Caricature Books

wellll...first of all this book only has the step by step directions for a couple of digimon (just the 7 kids' digimon in their various forms up to champion) and the from step one to step two there are too many differences that the drawingn becomes confusing. so unless you are into tracing digimon, this is not the book for you.

MY SON HAS THIS ONE AS WELL AS DRAGONBALL Z & POKEMON , AND HE LIKES THEM ALOT......HE LIKES DRAWING HIS FAVORITE CHARACTERS.....AND THEY'RE EASY TO DO!!!

I could be one of the digi destined. My digimon could be blackwargreymon for my courage or angewoman for the light part of me and /or angelmon for my hopes and/or wormmon for my kindness part of me. Me and Kari could dna digivolve into the ultimate digimon that has Lots of light.

Pokemon and Digimon aren't as big anymore, but even my 4 year old likes to trace these with tracing paper. Older kids can learn a lot about drawing basics by practicing something they like. Wish they had more examples and different angles on the different critters though.

I got this book, just because I thought it would be fun. Now, don't get me wrong... it's *great* if you are learning to draw Digimon, really helpful... but I only have one problem with it: The language! Gosh, in this book, they talk like every single Digimon fan is 7 years old. If you ask me, they need some more mature Digimon stuff, for the older viewers.

The book is not in great shape. It was rip at the middle of it.

This book os full of hilarious parodies of T.V. shows from present day an from a LONG time ago- like when I was a kid. This book has an introduction by Weird Al' Yankovic, and tons of comics! They have parodies of:
Everybody Loves Raymond
Friends
Seinfeld
Star Trek
Batman
Jeopardy
And more!

This book is mostly black and white, however in the middle of the book, there is about 16 pages of color, a nice change from the regular black and white!

Who else could send us to our graves laughing in delight other than Mad? Answer : Nobody. The boys are ate it again, with these classic spoofs of all our favorite sitcoms, soap operas and cartoons. My personal favoirtes are : When Seasame street joins the vast political right wing and the spoof on Kung-Fu (Kung Fool). You really can't go wrong with mad, aside from Calvin and Hobbes's creator and writer Bill Watterson, these guys are the only ones who can make me laugh out loud while reading the gags. If your new to MAD then this is the perfect place to start, even though I'm too young to have seen all the shows that are in this book I still get a kick out of reading them and you will too. I reccomend getting this one first, before checking out the other books MAD has to offer. This is the perfect gift for anyone at anytime, so cheer them up and make 'em laugh to death!

This book is incredibly funny with parodies of tv shows that you enjoy. From the original Batman series to X-Files this book has it all!!

This is a very good book! Worth buying, yes I believe so. This is much better than tha MAD About the Movies because it has more flavor and has better comics about the TV world in MAD's perspective. I really like this book, but it doesn't compare to some of the five star work MAD has done with such books as MAD's Bathroom Companion and MAD's Half-Wit & Wisdom of Alfred E. Neumann. If you like TV and Movie spoofs, and you can relate to a lot of them, than this is one to buy! If you are just looking for a laugh, this would be a good book to have, but not before some of the others!

This is a funny and wryly amusing collection of 100 baseball cartoons that first appeared in "The New Yorker." Although illustrators are credited, no dates are given. (This would have been helpful in discerning which jokes are relatively old, and which just sound old.) Some of the material is fairly trite, deriding such easy targets as umpires and over zealous fans. Most of them are quite funny though, including a picture of seven infielders gathered close to home as one fan explains to another "They expect him to bunt," and another showing an umpire pondering how to call a play with a wonderful Jack Benny-like expression and the equally Benny-esque caption "I'm thinking!" (with 'thinking' underlined).

A major problem is the formatting, all the `toons are given equal size, and hence equal weight. A number of these are just "throwaway" jokes, pictures and captions without much weight or originality. As a small illustration added--like a condiment--to a large text, these are appropriately lightweight and amusing, but as large pictures they don't compare to the more creative and funnier efforts here. After a while, the similarities begin to inoculate you against the humor. A better format might have been to present these in the size in which they originally appeared. However, this would make a good gift for baseball fans and those who live with them. Overall, it's an excellent coffee table book that doesn't take up the whole coffee table.

