Caricature Books

Biting satire is the name of the game in this book. The cartoons are brilliantly portrayed and are the best of the year from a variety of cartoonists from all over the country. I have several years worth and these are really collectors items in many ways portraying politics and many other topics too. (if you are for Bush don't read this book- you won't like it). Being a Bush basher , I love it!

You don't have to hate President Bush to like this book! Granted, most of the cartoonists are liberal and take their best jabs, but the humor in the irony that permeates politics transcends party affiliation. The conservative cartoonists are outstanding, too! With this book, Cagle continues the great job he does every day with his world-famous website. IMHO, anyone who flames this book either a) hasn't read it, or, b) is demonstrating some sort of professional jealousy.

The satire in the book is very good... the man in the White House at the moment cannot speak any more that two sentences at a time....

If you wish a whimsical history of the Bush presidency, choose THE BIG BOOK OF BUSH CARTOONS! THE HISTORY OF THE BUSH PRESIDENCY IN CARTOONS! Editorial cartoons gained from the best political cartoonists contribute a diversity of drawing, perspective and focus in revealing the history of Bush's interactions around the world, from his initial hanging chad election to the war in Iraq. Black and white cartoons are as large as a full page, while others are four to a page: all provide fun commentary those with a sense of humor and interest in social and political issues will appreciate.

I was disappointed in the quality of the cartoons. Sorry, but I had expected some from the top-flight editorial cartoonists of America. These seem to be confined to one service. You won't want to use this review, I'm sure.

He is a pathetic hatemonger spewing venom. Eat it up, lefty lunatics. This is your master, leading you to the alter of leftwing self-immolation.

In our society of competing popularity contests, in which the prevalence of countervailing insults seems to be of more importance than democratic ideals in maintaining political social ties, Ted Rall draws the cartoons which demonstrate how much freedom of speech editors are willing to allow in an America that is so clearly divided that journalists ought to feel obligated to maintain some sympathy for readers who are more likely to agree with Rall than with unsubstantiated assertions from anonymous sources. With the current controversies about secret provisions inserted in late-night conference committee drafts of important end-of-session appropriations legislation, it is not surprising that most people are capable of believing that the United States has reached a level of secrecy which makes the scenes shown in Ted Rall's cartoon possible, if not probable. Most of us don't actually know where Jimmy Hoffa's body ended up, and it is a shame that this book does not have an index to allow curious readers to look up Hoffa and see if Rall has a new theory on that, but we are sure to have a few ideas about events between October 10, 2000 ("Never has that been clearer than during this sad, pathetic, duller than death election year." p. 17) and the Last Word on March 2, 2004 (p. 207) and the essays in GENERALISSIMO EL BUSH allow news junkies to see how much more or less than Rall we knew then or know now. When it comes to predictions, Rall made some good ones, and I am unaware of any that were so far off he had to leave them out of this book in 2004, when, like the Worst-Case Scenarios cartoon on page 21, "The Jerk stops here" sign looks like it is on the desk in the Oval Office.

I find the humor great, but I should be emphasizing how much the book shows an interest in technology and economics, two subjects which are not often prevalent in comic looks at the world situation. On February 17, 2002, Rall and I both took an interest in the Afghan Tall Man Khan, who was 5-feet-eleven but was attacked by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone because he was mistaken for Osama bin Laden, who is 6-feet-4. (p. 68). Rall reprints information from the New York Times article by John F. Burns without further comment, except about "thousands of indiscriminately dropped bombs" in Afghanistan where Rall went to report on the war in November 2001. But the idea shows up in a `Beyond the West Wing' cartoon on page 112: `All I have to do is declare you an "enemy combatant" and WHAM!! Hellfire missile!" That article is about a November 3, 2002 "Central Intelligence Agency rub-out of alleged al-Qaeda operatives riding in a car in Yemen. Langley fired a Hellfire missile from a remote-controlled Predator drone into the vehicle, blowing up several men. The CIA later discovered that an American citizen, Kamel Derwish, had inadvertently been killed in the resulting inferno." (pp. 111-112). Costs are revealed in the "You Can Sponsor the War Against Iraq" cartoon on page 118: "PREDATOR DRONE Sponsor for $40,000,000 (Just ONE big Lotto win!) Fires HELLFIRE MISSILE Sponsor for $58,000 (Same as your WORTHLESS KID'S COLLEGE TUITION)." Rall's first column in this book after Bush 43 actually became president complained that Congress doubled his pay in 1999 by a vote of 276-147 in the House. "Clinton earned $200,000 each year; Bush will get $400,000 doing the same job." (p. 35). The accounting scandal panic is discussed on pages 89-93, with a look at the big change in corporate compensation in our lifetimes:

