Where have all the twisted humorists/cartoonists gone?

[picunurse]

Inspired by this Far Side (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=330839&page=1&pp=40) thread, I started thinking about others who's humor was twisted enough the make me spray corn flakes out my nose.
Here's my list. I can't seem to remember some artists' names, it late.

Gary Larson's The Far Side
Guindon by Richard Guindon
Sam Gross, who scribbled little match girls for the New Yorker. I still have 2 of his books: I Am Blind and My Dog is Dead and More Gross
Bloom County, yeah, I know, Berke Breathed is still around, but its not the same.
Gahan Wilson, strange mind, that. He also wrote for The New Yorker and Playboy. Somewhere I have, ...And Then We'll Get Him. Discarded toys in the attic, plotting for when the grown up Gahan waxes nostalgic and climbs the stairs.
Kliban- I love his cats. I still have a coffee table book of Kliban Cats.
And Charles Addams, who raised twistedness to an art form... actually... They all did.
I miss Calvin and Hobbes too.
Who else?

[Sage Rat]

:(

I've enjoyed PvP Online (http://www.pvponline.com). But even ignoring its geek-centerdom, it is still short of the great ones you mention.

And the comics section in the newspapers that I have seen for at least the last ten years has been a horrible fall into alternative, politicized, or simply random doodle...mixed in with Peanuts and Family Circus :eek: ! (The combo just blows my mind every time.)

Sinfest--another net comic--was trying to fill this gap, but in the end I determined that the main character, Slick, wasn't like Steve Dallas and soley meant as a humorous dick, but really pretty much the author writing himself down on the page.

But, now I'm reading Manga--and it may be that superheroes and comic strips are going to lose out to this invasion from Japan. Sad in a sense.

[quiltguy154]

Anyone remember John Callahan? I have two books of his disturbingly hilarious work. One of my favorites, and strangely prescient, was a drawing of priests at a convention, with an altarboy popping up out of a cake. Another is a centaur on the couch in the psychiatrist's office. The good doctor remarks to the patient,"Stop blaming your parents." Haven't seen any of his stuff for years, wonder if he is still drawing, and alarming folks in the process.

[Argent Towers]

But, now I'm reading Manga--and it may be that superheroes and comic strips are going to lose out to this invasion from Japan. Sad in a sense.

Fuck that. Superhero comics may well lose (video games have supplanted them as kids' action fix, far and away) but comic strips/one-panels will never be replaced by anything from Japan. They're still alive and well in this country - you just need to look in the right places.

If you like sick and twisted humor, there is absolutely no better book around than National Lampoon's Truly Sick, Tasteless, and Twisted Cartoons. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0071390294/qid=1124632112/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-2774054-9588913?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) This book blew my mind - absolutely hilarious. Nothing has ever entertained me more. It's a compliation of a bunch of different cartoonists with different styles, but all sharing a very bizarre and twisted sense of humor. Definitely buy it - it seems to be exactly what you want.

[F. U. Shakespeare]

I first saw John Callahan on a 60 Minutes segment 10-12 years ago. (I learned that he is a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair). I later saw some of his cartoons in the Funny Times. They were brutally honest and equally offensive to everybody. I loved them! Examples:

- Two aliens on a spacecraft are wondering why it is that the only earth people who notice them are poor white trash.

- Jesus is on a psychiatrist's couch. The doctor suggests, "Let's discuss this need you have to be accepted by everybody".

- A pair of public bathrooms labeled "Oppressors" and "Victims".

- A guy is in a lawyer's office: "Life is hard -- do I have a case?"

- A farmer and his son are leaning on the fence looking over to the next farm. The moon is out. The boy asks, "Pa, how long has it been since Lassie went over to the Wongs?"

[Dark Side of the Floyd]

Anyone remember John Callahan? I have two books of his disturbingly hilarious work. One of my favorites, and strangely prescient, was a drawing of priests at a convention, with an altarboy popping up out of a cake...