Baseball fans will love this collection of cartoons that capture the essence of baseball in the American psyche. My two favorites in the collection appear on pages 34 and 72. The one on page 34 features a man wearing a religious collar standing in the stands and yelling, "Thou hast eyes to see, and see not!" On page 72 a player is being tagged while sliding into home. The umpire says, "I don't know when I've seen a more magnificent slide. You're out!"
Fans, owners, players and the role of baseball in the American society are all presented in a delightful and amusing manner.

Many of the gags are good, a few are belly-laughers, but overall this collection is full of old-timey jokes -- men in fedoras type of jokes. Funny, I guess, but hasn't anyone at New Yorker done a gag about baseball in the past 50 years? C'mon, there are baseball fans under the age of 50.

I love baseball as much as I love a good joke, so this collection was a "double" for me. Being a New Yorker collection, a few cartoons are Yankee-specific, and the Mets are lightly ribbed, but any baseball fan will appreciate this look at the sport's many sides. My favorite cartoon shows a player telling the media, "Hey, I'm just happy to be making an obscene amount of money." If only real players were that honest!

The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons benefits (or suffers) from (depending on your fan allegiance) having a Bronx perspective on the sport. For Yankee fans, this will be a four-star book. With cartoons from over eight decades, many of the cartoons harken back to baseball as it was . . . rather than how it is now. Somehow, that didn't work as nostalgia for me. I have to assume that The New Yorker has a more recent selection of cartoons on this subject that could have captured the contemporary game better . . . but there are too few of those. As a result, many cartoons are sources of curiosity rather than humor.

I did find myself laughing in a few places. Here are some of the better efforts:

A woman stands over a man watching a baseball game on television and says, "Oh, no! Not already!" That reminds me of my wife's reaction when I turn on the first preseason football game every summer.

A happy woman speaks to her scowling male escort as they reach their seats in full stands, "See, Grouchy? We haven't missed a thing--the score is still nothing to nothing." As you can see, the battle of the sexes is a frequent topic in the book.

In "The First Straw" a groom turns to his bride as they drive away from the church and asks, "Mind if I put on the game?"

A woman watching a game on television speaks to a man as he returns to the room, "I think you missed something. The ball went up into the air and somebody caught it and the crowd's yelling like mad."

With no caption, you see a sign in the outfield that says "Hit This Sign and Abe Feldman will give you A SUIT absolutely free" as an outfielder catches a fly ball while being shadowed by a man in a suit and hat . . . and two gloves.

The umpires take some kidding . . . and give some out. As one ump comments to the batter, "I don't think I'd say anything about eyesight if I had your batting average."

A wealthy matron smiles at two of the players while speaking to a manager of the Yankees, "Sometimes we sell them, lady, but only to other teams."

A father speaks to his son who is praying, "Never mind mentioning all twenty-five of them. Just 'God bless the Mets' will do."

Two men are behind home plate in the stands. One of them is behind a tall beam. The other one says, "High inside. Ball three. Count is now three balls and two strikes. Here comes the pitch."

A gondolier in Venice has on a baseball uniform. He says, "I was sent down to the minors and from there to Europe, and one thing just led to another."

Unfortunately, I didn't leave out very many of the best ones. Most didn't even make me crack a smile.

As usual, there is no introduction. Surely, Yogi Berra could have been pressed into duty for such an obvious application of his well-known wit and wisdom.

Play ball!!

This collection, which reprints the first year (1979-80) of Lynn Johnston's now-classic strip, shows how far the Patterson family (and their readers) have come. Elly is a young stay-at-home mom, John has barely started his dental practice, Michael is barely out of toddlerdom and Elizabeth is still a baby. The strip focuses almost exclusively on this foursome, Johnston's ever-expanding cast of additional siblings, spouses, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and pets still well over the horizon.

The humor itself is broader and more self-consciously "gaggy" than it would become, with Johnston relying on Erma Bombeck-style observations that had already become cliches by 1980. There's little of the dramatic narratives and wry observations that would later characterize the strip. By the same token, Johnston's artwork is less assured and a little more "cartoony" than what we're now used to. This is a comic strip that's still very much finding its legs, and its voice.

