Inspired by this Far Side 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?
I’ve enjoyed PvP Online. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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?”
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.
I enjoy the work of Dan Piraro, the creator of the “Bizarro” cartoon strip. You can see some of his stuff here. 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.
Now defunct, but The Parking Lot is Full 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.
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.
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.
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.