"Accounting fraud is closely tied to CEO greed. Corporate executives skim obscene salaries off the revenues, getting paid tens of millions of dollars while driving venerable companies out of business and hard-working employees out of work. Companies argue that these payouts are necessary to find and retain the very best managers, but history disproves that canard. Plenty of talented executives work for significantly less, and plenty of overpaid greedheads do a lousy job. CEO pay ought to be capped, as the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a decade ago, at twenty times the income of the lowest paid employee. Such a measure would insure that all boats are lifted by a rising tide and protect shareholders from rapacious executives." (pp. 92-93). Rall has a proposal to make employees totally uncapitalistic: "To truly prevent insider double-dealing, CEOs must be banned from owning shares of their own or related corporations." (p. 93).

Ted Rall is unlikely to make millions on his books, which will never be as popular as the `Peanuts' comics, but he seems to have a wage-slave labor value of wages view that is directly contrary to the roller-coaster and gambling mentality that makes capitalism a game in which wages are just one plaything among many for maximizing the total take of those who can see how it is occasionally possible to grab all the money before anyone else will realize what is going on. As far as people are concerned, the essay "A Government of Gangsters" captures the current administration's policy most clearly on January 29, 2002: "During the last several months, at least six thousand people have vanished off the streets of the United States. Kidnapped by government agents, they have no idea when--or if--they will be released from prison. . . . Since the disappeared haven't been granted access to lawyers or allowed to call their families, no one can talk to them. Bush says they have no rights because they're not American citizens-but we don't even know if that's true." (p. 63). Rall is expecting more surprises, rather than less, because the "sovereignty-busting gangsterism" (p. 94) ties in well with the doctrine of "permanent revolution" developed by Leon Trotsky in 1915 and used already for mass distraction by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung.

Generalissimo El Busho: Essays & Cartoons on the Bush Years by Ted Rall is a scathing, funny, and poignant collection on the George W. Bush Presidency. Starting out with the 2000 election and exploring topics like 9/11, the Iraq War etc., Rall presents some legitimate, tough, and in some cases eye opening criticism on W. and his administration. I was specifically entertained endlessly by his cartoons of "el presidente". They are crude drawings, but delibertly so. They are so funny and the criticism is so dead on I would recommend it to anyone who has legitimate questions about this administration. The facts are Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, there was no link between Iraq and Al-Queda, and we were mislead into a war that has distracted from what should be the real focus fighting Al-Queda and terrorism and finding the "evil-doer" Osama Bin-Laden. Rall presents the mistakes of W. in a fun and entertaining fashion. A must read!

A blend of caustic humor and well-written razor-sharp prose that's hard to put down. I spent many a sleepless night reading and re-reading this highly stimulating book and scanning and e-mailing the author's clever, pointed, and merciless cartoons to pro and anti-Bushies alike. Ted Rall was one of the few Americans who weren't fooled by the Bush administration's claim that Saddam Hussein was armed with horrible weapons, in cahoots with al-Qaeda, and an imminent threat which required immediate military intervention. This collection of articles from Rall's incisive weekly column during the Bush years, peppered with more than 120 of his pull-no-punches cartoons, is a spellbinding read.

The introduction by fellow political cartoonist, Tom Tomorrow, sardonically defends Rall against those who accuse him of hating America; "...he hates America so much, he thinks the guy who wins the election should be the guy who actually becomes president."