That caveat aside, if you want to know how the Patterson clan got to where they are now, this is the place to start.

This is the first "For Better or For Worse" collection, and it's pretty clear that Lynn Johnston was still just finding her voice and style in most of these strips. It's pretty fascinating for serious fans to see the oldest strips, but there's not a lot to recommend this book beyond the historical value. My biggest problem with this collection is that the characters aren't very consistent with what they soon became. John in particular is chauvinistic, insensitive, dumb...and in general, not very funny. Sure, he's always had an element of cluelessness to him, but usually that's only in the context of a man who loves and respects his wife and family. Not here. In fact, it's interesting to note that in the three FBorFW anthologies, the strips drawn from this era either don't feature John at all or play down the personality we're treated to here. That makes me think Johnston might have decided there was some excess in these strips. I didn't find myself caring about the Pattersons as well as laughing at them the way I usually do. Also, there are few multi-strip stories here; mostly it's a one-off gag with each strip. Which is okay, except that Johnston is sooooo good at the longer stories, of course they're missed. To wrap up, it's pretty simple. If you're a serious fan, you'll want this book. If you love battle-of-the-sexes jokes, you'll definitely want this book. If you're hoping for more early stories of the Pattersons we've come to know and love...look elsewhere!

I feel like a part of the For Better Or For Worse Family. Keep the books coming Lynn.

This 1981 classic collection of Lynn Johnston's For Better Or Worse syndicated comicstrip soap opera is a wonderful place for FBoW readers to start.

Travel back in time to when Elly is a young married stay-at-home mom with a clueless spouse, a five-year-old Michael, and infant Elizabeth. Here can be seen the early development of the characters we have all grown up with. Lynn Johnston sees humor in the struggles and problems of a married mom in the early 1980's. The times have changed, but the problems are much the same.

The action is much easier to follow when it is a tight nuclear family rather than the extended four generation clan of today. Also Lynn's humor is much more on the surface as we see her struggle with what it means to be a married stay-at-home mom through the cartoon Elly and her attempts to find herself while raising two children and keeping up a home.

You know what it is - that last washload before you can settle down for the evening, that last drink of water before bedtime, that bone tired feeling that comes from caring for children, that feeling that they will always need you to bathe them and put them to bed and you will never ever be able to go to the bathroom in peace....or maybe you don't and you want to see what it's like. I recommend this book highly to give you that insight.

I must confess I am a fan of Lynn Johnston's "For Better or For Worse Seiries" and I _have_ had the "one more washload blues" more than once. It's a great beginning book to introduce you to the characters that Lynn follows faithfully in her daily comic strip. As it's fascinating to watch children grow into adults and see how they turn out, it's wonderful to see how stories get played out in Lynn Johnston's world.
So if you've ever had the "one more washload blues" or you know somebody who has, get this book. It will bring a smile to the weary person that suffers this fate - and it's cheaper than Prozac, no visits to the doctor and they can read it as often as they like;)

would not suggest paying retail..but it is a fun book.. it would have been nice to have a litle more detail about the cartoons.. artist, year, etc....

It's nice to see a book of coffee-table proportions just devoted to cartoons, well why not? Previous Playboy books have covered the history of the magazine, the delightful Playmates and now the cartoons. The 450 plus illustrations are the work of 107 cartoonists and if you are a regular reader of the magazine you'll see your favorites. Gahan Wilson has the most (thirty-two) followed by regulars like Eldon Dedini, John Demsey, Alden Erikson, Kiraz, Roy Raymonde, Doug Sneyd (he of the flamboyant signature, which I was never able to decipher until now) Erich Sokol and between these, dozens of great artists who have maybe one or two works each. The humor might not be the wonderful ironic style of the New Yorker but it is amazing how many fresh takes can be created with the bachelor lifestyle.

This is a handsomely produced book, printed on thick glossy paper which, nicely, allows you to really appreciate just how good some of these artists are. My favorite, Jack Davis, unfortunately only has four shown, Richard Taylor has a super picture on page ten, an art gallery where he has created several Picasso type paintings, Doug Sneyd, Phil Interlandi and Dedini are all brilliant draughtsmen and Shel Silverstein can create so much with so little line and color.

