” (May 22, 2018)
96pp, Color, $14.99 U.S., $18.50 CAN

How to Draw Characters for the Artistically Challenged is a new how-to and art book from author, illustrator, and graphic designer, John Bigwood.  It a book for budding artists who can hone their skills and learn to draw character portraits in an original interactive guide.

Do you love to create art, but feel a little unsure about your skills?  Well, there is a small art book that can help you master the ability to draw all kinds of people and faces.  How to Draw Characters for the Artistically Challenged includes 46 different looks to sketch.  Each entry is a drawing guide and is a two-page spread.  The right-hand side features a painted watercolor outline of a face or body.  On the left side of the spread is a corresponding page of suggested facial and body features, limbs, hairdos, clothes, and adornments that a budding artist can use to finish creating the painted outline of a face or body on the opposite page.

Examples of the entries includes the “Elvis Impersonator,” which includes a lip curl and three different hairstyles to choose from: "day-off Elvis," "stage Elvis," and "dressing room Elvis," (that features his signature coif topped with foam curlers).  Another example is the “Wrestler,” which features athletes of three different body types: "heavyweight," "featherweight," and “holiday weight.”

A publicity agent for Harper Design sent me a copy of How to Draw Characters for the Artistically Challenged for review.  At first, I was put off by this book, but as I flipped through it, I became really impressed by what it offered.

Honestly, I think How to Draw Characters for the Artistically Challenged will work for artists who are already drawing or is comfortable with tracing.  You don't have to be a master, but you should at least be able to draw basic cartoon shapes and objects and also be able to cartoon the human figure and face at a minimal level.

I think that people who like to draw cartoons and use how-to-draw books will find a lot to like about this book, even if it is just to appreciate the off-beat and quirky drawings in this book.  How to Draw Characters for the Artistically Challenged is fun and accessible and different.  And I can't stop thumbing through it.

7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: BEHIND YOU: One-Shot Horror Stories

BEHIND YOU: ONE-SHOT HORROR STORIES
IDW PUBLISHING – @IDWPublishing

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR/ARTIST: Brian Coldrick
ISBN:  978-1-63140-953-4; hardcover – 6” x 9” (October 31, 2017)
172pp, Color, $15.99 U.S., $21.99 CAN

Introduction by Joe Hill

Behind You: One-Shot Horror Stories is a hardcover collection of cartoons or “comics with no panels” from Irish-born, U.K.-based cartoonist and designer, Brian Coldrick.  Published by IDW Publishing, this full-color, hardcover book arrives just in time for Halloween 2017.

Behind You is a cartoon or illustration series.  It is a single-illustration comic with no panels, and each episode is a separate story – each tale is one image and one piece of text – a one-shot horror story.  The subject of each comic is that of an unsuspecting person/victim with someone or something walking, creeping, hovering, or just around the corner behind them.  New and old episodes of the comic can be found at Coldrick's blog: http://thehairsonthebackofyourneck.tumblr.com/.  [You can financially support Coldrick's work as a patron at https://www.patreon.com/behindyou.]

Brian Coldrick describes his comics thus:

Each page is simply a character with someone, or something, behind them and a line of text. While some of them touch on well worn horror tropes, none are direct adaptions of existing stories, I treat fairytales and myths, old and new, as fair game. Hopefully there is some amusing weirdness and genuine creepiness in the mix.

A small crowd or group of masked entities standing behind you.  A corpse reassembling as an unwary person assembles of puzzles.  Or a twisted figure crawls from the shadows.  Don't turn around.  This is the world Behind You.

The bestselling dark fantasy/horror author, Joe Hill, the pen name of Stephen King's son, Joseph Hillstrom King (cause it's good to be the king's son), writes an introduction for Behind You: One-Shot Horror Stories.  Hill describes Coldrick's cartoons as if they were masterpieces of terror or as if they were true horror comics.  I don't agree completely with that.

I think Brian Coldrick is in the tradition the late Edward Gorey and the late Charles Addams, especially the latter.  Like Addams, Coldrick's cartoons are macabre and darkly humorous, although Coldrick's comics may be a bit too much like fairy tales and fantasy comics to fit in with the cartoons at The New Yorker, where Charles Addams cartoons appeared.  Coldrick's comics are also similar, in some aspects, to the late newspaper single-panel comic, The Far Side, by Gary Larson.  The Far Side, however, is surreal and features anthropomorphic characters, whereas Behind You is related to fairy tales and myths, and plays with, as Coldrick says, “well worn horror tropes.”