In the preface that follows, Ted Rall describes the incredible events that took place during and shortly after Election Day, November 7, 2000. On November 9th, more than a month before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Bush v. Gore, the Bush campaign sent James Baker to proclaim Bush the winner on PBS' The News With Jim Lehrer. "...as the recount continued, Baker returned to Lehrer's show to threaten a military coup d'état should Bush be denied the presidency. Bush's people sent young goons to beat up and intimidate Miami-Dade County election workers."
These events heralded Rall's creation of "Generalissimo El Busho".

"Bush was a bully. Like all bullies-like all tin-pot third world autocrats-he wasn't going to take no for an answer. The first man in American history to illegally seize power was appointed president by a party-line vote of the Supreme Court on December 20, 2000." The first thing that popped into Rall's mind "...upon watching Bush's simian countenance...was that of former dictator Augusto Pinochet." Examining a state portrait of the Chilean general, "I was struck by the contrast between the grandeur of his costume and the dimness of his eyes. The parallel with Bush was readily apparent. Like Pinochet, he would soon assume all of the trappings of high office...but they wouldn't change his essential inferiority and incompetence."

"I promised myself that I would never utter the phrase `President George W. Bush', but that wasn't enough...I drew the empty-eyed, bat-eared Bush in General Pinochet's uniform, festooned with medals, a sash and a great big hat. Eureka! Generalissimo El Busho was born."

The first column presented in the book is dated October 10, 2000, lamenting that both Bush and Gore "...consistently ignore America's massive, pressing structural issues in favor of trivial micro-mini issuettes."

Ted Rall's subsequent essays are so prescient that I had to look back several times to make sure of the date they were published...some of them could have been written in the last couple of months, rather than two and three years ago. Before the end of 2001, he published much of what the 9/11 commission concluded more than two years later. He also gleaned a prodigious amount of information during his weeks in Afghanistan during the initial U.S. incursion into that country. In 2001, Rall arrives at the same conclusion for the Afghan invasion as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, released in 2004, did; that Bush wanted to make that country safe for an oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Pakistani ports (the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline) by driving out the Taliban and installing a puppet government. He also makes the astonishing, damning accusation that the Taliban offered to turn Osama bin Laden over to American authorities in exchange for being allowed to keep their jobs, an offer ignored by an administration whose real objectives were other than to bring the al-Qaeda leader to justice.

In October 2002 Ted Rall reported his observation that the failure of the Bush administration to follow up with dollars its promise to rebuild Afghanistan after pushing out the Taliban was forcing Afghan farmers to return to opium cultivation and the heroin trade. Nearly 22 months later, in its August 9th, 2004 issue, Newsweek reported that "Drugs have become the dominating feature of Afghanistan's economy, and corruption has infected every aspect of Afghan political life", and the Time issue of the same date had an article by Tim McGirk titled "Terrorism's Harvest" describing how heroin trafficking is now "a principal source of funding for the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists."

Rall again foretells the future 195 days before the invasion of Iraq in his column, dated November 5, 2002, titled "After Saddam, The Deluge". He says, about U.N. arms inspections, that Bush doesn't want them "He wants Iraq. Nothing Saddam does or offers to do will make any difference. War was likely before Election Day, but now the Republican sweep makes it inevitable...we're about to take over Iraq without having clue one about what type of government to install and who will be in charge of it". And, in the same vein, "Would Iraq be better off without Saddam? Probably, but if we're smart we wont be the ones to blow over this particular house of cards. We have too much to lose and too little to gain in the mess that will eventually ensue".

We've yet to see whether Ted Rall's Christmas Eve 2002 column included a prediction of the outcome of the 2004 presidential election; Rall cites a December 15th 2002 L.A. Times poll in which 90% of respondents did not doubt the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, but 72% felt that Bush had not yet provided enough evidence to justify starting a war against Iraq. "Unless he coughs up definitive proof of Iraqi wrong-doing or calls off the whole thing, this latest oil-driven military misadventure could become Bush's political Waterloo." The Bush claims of Saddam's nuclear weapons program implied in his 2003 State of the Union Address and Colin Powell's diagrams of satellite photos showing Iraq's purported mobile bio-weapons labs have both fallen by the wayside, no WMD's have been found in Iraq, and the U.S. has all but abandoned the search for the phantom weapons. Does this portend a Bush defeat in November?

