# Where have all the twisted humorists/cartoonists gone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2005, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965 "2005-08-21T10:24:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/1 "2005-08-21T10:24:52Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/2 "2005-08-21T10:48:32Z")
☹ 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. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/3 "2005-08-21T13:35:43Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/4 "2005-08-21T13:44:13Z")
> [@Sage Rat](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/5 "2005-08-21T14:50:15Z")
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?” ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/6 "2005-08-21T15:02:11Z")
> [@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… I can’t tell you how _badly_ I’d like to see that one. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/7 "2005-08-21T15:10:14Z")
> [@](#): > > 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 ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/8 "2005-08-21T15:58:59Z")
Randy Mulholland. [www.somethingpositive.net](http://www.somethingpositive.net) He’s… well, he’s close to Addams, I think, when he’s hot. ---
**Author:** ![KeithT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@KeithT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithT)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/9 "2005-08-21T19:35:51Z")
Nicholas Gurewitch, [The Perry Bible Fellowship](http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/10 "2005-08-21T19:59:18Z")
> [@KeithT](#): > > Nicholas Gurewitch, [The Perry Bible Fellowship](http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html). Now that’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![Murcielago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/11 "2005-08-21T20:10:51Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/12 "2005-08-21T20:53:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/13 "2005-08-21T21:15:08Z")
> [@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?” 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”. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/14 "2005-08-21T21:18:39Z")
> [@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](http://www.callahanonline.com/images/dream.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/15 "2005-08-21T21:48:55Z")
> [@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). He’s actually a quadriplegic. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/16 "2005-08-21T22:21:38Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/17 "2005-08-21T23:31:46Z")
> [@KeithT](#): > > Nicholas Gurewitch, [The Perry Bible Fellowship](http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html). Maybe there’s hope. Those are great! 😃 **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. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/18 "2005-08-22T06:04:45Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/19 "2005-08-22T06:14:04Z")
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. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965/20 "2005-08-22T06:19:55Z")
Don Novello = Father Guido Sarducci? Interest mildly piqued. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-have-all-the-twisted-humorists-cartoonists-gone/317965.md?page=2)