However I was a bit disappointed with this book, as another reviewer has commented, there is no indication of when the cartoons appeared and I wish the publishers had gone the extra mile and perhaps devoted some space throughout the pages for a photo and biography of the regulars, some of these guys have been with Playboy for years. Someone though, at least, did have the foresight to compile an Artists index and a useful Order of appearance list, both of which are in the back pages.

Clearly a wonderful book for the bedside table if your date didn't turn up, try laughing yourself to sleep.

Fifty years worth of cartoons from Playboy. Doesn't that just set the mind reeling? Some of the biggest names in the business have their work showcased here in this history-making compendium. These cartoons are sometimes funny, often sardonic, frequently risqué, and one and all they once graced the pages of the world's favorite source of "illustrated" reading material. Perhaps the best way to regard this hefty collection (did you catch the pun?) is as a window to the changing mores of American society regarding not only women and sex, but what is and is not acceptable subject matter for a cartoon itself. When taken as a whole I find this material reflective of how much times have changed, and Playboy magazine with it. Very little to offend anyone here, just good clean fun and some real laughs too.

First of all this book is printed on excellent paper & is well done except for one thing. there is no way to tell what year the cartoons are from. They should have had chapters. 1950`s 1960`s ect so you know what era they are from

I enjoyed seeing the work of some of my favorite cartoon
artist...together in one book. Some I had forgotten about.
It cetainly must have been difficult to narrow down the
selection with so many great cartoons over the years.
However, I was disappointed not to see more of one of my
very favorites.....Dean Yeagle. There is one cartoon of his
in the book...and it is also on the cover...the showgirls
and earrings cartoon.
Mr.Yeagle does excellent work....just check out his website..
www.bellefree.com.....His Mandy pinup girl is adorable!
I would love to see an all Dean Yeagle book published !!!!!!

i would like to buy this book but i think the price is a typo.

Just getting started on your desire to understand eastern philosophies? Have you stood at the bookstore for hours pouring over where to start and what to buy?

Any of this authors books are a wonderful place to start. The reason? Because these books are all about the title subject in a nutshell, easy to read as a comic book, the story lines and illustrations are wonderful, and after you read this as well as all the other books by Tsai, you will have a great, well rounded start on your path and will know what you want to study more deeply!

To add, when others ask you about your interest in eastern philosophy, you can get them started here as well, because these books are fun, consise, and you know they will enjoy them over and over again!

If you are a fan of his other works that convert Eastern literature, riligion, and philosophy into an entertaining and reliable comic format, you will also love this book. I agree with others that it is not as engaging as his first Zen book. Presumably, this is because of the Zen literature used for the books, and not some nuance of his performance. If you don't have the first book ("Zen Speaks") then get that and read it first. If that one left you wanting more, as it did for many of us, then pick up this book- you'll enjoy it.

I have several of the boks from this series and I do like most of them - apart from this one. This book contains the more idiosyncratic Zen stories. The main problem is that if you haven't understood those stories before you might not really understand them after having read this book. This is mainly due to the stories' nature and, of course, not due to the way the artist presents them. I did know some but not all of the stories before I read this book. I found that the ones I knew were presented in a nice way but I had doubts the comics made them clear. So if you want to learn more about Zen you might want to get the "Shouts of Nothingness" book from the same series and another book, maybe one by Suzuki. Zen is a hard topic to talk/write about in the first place and putting the hardest bits into a format like this doesn't really seem to work.

PS: If you understand the stories why would you want to read any book about them anyway?

The artwork is amazing of course, but the book's structure seems a lot more chaotic than Chung's other works. The material is a bit more confusing as well....but it is still excellent.

A kid's graphic novel, it seems, with a bit of a simplified version of the Grendel story.

The art you could perhaps call somewhere between Miller and Oeming and Mignola, sort of darkly lit.

Beowulf himself looks quite a bit like how Oliver Queen is drawn, and when later on he is actually in green armor, it can be a little disconcerting.

However, the tale of Beowulf vs Grendel, then Grendel's mum, and the Dragon is not too bad at all, and older readers won't mind it either.