I can't tell you how badly I'd like to see that one.

[cosmosdan]

Where have all the twisted humorists/cartoonists gone?

Long time passing.

{everybody sing}
Where have all the twisted humorists/cartoonists gone?
long, long time ago

[E-Sabbath]

Randy Mulholland. www.somethingpositive.net
He's... well, he's close to Addams, I think, when he's hot.

[KeithT]

Nicholas Gurewitch, The Perry Bible Fellowship (http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html).

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Nicholas Gurewitch, The Perry Bible Fellowship (http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html).

Now that's weird.

[Murcielago]

I recall John Cleese quoting (IIRC) Henri Bergson: "Humor is a social sanction against rigid behavior." Seems to me that sanction was revoked from the mainstream a while ago.

[pinkfreud]

I enjoy the work of Dan Piraro, the creator of the "Bizarro" cartoon strip. You can see some of his stuff here (http://www.bizarro.com/). My sister went to high school with Dan Piraro. He was one of those weird, funny people that the teachers think will never amount to anything.

[Revtim]

I first saw John Callahan on a 60 Minutes segment 10-12 years ago. (I learned that he is a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair). I later saw some of his cartoons in the Funny Times. They were brutally honest and equally offensive to everybody. I loved them! Examples:

- Two aliens on a spacecraft are wondering why it is that the only earth people who notice them are poor white trash.

- Jesus is on a psychiatrist's couch. The doctor suggests, "Let's discuss this need you have to be accepted by everybody".

- A pair of public bathrooms labeled "Oppressors" and "Victims".

- A guy is in a lawyer's office: "Life is hard -- do I have a case?"

- A farmer and his son are leaning on the fence looking over to the next farm. The moon is out. The boy asks, "Pa, how long has it been since Lassie went over to the Wongs?"
My favorite is the one of a pubescent Martin Luther King Jr pointing to a wet spot on his bed, and saying "I had a dream".

[Revtim]

My favorite is the one of a pubescent Martin Luther King Jr pointing to a wet spot on his bed, and saying "I had a dream".which can be found here http://www.callahanonline.com/images/dream.gif

[Snooooopy]

I first saw John Callahan on a 60 Minutes segment 10-12 years ago. (I learned that he is a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair).

He's actually a quadriplegic.

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

Now defunct, but The Parking Lot is Full (http://plif.andkon.com/archive/archive.htm) is pretty twisted. It's quite hit-or-miss, though. And some of the misses make you wonder if the cartoon isn't published anymore because the creators killed and ate their immediate families.

You've been warned.

[picunurse]

Nicholas Gurewitch, The Perry Bible Fellowship (http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html).
Maybe there's hope. Those are great! :D

pinkfreud Bizarro is one I thought of but couldn't remember Dan Piraro as the artist. Thanks.

iamthewalrus(:3= Those are pretty funny too, which speaks to my original lament gone... all of them gone...

Ok, maybe there is a new crop of dark and twisted artists out there... waiting...
It doesn't help the pain of missing the masters.
Just another of life's little reminders that I'm Old. Sigh.

[Dr_Paprika]

John Callahan writes the very twisted cartoon "Quads", shown on the Comedy Network. Not a newspaper comic, but very funny and disturbed.

In addition to those named, I think van Amerongen's "The Neighborhood" comics are pretty fun.

[Snowboarder Bo]

Kliban was the shit! I have all of his books, AFAIK, including a rare hardcover edition of cat.
I also have books by many of the artists named here, and I can tell y'all to get that NatLamp book that Argent Towers mentioned. It rocks. :p

Also, it's not really a cartoon book, but if you should ever find an old copy of The Blade by Don Novello (yes, that Don Novello!) buy it no matter how much it costs you. Trust me on this one. :D

[Askia]

Don Novello = Father Guido Sarducci?

Interest mildly piqued.