I love Coldrick's comics, and Behind You: One-Shot Horror Stories is one of the best comics collections of the year.  Coldrick could rapidly become a modern master of the scary story; the writer and illustrator who reformatted spooky tales for the digital world of webcomics (although he says that he does consider his comics to be webcomics).  I agree with Joe Hill on one thing about Behind You; these comics are alive.

A
9 out of 10

Tumblr:  http://thehairsonthebackofyourneck.tumblr.com/
Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/behindyou
Publisher:  www.idwpublishing.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: NYC BASIC TIPS AND ETIQUETTE

NYC BASIC TIPS AND ETIQUETTE
WILLIAM MORROW/HarperCollins – @WmMorrowBks and @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Nathan W. Pyle – @nathanwpyle
ISBN: 978-0-06-230311-0; paperback (April 15, 2014)
144pp, B&W, $10.00 U.S.

One of the recent books that I have found myself thoroughly enjoying and even rereading is NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette.  What is the book about?

If you find yourself needing a guide to the hidden secrets and unwritten rules of New York City (NYC), you have one.  It is a small paperback book entitled NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette and is written and drawn by Nathan W. Pyle.  It is an illustrated guide for residents and visitors alike about navigating New York City.

Nathan Pyle lives and works in Manhattan and is a producer of nonfiction television shows for MSNBC and The Weather Channel (among others).  Although he lives in New York City (NYC), he is originally from Ohio.  He apparently loves living in the big city, but apparently had to learn by trial and error how to navigate life in NYC.

An illustrator, Pyle created 12 simple panel drawings/cartoons about living in NYC.  Last year, Pyle posted on his blog the following, “‘NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette’ is a new series I'm starting, as a guide for newcomers.  I've lived in the city for 4 1/2 years now, and I've decided to start writing down some of the things I've learned in my time here.”

Last year, Pyle posted “NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette” as a series of animated GIF, single-panel comics.  They became a viral Internet phenomenon.  Within the first week of their debut, these 12 comics were featured on sites like Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and Reddit, among others.

Pyle created more of these comics and now 136 of them are presented in the new paperback book, NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette (published by William Morrow, a HarperCollins imprint).  For those who like the comics in their original animated GIF form, NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette is also available in an animated e-book version.

I have never been to New York City, but, of course, I know people who live and have visited or have lived there.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it reminds me of things I have been told about the city and even things that I have read about or seen on television and film about the Big Apple.  I like that some of the comics in NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette applies to other cities, even smaller ones.

Simply put, I think that anyone who picks up this book, even if they don’t care for NYC, will like it.  It’s just plain funny and, at times, it seems like a book of pop wisdom.  And yeah, when I finally visit NYC, I will use NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette as a guide to navigating and visiting that city.  People looking for a unique and useful book about New York City must have NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette – simple as that.

A

http://www.nathanwpyle.com/
https://www.facebook.com/NYCBASICTIPSANDETIQUETTE
https://twitter.com/nathanwpyle

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Book Review: HOW ARE YOU FEELING?

HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. – @norton_fiction

WRITER/ARTIST: David Shrigley
ISBN: 978-0-393-24039-9; hardcover (September 23, 2013)
208pp, Color, $19.95 U.S., $26.50 CAN

British visual artist David Shrigley, B.A. (Hons) has worked as an author, cartoonist, illustrator, photographer, and sculptor.  He has also directed music videos, among them a video for “Good Song” by the musical act, Blur.

How Are You Feeling? At the Center of the Inside of the Human Brain’s Mind is a new book from David Shrigley the author.  It is not a graphic novel or prose novel.  How Are You Feeling? has elements of a diary, sketchbook, and chapbook as a hardcover book.  The book is composed of pictures with text, pages of text, or full page illustrations.  But what is How Are You Feeling? about, you ask?

How Are You Feeling? At the Center of the Inside of the Human Brain’s Mind is a mock self-help book and satirical advice book.  Shrigley takes his readers on a journey between the ears, offering readers his crazy and wacky notions and ideas on how the brain decides what is right and wrong.  Throughout the book, Shrigley offers advice that is shocking and funny, but is also ethically dubious in a “just joshing” sort of way.  Of course, readers who would take this peculiar advice to heart would find themselves living their lives disastrously, although others would find delight in that unpleasantness.