Seldom an America has been so clearly divided on the opinion of the quality of his president. The one rejoice, the others moan. Leader of such an Anti-Bushies movement is the cartoonist Ted Rall next to the loud Michael Moore or the quiet Esther Kaplan and others. Rall's cartoons are distributed by insiders constantly around the globe by e-mail appendix. More than 120 merciless cartoons with necessary comments (written 2000-2004) show as foresighted satire can be: Ted Rall often had anticipated the walk of the events months before it became reality: the joy of making torture against prisoners in some American armed forces areas, the financial obtaining practices for a register looting war enthusiasm, the absurdity of some targets, thought up at the desk of the Oval Office: With "Predator" Drones, that remote-controlled "Hellfire Missiles" US-army shot not only in the cartoon but also in the reality vs. the axis of the bad : against a Mercedes hurrying through the desert at the 3rd Nov. 2002 - unfortunately, an American citizen also dies by mistake; or at the 17th Feb. of the same year a fully automatic "Predator"-beast hits Tall Man Khan -- unfortunately, this one had been mistaken for Osama bin Laden . Ted Rall thinks that Bush has a monkey similar face, funny ears and empty eyes, and because this reminded him of the Chilean president Pinochet, he headlined "Generalissimo El Busho" and provided the Washington War-Lord with a sash and many medallions which he perhaps would like to see to himself if it were in Texas fashion, then. So he adorns himself as an alternative in the reality merely with jackets of aircraft carrier fight bomber pilots, broad grinning ...

delivery took longer than i expected but for the very cheap price of purchasing this book used it was worth the purchase. I would of never paid full price for this product but used for less than a $2 the book was well worth it.

I ordered this book for my 5 year old and it is a lot of fun. The steps are very easy to follow, something I have found not to be the case in other "how to draw" books. Enjoy.

entertained my 10 year old nephew for hours as made faces for everyone he knew...

When my grand daughter comes to visit, I like to create a fun environment for her. I bought "How To Draw Funny Faces" for her, and she loved it. Usually she spends no more than 10 minutes on a project or game, but she spent close to an hour drawing the various faces in the book and then hung them on my refrigerator. Great for kids to learn to draw and fun.

In the heat of the day
With the breeze of a fan
When your child wants to draw
And you say that he can
And he wants to draw faces
Yes, faces so funny
So you take out this book
(Which costs so little money)

And he opens the book
And he flips through the pages
With cartoony sketches
In various stages
Then his little brow furrows
With pencil in hand
As he tries to find faces
Not ugly or bland

"Mummy," says he,
"These are all rather cheesy
Some are quite hard
And some are too easy
The clown is too sad
And the vampire sucks
I think that I'd rather
Go draw me some Trucks"

I looked at the book
And I saw what he meant
Although younger children
Might well be content
I'd hoped it would show
Faces happy and sad
Or laughing or yelling
Or angry or mad

It lacks inspiration
The drawings aren't nice
You get what you pay for
At such a low price





Amanda Richards, July 10, 2008

Bruce McCall sees things in a completely unique way. Here, he extended many of the "Bulgemobile" drawings he did for the old National Lampoon magazine thirty years ago into a complete treatment of the American mobile dream factory of the 1940s and 1950s. It is truly funny and quite touching.

My favorite is the big american car with a waterfall flowing down the trunk...a "waterfall grille" was a feature of many American custom and dream machines of the era. Great stuff!