3.5 out of 5

Based on the classic story, this graphic novel tells the tale of Beowulf, an epic hero who bravely faces the most fearsome creatures.

In the kingdom of Hrothgar, men are being slaughtered by a godless creature. Grendel has proven that he cannot be defeated, even by the king's greatest warriors. He comes in the night and feeds on the men. After twelve years, Beowulf comes to the aid of Hrothgar. He defeats Grendel and earns himself fame. But his battle is far from over, for another monster has come to avenge Grendel--his mother.

BEOWULF is one of the most popular tales of heroism, being passed from generation to generation. Here it is presented in stark simplicity. The tale of brutal danger and the raw battles for life are coupled with sharp, dark images. The effect is a novel that is as ominous as the story itself.

Reviewed by: JodiG.

For those who haven't read the 3183 lines of the epic poem*, and are unlikely to do so in the near future (or before the end of time), here's a précis version of the classic tale - with pictures!

Retold by Stefan Petrucha for the 8 - 12 age group, this graphic novel captures the basic elements of the story, keeping it short and simple, yet age appropriately creepy and gory.

1. Grendel, descendant of Cain, really hates human beings having fun and praising God.
2. He becomes the ultimate party pooper
3. Beowulf sails in with the tide and some good men to come to the aid of the party.
4. Beowulf and Grendel arm wrestle to the death
5. Beowulf faces the wrath of Grendel's mum (who looks nothing like Angelina Jolie in the novel, but strangely, not unlike Joan Rivers.)
6. Fifty years later, he has dragon trouble
7. Wyrd!

This historical superhero may have come back into fashion with a little help from Robert Zemeckis and Angelina Jolie, but unlike the recent movie, this version is one that Angie won't mind her kids having a peek at.

Recommended for young adults who need to take their literature medicine with a spoonful of sugar.



Amanda Richards, January 10, 2008


*puts up hand and waves

I admit, I've never read Beowulf in poem form (though I hear Heaney's translation is phenomenal and that the Tim Murphy Alan Sullivan translation is the best there is), but I wanted to see the movie, and since my Beowulfs are in another state, I went ahead and bought the 'children's' graphic novel. I have to say, either it doesn't translate well to comic format, or maybe it is to a younger audience. Nothing phenomenal about it as a comic book, but you just know it stands important, if not in this format.

I ordered this book for my son, who is a cat lover. We own "101 uses for a Dead Cat," by Simon Bond and it is hilarious. I was hoping Nicole Hollander's humor would be similar to Simon Bond's, but was disappointed. The illustrations were great, but the jokes were not so funny. Plus, many of the comics were not proper for a young child to read. I am sadly disappointed. The illustrations really had me fooled into thinking this would be a winner! Would not recommend to family and friends.

From Marisa Katana D'Vari of a Library Cat Dot Com

"Cats always like what you're eating better than what they're eating," says Nicole Hollander in her hilarious cat humor book, Cats With Attitude. This book is actually two books in one, as Hollander's publisher decided to combine Everything Here is Mine and My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big-Boned in one edition.

What's best about Hollander's work is that it's impossible to turn a page without bursting out in laughter. Cat owners can recognize many of the behaviors Hollander describes in their own cats. For example, Hollander describes how she tried to train her cat to use the toilet, instead of a litter box. It brought back memories of the time I purchased a kit designed for this purpose, a sort of seat one was instructed to line with plastic wrap and sprinkle with cat litter.

When my then-kitten didn't quite respond, I placed calls to the technical support number listed in the instructions. At first, whoever answered the phone told me that the person I needed to speak to was out of the office. Many calls later they finally broke the news that the kit was a sort of gag gift, not to be taken seriously.

Hollander, apparently, had better luck. Yet she discounts this sort of training for one key reason: cats don't flush. Worse, once trained they expect their own bathroom. Of course, all cat owners - especially owners lucky enough to have marble bathroom floors - know that cats are quick to appropriate this room as their own.

In my new apartment, I decided to take the master bathroom and designated a guest bath for the cat. Of course, the cat decided she liked the cool marble floor and elegant fixtures of the master bath, so we sort of had to tough it out. Hollander also has a chapter on cats and the law.