[Snowboarder Bo]

yep, Askia.... that Don Novello.

I've owned 2 copies of The Blade, one was stolen in high school and the other, found after a 7 year search of used bookstores all over the country, was destroyed 3 weeks after I bought it by my new kittens (that was 14 years ago). I've never been able to locate a copy since, and used bookstores online list them starting at $100.00. It would be worth the price to me, too, if I could see it to check it's condition before I forked over the cash. Absolutely one of the funniest books I will ever see.

[picunurse]

Kliban was the shit! I have all of his books, AFAIK, including a rare hardcover edition of cat.
I also have books by many of the artists named here, and I can tell y'all to get that NatLamp book that Argent Towers mentioned. It rocks. :p

Also, it's not really a cartoon book, but if you should ever find an old copy of The Blade by Don Novello (yes, that Don Novello!) buy it no matter how much it costs you. Trust me on this one. :D
The Kliban hard cover I have is Calender Cats, is that the same one? Do you mean its worth MONEY?! :eek: Maybe I shouldn't let the cat sleep on it anymore...

Tell me what the cover of The Blade looks like. It sounds familar...
I'll also look for the Lampoon book, thanks.

[RealityChuck]

Michael Kupperman's Snake & Bacon Cartoon Cabaret (http://tinyurl.com/9exf4). Some examples are here (http://tinyurl.com/94tze).

[DeadlyAccurate]

- A farmer and his son are leaning on the fence looking over to the next farm. The moon is out. The boy asks, "Pa, how long has it been since Lassie went over to the Wongs?"

I don't get this one.

[DeadlyAccurate]

Ozy and Millie (http://www.ozyandmillie.org/) has a style and tone similar to Calvin & Hobbes. I've been hooked on it ever since someone here linked to it.

[cmkeller]

Two recent entries into the "Far Side knockoffs" category (and I like them):

Brevity (http://www.comics.com/comics/brevity/index.html)

F Minus (http://www.comics.com/comics/fminus/index.html)

(I should add though that today's (8/22/2005) strips are probably not the best examples. Browse the archived month of strips, I guarantee you'll be enjoying most of them.)

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Gahan Wilson, strange mind, that. He also wrote for The New Yorker and Playboy.
Dunno about Playboy, but Wilson still appears regularly in The New Yorker. in fact, he drew last week's offering for the cartoon competition.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

I don't get this one.


In some Asian countries, they are know to eat dogs.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

I don't get this one.
It's the "Asians eat dogs" stereotype.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Don't get smug, Mr. Blue Sky; I would've beaten you if it weren't for the 60-second rule.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Don't get smug, Mr. Blue Sky; I would've beaten you if it weren't for the 60-second rule.


Smug? Me? ;)

[Trunk]

One of my favorites is

The Pain -- When Will It End? (http://www.thepaincomics.com/)

It's mostly political, but sometimes just twisted. One of the earliest ones I liked was a guy sitting in a chair with his head blown off. Across from him was another guy in a chair with a smoking gun and the caption saying, "I don't know about you, but I feel better."

You can root through the archives there.

[Snowboarder Bo]

The Kliban hard cover I have is Calender Cats, is that the same one? Do you mean its worth MONEY?! :eek: Maybe I shouldn't let the cat sleep on it anymore...

Tell me what the cover of The Blade looks like. It sounds familar...
I'll also look for the Lampoon book, thanks.

Not Calender Cats, but cat which was Kliban's first book.

The Blade is the Shellville High School yearbook, a fictional "anytown" school. Class photos, faculty, sports, band, prom pictures... except that all the pictures are of sheep. It's absolutely the funniest book I've ever seen.

[want2know]

Maybe not as twisted as a Gary Larson or Gahan Wilson, but I've been enjoying the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Patsis. Everytime the crocodile next door says "Hello, zeeba neighba" I know there's a big laugh coming at the end. I also love Rat's letters and general viewpoint on life.