How Are You Feeling? can be a little difficult to explain.  It is simply a crazy advice book about the most vexing aspects of the mind and of the psyche.  The advice is so funny because it goes beyond mere crazy and into the deranged.  It is all deliberately wrong, but in a way that is infectious to one’s imagination.

For instance:  Shrigley’s advice about hearing voices in your head is to obey the voices for a short period and to continue if things work out.  On alcoholism, he writes, “it is terrific fun, of course, but there are problems with it.”  Playing neurologist, Shrigley offers this medical guidance:  “We all have internal wiring. Sometimes this wiring comes loose. . . . Check for loose wires and re-fasten them with glue.”  He even suggests waxing your brain for lasting, healthy-looking brain.

Readers on the lookout for anything that skewers self-help and mental health advice books must have How Are You Feeling? At the Center of the Inside of the Human Brain’s Mind.

A-

www.davidshrigley.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: ZITS: Chillax

ZITS: CHILLAX
HARPERTEEN/HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN – @HarperCollins and @HarperChildrens

AUTHORS/ILLUSTRATORS: Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman
ISBN: 978-0-06-222851-2; paperback (May 21, 2013)
256pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S.

Ages 13 and up

Debuting in July 1997, Zits is a comic strip written by cartoonist Jerry Scott and drawn by artist Jim Borgman. The strip is set in a suburban central Ohio area and stars Jeremy Duncan, a 16-year-old high school sophomore. Zits: Chillax is a 2013 teen novel from Scott and Borgman and is set in the world of Zits. Zits: Chillax is also an illustrated novel, featuring more than 300 illustrations.

Just about every page of Zits: Chillax features art. There are spot illustrations throughout the text. Some pages are half-art and half text, and some pages are entirely illustrated, while there are many full and half double-page spreads. If that were not enough to put the “illustrated” in illustrated novel, the authors have also included art that imitates comic strips and comic books.

Zits: Chillax stars Jeremy Duncan, described as a teen slacker. He has a girlfriend (Sara Toomey), a best friend (Hector Garcia), and is the lead guitarist of a four-member garage band called Chickenfist. Now, Jeremy is about to go to his first real rock concert, and it will be a chance for him to see his favorite musical act, the guitar mayhem band, Gingivitis.

However, the only reason Jeremy and Hector got two tickets to the Gingivitis show is because the tickets’ original owner, Tim, their friend and fellow band mate, will be busy donating bone marrow for his cancer-stricken mother. Jeremy’s parents, Connie and Walter (“Walt”) Duncan, and his friends and their parents are doing things to support Tim and his family. However, Jeremy and Hector are going to be at the concert the very night Tim will be in a hospital donating the bone marrow. Jeremy and Hector decide to have a rockin’ good time in support of their pal, and hopefully also score him a supremely cool souvenir. The pursuit of fun and swag leads to a night the two friends will never forget.

The press release that I received with my review copy of Zits: Chillax (from HarperCollins) says that the book “speaks ‘teen’ fluently…” Other than what I hear on television, I don’t know what teenaged vernacular is this year, but Chillax has slang and language that I recognize from pop culture. Actually, I don’t care about what Chillax “speaks,” but I assume that it is important to the publishers.

What I do care about is the quality of Zits: Chillax. It is actually a good read, and I say “actually” because I was mostly bored with this book for the first three chapters. At the end of the third chapter, Tim announces his mother’s cancer. Suddenly, the book changes, and, for me, it really starts to grapple with what it means to be a teenager when “real life,” meaning adult troubles, intrude on the fun time.

I remember, as a child, avoiding anything to do with discussing cancer. Once, my mother took us to visit one of her relatives who had late stage cancer. My mother told me that the relative “looked really bad.” So when we got to the relative’s home, I stayed in the car, because I was so afraid of what she might look like. I remember staring at the house, imagining the sick person behind the front door. I think Stephen King could have transformed my thoughts and feelings at that moment into a story to scare everyone. In reality, there was nothing or no one truly frightening behind that door.

However, Zits: Chillax is not downbeat. It is a gentle, yet lively teen adventure about teenagers being allowed to find their own way to express friendship and solidarity when faced with tough issues like grave and serious illness. Zits: Chillax is funny and has heart, and I am happy that there will be another Zits illustrated teen novel, Zits: Shredded!, which is previewed at the back of this book.