The fact that cats love luxury is a recurring (re-purring?) theme in this book - which every cat owner knows. Hollander states that in California, if one leaves a cat alone in a car that is neither a convertible nor a BMW, the owner may be liable for a heavy fine. How true!

A very funny section concerns the astrological signs of cats. A Gemini cat, for example, is "easily bored" and must be kept amused with toys or games else they get edgy and look for a new home. A Virgo cat is meticulous and critical. "Keep their litter ox clean or they'll get even."

All in all, Cats with Attitude is the perfect gift for a cat-loving friend, or a book to read whenever you feel down. Just one caveat! Don't let your cat catch you reading this! They prefer to think that no one, least of all humor writers, are onto their secrets.

Nicole Hollander has here written the funniest book I've ever read in my life. Of course, to be fair, I do suppose you have to be something of a cat lover (or at least, live with cats) to understand her wit and humor -- in other words, the concept of two cats holding their owner's 1040 hostage for food might be lost on the uninitiated.

The only thing I will say is that this particular edition contains two books, "Everything Here Is Mine" and "My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big Boned". The latter contains much of the same material that was in the former. Still, the price for both is the same as the price for one, so why not?

As someone who has lived with cats since childhood, I can say that Nicole Hollander has truly nailed the personalities of these comical and sometimes exasperating creatures. This book is actually a compilation of two earlier books, so some of the material may be familiar to you, but the book is a bargain and can't help but make anyone who lives with cats laugh. I recommend this book to anyone who loves (or merely lives tolerantly with) these quirky animals.

WOW!!! These cartons are SO HYSTERICAL!!! I don't know what the one reviewer was talking about who didn't find these cartoons funny! Maybe they had a "bad hair day" ??? Keep up the FUNNY & GREAT work Mr. Robinson!!! I EAGERLY await and anticipate your next book!!!

What an ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL book!!!!! I just LOVED it!!! I especially loved the "Noah and the missing worm" and "the other disciples were jealous of Peter" cartoons! I was laughing so hard I had to get some tissues to dry my eyes! I hear that Bruce Robinson, the book's author is going to release GOOD MEDICINE # 2 soon. I EAGERLY await its release. But first I have to stock up on some more tissues! This book is SO F-U-N-N-Y!!! It should be a part of EVERYONE'S library!!!

"GOOD MEDICINE is a hilarious religion-themed collection of 119 Bruce Robinson single-panel cartoons retreived from the pages of the 'Breakaway' magazine, 'The Saturday Evening Post' and a host of other national periodicals. Featured are the adventures and antics of 'Harkins', an angel of 'good cheer'. GOOD MEDICINE is a terrific assembly of cutting-edge, witty, reflective humor from the mind, heart and imagination of a true comedic master." -The Midwest Book Review

If you find Family Circus to be one of the best comics in your paper, chances are you'll really enjoy Good Medicine.
Frankly, I was having a hard time detecting any similarity between this stuff & Far Side (which I thoroughly enjoy). I read through the book just in case I missed a good one. When I got to the end, I realized I missed nothing.
I would like to be able to give this book a stronger endorsement, because I'm sure their intentions are good, but I found this book to be seriously lacking in hilarity.

In our house this is more a 5-8 year old book, my son asks for it as he climbs into bed many a night. It's a great way for him to have fun and get the basic storyline of a classic...

Never has a book so insulted my intelligence more than this one, REALLY! Does the author actually expect me to believe that this will be entertaining to my children. This book only demonstrates how far the modern age has stooped in the dumbing-down of our children. A good introduction for children is "The Iliad of Homer (Oxford Myths and Legends)" by Barbara Leonie Picard and Joan Kiddell-Monroe (Illustrator), but stay away from this one for sure!

When we were looking for a good book for a 6-year-old whose name is Agamemnon, to give him some context for his name outside of our family, we found this book at the library. He really enjoyed having us read it to him, then later for him to read himself. A great book!

I would just like to say to the earlier review this book is not meant to be a school textbook. It is not supposed to be a wonderful introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Marcia Williams books are just for fun, it is just a bonus that you children can get the basic story line of a classic. I would highly recommend any of Marcia Williams books.