The brilliant satirist and illustrator who gave us a billion terrific and memorable laughs in the pages of National Lampoon and "Zany Afternoons" is now, it seems, on autopilot. Bruce McCall hasn't lost his edge in the technical department, but this anti-paean to the 1950s reads less like a parody of car advertisements and more like a screed against the Evil Consumption Tendencies Of Straitlaced Anti-Communist Americans And Their Depletion Of Natural Resources, Curse Them! It is not, in a word, funny. On the flip side, if you're not familiar with his brilliant "Zany Afternoons" and don't feel like being gouged by the vultures who are charging $250 + for a good-condition copy, then this is a fair sampling of McCall's stuff. To get a real glimpse into his rapier wit, check out http://www.jamesgoodmangallery.com/mccall/pages/exhibframez.html for a gallery of his pieces shown about four years ago in New York. If the taste and style of the '50s and '60s are not your cup of tea and you want to see some hilarious spoofs, check out James Lileks and "The Gallery of Regrettable Food." But don't waste your money on this latest, weak offering from McCall.

Bruce McCall's "The Last Dream-O-Rama" is a wickedly clever satire of the 1950's dream car phenomena.

If you've seen McCall's "Bulgemobile" advertisements from the 1970's vintage National Lampoon magazine, you already know he's a gifted artist with a droll sense of humor about automotive excesses. He has a talent for writing that comes close to real advertisements but just pushes it a little bit further such as "Fireblast! Twice the car you'll ever need - and that goes double for the new four-door FunTop!"

In this colorful book, after some pages spoofing dream car shows ("It's un-American to miss the Cavalcade of Chrome"), the bulk of the book has delightful full-page drawings of outrageous concept cars. Each has a half page history on the facing page.

One is the "Silver Sabre Patriomatic Funfighter, 1957" which looks only slightly more like a jet airplane than Pontiac's actual Firebird dream cars. Another is the "Armageddon Mk1, 1958" for the fallout shelter crowd. And there are many, many more with great variety. A few may be too silly for some tastes, but they are all wonderfully drawn.

The book wraps up with "Name Your Own Dream Car - the Detroit Way" and finally "Dream Cars Around the World" with yet more drawings and descriptions.

This book is a satisfying satirical, or perhaps all too true, look into the fifties and a great value even if you're only going to look at the drawings.

I really liked this book. As someone who has always been critical of the schlock the automakers enjoy forcing upon the American people (can you really tell me the difference between a Camry and an Escort - come on), I enjoyed this artist's take on what would have happened if designers in the 50s had been allowed to have carte blanche at the drawing board, creating vehicles based on all the fads and crazes of the day. While not practical in the least, the cars all had an enjoyable retro-futuristic feel to them that made me think of a cross between the Jetsons and I Love Lucy. The illustrations are rich and wonderful, in that vibrant palette of hipster 50s pastels so commonly used in the Eisenhower era. The captions and comments from the author/artist are clever. My favorite cars are the Orbitronic Minus-Zero Saucersnatcher 1956 (p.47), which has room for a Roswell space alien friend in the back, and the Panavista FilmFlyte Visionaire 1955 (p.35), that brings the experience of a drive-in movie to a drive down the freeway. This would be a great conversation piece for the coffee table, or a nice addition to any library for car buffs or fans of the fabulous 1950s.

I always looked for Bruce McCall's brilliant work in the National Lampoon and loved the reprinted work in 'Zany Afternoons' (I bought two copies, just in case) and it confirmed that here was an unusual humorist, as good with a paint brush or typewriter.

This latest book though I found a bit disappointing. The material does not really stretch to 128 pages, lots of these (especially the text ones) have far too much white space and the illustrations I found lacking in detail. In 'Zany Afternoons' there are three hilarious parodies of Detroit car brochures, 1934, 1946 and 1958 Bulgemobiles, all have paintings of fantasy cars with backgrounds full of detail, it is this detail that I found missing in so many of the paintings in 'Dream-O-Rama'

Still, the text is very funny and if you are new to Mr McCall's work try and get 'Zany Afternoons' and 'Sit!', he wrote the wonderful words to accompany the dog paintings of Thierry Poncelet.

Everyone's favorite Great Dane is captured through the decades in this "best-of" volume. Having had two Great Danes, I have always found the Marmaduke cartoons capture the best of these elegant dogs who want to sit on your lap, lie in your bed, eat from your table, and be your best friend. The comic panel has been around half-a-century and is in over twenty countries for a reason: it is wonderful.