Aimed at teenagers, I think Zits: Chillax is appropriate for and will appeal to late pre-teen readers. Plus, fans of the Zits comic strip – of all ages – should try this book.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review AFTER THE FALL: An Illustrated Novel

AFTER THE FALL: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVEL
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY – @norton_fiction and @NewYorker

AUTHOR: Victoria Roberts – @TNYcartoonistVR
ISBN: 978-0-393-07355-3; hardcover (November 2012)
188pp, B&W, $24.95 U.S., $26.50 CAN

After the Fall: An Illustrated Novel is a new book from Victoria Roberts, who has been a contracted cartoonist (or staff cartoonist) for the magazine, The New Yorker, since 1988. Her illustrations and cartoons have also appeared in numerous other periodicals, including The New York Times, Barron's, Playboy, Time, Town & Country, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among many.

After the Fall: An Illustrated Novel is exactly that – an illustrated novel. Featuring over 200 cartoons and illustrations, After the Fall is a sparkling New York City fairy tale that reinvents a familiar story – a well-to-do family suddenly becomes homeless. This book may be aimed at The New Yorker’s sophisticated audience, but this slim volume will eventually be a favorite of young readers – at least I think so.

The story is narrated by Alan, a 10-year-old-boy from a wealthy family (a fabulously wealthy family) that lives in an Upper East Side penthouse. His father, Pops, is a mad inventor and self-made millionaire because of creations like Smokos (a simulation cigarette) and GloveDip (an invisible replacement for medical gloves). Mother is a chain-smoking socialite with a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue. His sister is Alexandra, a creative 7-year-old also known as “Sis.”

One morning Alan awakens to find himself in Central Park. It seems that regime change and bad investments have left the family destitute and exiled from the penthouse. However, the entire contents of the penthouse – from furniture and artwork to clothes and the family pugs (Olive, Phoebe, and Sancho), have been relocated to the Park. In fact, everything has been positioned around Central Park, as if the park were the penthouse.

Usvelia the housekeeper and Gudelia the cook remain in the service of the family. Monsieur Marcel, the maître d’ of the family’s favorite restaurant, Le Château Boheme, regularly drops by to deliver food. As winter approaches, however, old tensions and furniture magnate, Hamid Kohlrabi, divide Pops and Mother. Now, it’s up to the resourceful Alan and the imaginative Sis to restore home and hearth.

After the Fall has that singular quality of an old book that remains timeless because its story seems to carry an enchantment. Roberts’ illustrations are lovely, and they come on with the force of a New Yorker collection of cartoons. Still, it is important not to downplay Roberts’ prose, which shimmers with charm and wit. Like a classic children’s story, it mixes imagination with melancholy, so it doesn’t come across as syrupy. That’s why this fantastical and fanciful scenario seems almost real – like some human interest story that could happen just once, and also manage to capture national interest, if only for a day or so.

Since part of After the Fall’s story takes place during Christmas, it has the makings of a Christmas (or Holiday) favorite. I hope Victoria Roberts tries the illustrated novel again. I hope another New Yorker cartoonist attempts this. Heck, I wish Charles Addams had written a book like this just once.

A

www.wwnorton.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

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Leroy Douresseaux on THE PIN-UP ART OF HUMORAMA

THE PIN-UP ART OF HUMORAMA
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WRITER/EDITOR: Alex Chun
ARTISTS: Dan DeCarlo, Jack Cole, Bill Ward, and others
COLORS/DESIGNER: Jacob Covey
INTRODUCTION: Howard Chaykin
ISBN: 978-1-56097-959-3; paperback
216pp, 2-color, $19.99 U.S.

Breezy. Cartoon Parade. Comedy. Gaze. Jest. Joker. Romp. Stare. Zip. These were once the titles of cartoon digests from Humorama.

Humorama was a New York City based line of digest-sized magazines mainly remembered for the single panel pin-up and girlie cartoons they contained. These digests also published black and white photographs of models (Bettie Page, among them) and actresses (such as Tina Louise and Julie Newmar), as well as jokes.

Humorama was a division of the publishing empire of Martin Goodman and was headed by his brother, Abe Goodman. According to journalist and pin-up cartoon connoisseur, Alex Chun, Abe Goodman was the largest buyer of cartoons in the world during the 1950s. Chun has edited several books that focused on cartoonists who plied their trade with Humorama, including The Glamour Girls of Bill Ward, The Classic Pin-Up Art of Jack Cole, and The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo.

Alex Chun’s latest volume is The Pin-Up Art of Humorama, which is a sort of “best of” collection of the pin-up cartoons found in Humorama’s various magazines. Chun’s frequent collaborator, designer extraordinaire Jacob Covey, essentially re-masters the cartoons in this book and brings them back to life by restoring the accent color (or 2-color) format in which they were originally published. Howard Chaykin (American Flagg!, Black Kiss) provides an introduction to this book that places Humorama and pin-up cartoons in general in a historical context, and he also relates them to his own life.

While it does feature work by the three Humorama cartoonists considered the most accomplished (Cole, DeCarlo, and Ward), The Pin-Up Art of Humorama also offers works by many other notable cartoonists. Readers will find cartoons by Dave Berg of MAD Magazine, illustrator Jefferson Machamer, legendary science fiction and horror cartoonist, Basil Wolverton, and Kurt Schaffenberger, the comic book artist best known for his work on such comic books as Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane during the 1950s and 1960s and Captain Marvel during the Golden and Silver Ages. Humorama also featured the work of three syndicated cartoonists who would go on to have their own newspaper comic strips: George Crenshaw (Belvedere), Bill Hoest (The Lockhorns) and Brad Anderson (Marmaduke).

I am a big admirer of Alex Chun’s efforts at bringing the single panel pin-up art of the 1950s and 60s back into print. I don’t think of his previous publications as archival efforts merely intent on bringing dusty old artifacts out of the basement of magazine publishing history. Many of the visual elements and background details featured in these cartoons have changed since the heyday of the pinup cartoons: cocktail lounges, the architecture, interior design, office furniture, clothing (men wearing suits even in casual situations), and gender roles. However, the two most important things about them have not fallen out of favor – sex and humor.

Chun and the exceptionally talented graphic designer, Jacob Covey (who has designed several of Chun’s books), get the heart of why many of these cartoons are still bawdy, funny, sexy, and even relevant when it comes to relationships between men and women – 50 to 60 years after they were first published. The pay-to-play, the gold-digging, the lust, the office politics, the spouse who is cheating or has a wandering eye are all familiar to practically any adult reader. Even those who are not fans of comics can look through this book and recognize the humor, idea, and story (of a sort). The subject matter is timeless, and in the context of American culture, perhaps universal.

This is not a fine art book. Besides, there are works of art and artists that are no longer relevant and have been reduced to being important in the history of art. The single panel pin-up cartoons in Humorama publications were not meant to be fine art, but rather to be entertainment. Yet these cartoons did not entertain by simply appealing to the prurient interests to the buyers of such publications. Readers recognized such visual cues as scantily clad women and also the men whose hearts and libidos they sent racing. The readers got the joke about the machinations of scheming female characters and knew how the minds of the male characters worked.

We still get that, and so do Alex Chun and Jacob Covey. Chun fills his collections with the best cartoons – the ones that can still delight readers, and Covey uses his lively and inventive design sense to make these old cartoons fresh and vital. With The Pin-Up Art of Humorama, Chun and Covey will once again make you believe that the art of Humorama is still alive and kicking – although the line ceased to exist decades ago.

A

http://www.fantagraphics.com/

http://www.pinupcartoongallery.com/

The following is an incomplete list of the cartoonists whose work appears in The Pin-Up Art of Humorama. I will make updates and changes to this list, either through my own research or with the help of readers:

Felix Andrews
Dave Berg
Camill
Jack Cole
George Crenshaw
Dan DeCarlo as DSD
Dick Ericson
Stan Goldberg
Paul Hamilton
Lynn Harrison
Ramon Henri
Hergo (?)
George Hess
Bill Hoest
Lowell Hoppes
Woody Kimbrell
Bill Kresse
Chet Lown
Jefferson Machamer
Manent
Vic Martin
Jim Mooney
Paul Murry
Posner Murry
Kremos (Niso Ramponi)
Ray Osrin
Don Pengelly
Louis Priscilla
Homer Provence
Stanley Rayon
Robert Q. Sale
Kurt Schaffenberger
Carl Stamwitz
Stark
Jere Sturm
Tom Sutton
Bill Ward
Bill Wenzel
Basil Wolverton