When I was in my twenties I owned a German Shepard big enough and strong enough to pull me around. While he was gentle, he was also powerful enough to chew the strips off my car, which he did more than once. Therefore, the giant Marmaduke depicted in the strip will always remind me of Pepper. If you have ever owned a powerful, yet very gentle dog, this strip will pull at your heart. The facial expressions Anderson has Marmaduke demonstrate also remind me of how Pepper used to look at me when he wanted a dog treat.

"Marmaduke" is a comic strip for idiots. None of the so-called "jokes" are funny, and every single one is like, "Oh, Marmaduke acts like a person!" Now, I've had a dog in my life, so it isn't like if you've raised a dog you automatically find this nonsense funny. It's just idiotic.

If you're thinking about buying this book, consider the following scenario:

A panel displays a large dog lounging on a couch, apparently asleep. A little girl looks on. The caption, spoken by the little girl, reads, "Marmaduke sleeps on the couch, like a person." (The last sentence may or may not be punctuated with an exclamation point.)

Did you laugh at that description? Does the mere sight of a large dog on a couch warm your heart, or induce you to jubilant tears? If so, purchase this book. It's full of things simpleminded folk like yourself enjoy.

Seriously, you guys, this is lame. I cannot begin to describe the lack of wit here. It's as unsubtle as a kick to the jaw, except not as funny. The only reason to buy this is as an ironic gag gift. You know, ha-ha-ha, imagine someone who would enjoy this.

Type "Marmaduke" into Google and read some of the comics. Decide yourself. Maybe then you'll munderstand...

The horror...the horror.

Marmaduke has never made me laugh, or even smile. I think the only people who find this kind of humor funny are either very, very simple-minded or very, very old.

This book was better than I expected. The book is jam-packed with Marmaduke comics and is colorful and fun to look at.
Great for old and new Marmaduke fans.

I have just read Dan Piraro's book after meaning to do so for months. It didn't disappoint. I love this guy's cartoons and have followed them for years; I am happy to report that he is just as good a writer as he is a cartoonist.

One caveat - I actually expected more cartoons in the book, and there are very few. But he has so much to write about that this isn't a significant flaw by any means. He goes all over the map from "On the Road" type stuff to bio, and it's all good. I wasn't sure what to expect about the Pat Sajak/guardian angel stuff, but I did not find it intrusive or exceptionally weird.

Overall, I highly recommend this book as a companion to Piraro's comics.

The "author" tries too hard to be funny, all the while with a very egocentric attempt in disecting his wreck of a marriage; trying vehemently to secure his readers pity. Advice: Stick with cartooning. And personally: It Takes two to tango.

I don't know if I've ever read a more enjoyable book than "Bizarro Among The Savages." I couldn't go two pages without laughing out loud. I commend Mr. Piraro for not taking the easy way out and making fun of the people he stayed with on his book tour. Rather, he seems to have a gift for connecting with people and realizing the good points of anybody. He also doesn't pull any punches when talking about his own spiritual/emotional journey, and I applaud him him for his openness and frankness.

This is a great book! Even if you've never read his comic strip, read this book!

I have no idea why this book is currently out of print; its just so darn good. Piraro draws the daily cartoon Bizarro, and this book tells the tale of his early life, adventures on a shoestring book tour, and wraps up with some stuff about his messy divorce. I didn't really expect the writing to be this good, but Piraro is sarcastic like a Dave Barry with stamina, and writes as densely as a humorous William Gibson, and ties the multiple themes together with the elegance of John Irving. This was also a very funny book and I find it a little odd that Piraro is an expert humorist in both visual and verbal mediums. He must have one weird brain. I highly recommend this book; its funny, unique, and well written.

Dan has a wounderfully warped sense of humor which really shines through in his work. His amazing writing keeps you laughing for most of the book. The momories he has of this trip and his past seem so outragous that they almost seem false, but he tells them so vividly that they couldn't be. I loved this book and have read it repeatedly, a great choice for anyone who likes his cartoon, and even those who don't.

Too expensive for what it is. The cartoons are only so-so. It does not have very many pages of cartoons.

I received this wonderful book as a gift when I graduated with my master in teaching. It contains plenty of treasures, but I wanted to caution gift givers that the cartoons here are very heavy on the elementary school commentary. As a high school teacher, I didn't find a ton that were really applicable to my daily experiences. Still though, I've enjoyed flipping through it and chuckling at the lil'uns.

I gave this book to my kids' teachers as well as to several family members. I have never had such enthusiastic thank you's from not just one, but 4 teachers! The book is clever and thoughtful and appreciated by the profession.

Great stuff for teachers. I'm going to give it to my daughter who is a teacher.

Being a teacher and a subscriber to The New Yorker for 20+ years puts me in a subjective mode as I review THE NEW YORKER BOOK OF TEACHER CARTOONS.
The bargain-combo price..I purchased the Kid's Cartoons as well- for the new books gives me further incentive to offer a 5 Star review.

If you own a sail boat & love to sail, you need this book. Because people tend to take themselves way too serious...this book will put it all back into perspective. Everyone needs to laugh. (great little book - it fits anywhere. great gift for a sailor)

I got the book mail order: I was looking for a reference on sailing.
If you want to learn about sailing, not this book.
It is what can be only called upper class yacht social humor.
For a poor person related to an out-board motor mechanic,
this is just grindingly class oriented humor.
A book for indoctrinating rich people into in jokes
that really aren't too funny?

You need to be sailing for about a year before you "get it" with this book.. and when you do, you will be howling. I love this book.. I own it.. have bought several copies for friends and it is always well received. This is a great addition to your collection if you love to sail and love to laugh.

This paperback is hilarious (Wm. F. Buckley, Jr. says it's the funniest book he ever read) but beware: there are two versions available. The original edition is 8.5" x 5.5". In the newer edition, several things have been changed. It's now a 4" x 4" 'pocketbook', the design and layout are different, and several definitions have been 'updated'. The content is essentially the same, but if you're a purist, check eBay for the original.

I crew sailing on Lake Michigan, and I brought this book out on the boat with me last summer. I had our whole team holding their sides, everyone laughed so hard. My copy is a little wet from the spray, but this makes it even more dear to me since it now holds sun-drenched memories of summer sailing days. Anyone who loves sailing will love this book. There are also funny drawings with technical definitions, such as the tiller is labelled the "Steerer," the mainmast is the "Big Sail," the prow is the "Front End," and the stern is the "Back End." Very helpful to learn the official technical terms, in between laughing.

Here are just a few of our crew's favorite definitions:

Catfish -- Popular dish on seafood restaurant menus, where it appears under a variety of names, including haddock, scallops, bluefish, swordfish, and lobster Newburg.

Chart -- 1. A large piece of paper that is useful in protecting cabin and cockpit surfaces from food and beverage stains. 2. A common decorative motif on place mats. 3. A nautical map that assists the boatman in determining whether he is on the water (blue on charts) or on land (yellow on charts).

Flashlight -- Tubular metal container used on shipboard for storing dead batteries prior to their disposal.

Hull speed -- The maximum theoretical velocity of a given boat through the water, which is 1.5 times the square root of its waterline length in feet, divided by the distance to port in miles, minus the time in hours to sunset cubed.

Jiffy reefing -- Simple adjustment system that makes it possible to change from too much sail to too little sail in no time flat.

Ocean racing -- Demanding form of sailing practiced by sportsmen whose idea of a good time is standing under an ice-cold shower, fully clothed, while tearing up $100 bills.

Spinnaker -- Very large, colorful, lightweight pennant traditionally flown from the top of the mainmast when running downwind.

Toe -- Stub your "toe"? Well then it's time to brush up on your nomenclature! In nautical terms, a toe is a catchcleat or snagtackle. A few others: head-- boomstop; leg-- bruisefast; and hand-- blistermitten.

Yacht Club -- Troublesome seasonal infestation in coastal areas of a particularly unpleasant marine organism with a stiff neck, cold shoulders, and clammy extremities that tend to clog inlets, bays, and coves during warm summer months, often making ordinary recreational boating difficult.

Well, you get the idea, this is just a sample of the dozens and dozens of definitions. If you love sailing and like to laugh, you'll love this book. Also a great gift idea for the sailor in your life.

Rubes, in short, has the same style as Gary Larson's legendary "Far Side" comics, except for one fatal flaw: rubes isn't funny. Each panel is like an iron stake being driven into my brain. After reading the entire book, I chuckled maybe once. The comics are based on the corniest of jokes, but their not even jokes really. They're just awful puns. Here, let me make up a Rubes cartoon. The caption is "Cat got your tongue?" and the picture is literally of a guy with a cat holding on to his tongue. Hopefully Leigh Rubin won't sue me, because he probably came up with that one already. Don't buy this book, don't look at the book, don't even mention this book, because mentioning it makes it slightly useful, which this book is not.

I got The Wild Life of Cats as soon as it came out! It's great! I also bought several copies for my friends and they love it! The humor is really right-on target and anbody who's the least bit familiar with cats - or ever even seen a cat - will recognize and apprecite the cartoons! All of the cartoons are in color, which is very nice. My kids love it and my cats even recognize themselves!

I love all of the Rubes cartoons and books but this one is my favorite so far! Not only is it hilarious, but the color is amazing. This is a great addition to my collection and a perfect gift for any cat-crazy human!

I read The Wild Life of Cats and I can't get over how funny it is. Leigh Rubin is a comic genius and that comes across loud and clear in this book!! This is a must read if you love cats and if you love humor. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone.

I found "The Wild Life of Cats" to be hilarious and I highly recommend it. You don't have to be a cat lover to enjoy this all color cartoon book. But if you are a cat lover (like me!) this marvelous collection will make you laugh page after page. Rubes knows how to capture humorous insights of animals like no other cartoonist. Any one in his series of Wild Life books (Cows, Dogs, Farm Animals, and Pets) would make an excellent present for family and friends... if they enjoy a good laugh!

This is a great lightweight book on Darwin's life and the development of the idea of evolution. Though it would be a shame to stop an exploration of natural selection here, it's a great starting point because it provides the context in which Darwin's thoughts came to be. It also discusses objections and criticisms of natural selection, how it has been misunderstood and abused, and how Darwin himself treated problematic aspects of the theory. I don't know that the illustrations and such are very revealing or useful, but they definitely make the book easy and fun to read, though the last few pages become more text-based. Overall, it's a well executed introduction to a very influential and oft misinterpreted person. But though this book is for beginners, please don't stay one... go and read "Origin of Species."

This lively, clever, humorous little book IS accurate -- "scientifically correct," in the words of Dr. Tim M. Berra of Ohio State University (author of "Evolution and the Myth of Creationism," 1990, Stanford University Press). I agree with him that it would be a great gift for students to give to their parents to help them understand evolution. The illustrations, many of which are worth a thousand words, are at once engaging, informative, and great fun. Solid history and science in superlative format.

An illustrated narrative tells, all too briefly, the story of Darwin the man and his revolutionary discovery of how the living world came to be. Thanks to its amusing, but informative, cartoon style exegesis, this little gem is a uniquely powerful antidote to creationist propaganda in the classroom. The best introduction to Darwin and his ideas you're likely to see.

Basic facts on how religious creationism developed bit by bit into more falsifiable methods. Good for a high school senior to a college undergrad.
This book is not for kids nor for people with no knowledge of Darwin whatsoever. It is ONLY for those interested in scant tidbits of how his theories accreted (historcal context). The text can be confusing, alternating between pure sarcasm and bland fact so it might do not much but muddle an amateur.

It is a great shame the authors ruined such a good idea by doing no historical research. It is quite clear that the authors are ignorant of the wealth of research produced by the Darwin industry and of course the Correspondence of Charles Darwin. I could spend a long time doing a hatchet job on the book but I prefer to spend my time going to Snowdonia and walk over the mountains Darwin did his geology and read his geological notes where he wrote them. In all a silly book on a great scientist.. We desperately need a good simple book on Darwin, which avoids all the hype and inaccuracy