Humor Books

I've read tons of books in my day, so when a friend recommended Rob Fox's "Buzzkill" I felt obligated to at least skim through it. Well, I'm glad I did! This truly is a book I couldn't put down! As I entered the world Mr. Fox created...right here in my hometown...I couldn't stand to leave! I kept trying to figure out how this was going to turn out, and I was constantly wrong!
A real updated Hollywood Film Noir, with characters that jump off the page and a lead character you just cheer for the whole way. You might not want to live next door to these guys, but you'll be glad they do!
Thanks Mr. Fox for a terrific ride! I look forward to reading more of your work.

Buzzkill is an entertaining read, filled with bizarre characters and plot twists that are still somehow believable. Rob Fox's sharp wit and ironic observations of the Hollywood industry hit spot on. I especially enjoyed the hilarious and mocking physical descriptions of the characters.

Buzzkill by Rob Fox is smart, sexy, and funny. Fox's insider view of Hollywood is spot on. His characters are wonderful. Buzzkill is an entertaining book that makes you think!

Clever & enjoyable read; Mr. Fox makes our sad but hopeful hero loveable and sympathetic. Can't wait for another book....

"Buzzkill" is a hilarious, laugh-out-loud, dead on Tinsel Town murder mystery. Rob Fox's rich characters and frenetic pacing made it impossible to put it down until the very last page.

Ok, I have 4 Pearls Before Swine books: "Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata", "The Ratvolution Will Not Be Televised", "This Little Piggy Stayed Home", and "Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic". I have to say "Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata" is the funniest one. It has all the strips from 2006. I consider it a must buy for any Pearls fan.

Love the strip-love the book. Pearls appeals to my slightly acidic sense of humor.

The book was a wonderful collection. and I had many laughs from it. I have ordered other Pearls before Swine books as a result.

If you are a fan of Stephan Pastis' twisted humor, you will love this book! If you never heard of him and are slightly "bent", you'll soon be a fan.
I purchased two previous books and gave them away as gifts (after reading them first, of course) and the party turned into a "listen to this one" and "where did you get these?" event.
I love the crocodiles and their phonetic accent and their struggles with the wary zebra who is too smart for them....because EVERYONE is too smart for them.
The other characters are great too, but this one is the best of the three I've read. Do yourself a favor and order this book. Laughter is the best medicine and Stephan Pastis makes a great doctor!

Dis booka lotte fun!! Me geets it fer Chrissmass. Me laugh so hard Zeeba hear me an runna way. Darn book too funnee. Now me sad but steel laffeng.
Bob Da Croc

I have been a faithful FoxTrot reader for years. Roger, Andy and their kids Peter, Paige and Jason are always good for a reality check with a large dose of laughter. I've got two girls and let me tell you, I see a lot of my kids in Paige with, I believe, even a healthy dose of Jason thrown in. And they have Peter's bottomless stomach. Of course, they're faithful FoxTrot readers too. I used to read the strip to them, explain what was going on, but now they get it just fine and we three all laugh together. Then my girls try and explain the strip to their dad, who pretends he doesn't get it.

The FoxTrot folks are a great family, one we sort of got used to checking up on every day, so we took the news that Mr. Amend was going to cease daily distribution of his wonderfully funny people and turn his strip to Sunday only, with a bit of sadness. Still, we have these terrific FoxTrot books to keep us going with our FoxTrot fix. Mr. Amend is to be commended for his great gift to our culture and his great gift to so many lives. I truly believe a laugh a day, helps keep the blues away and the FoxTrot gang are always good for a laugh. Heck there are a lot of laughs in the FoxTrot books. I know, I have them all and I am, along with my girls and my hubby dear, eagerly awaiting the next one.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, we don't have an iguana, but my girls do have a pet gecko and, you guessed it, his name is Quincy.

I've been a Foxtrot reader for a long time and personally I think there is something suspiciously wrong with people who don't find Bill Amend's characters funny as all get out. If you want a good laugh, check out Bill in your local newspaper, or better yet, get one of the Foxtrot books. They are all great, really, they are.

Like many of Mr. Amend's fans I'm a bit disappointed he's switching his strip to Sunday-only, but fortunately I can still read him daily in the Foxtrot books. Get them one and all and you can keep right on a laughing.

Needless to say, this FoxTrot comic book is very funny. Needless to say, if you are a fan of comic strips of any kind, I would quickly usher a large amount of FoxTrot books your way.

The outrageous series in this book include:
-Sportschatter vs. Duke Nukem
-Titanic Craze
-Valentine's Day
-Power shut-out
-gotee magic
-finals week (always a FoxTrot staple)
-BittyBaby Craze
-X-Men the movie
-Jasondows98
-Football training
-mutant zucchini
-Tomb Raider 2
-Babysitting (for Mrs. O'Dell)
-Airguana
-First day of school clothes
-The 97-panel comic
-How to promote your comic
-Wind essay
-POST-Halloween craze

Now, you SHOULD just be imagining in your head right now the funny twist that Bill Amend puts on these. If not, well, you should!!!

Great job Bill Amend, you rock!!!!

If you don't think that getting 369 good laughs for 10 bucks is a good deal, don't buy this.

Great book! One of the best, actually. As I said in my other Fox Trot review, I just can't get enough! I dread the day Bill Amend decides to retire. May that day never, ever come!

This book is must for your collection!

I have always enjoyed the Foxtrot series, and this collection is a wonderful addition. The strips are very timely, so the pure bite might have faded a bit -- for example, references to Tomb Raider and Titanic seem a little outdated now -- but they still have the power to make me laugh out loud. Seeing Andy surrounded by Kleenex and sobbing because "My Heart Will Go On" is on the radio still makes me crack up!

Another winner from Bill Amend. Enjoy!

I read the strip in the paper and occasionally he's hilarious, like the strip last month when Larry the gator's wife says she's leaving him, that was a classic. More often it's really nothing much and that's pretty much how this book is. I find myself pushing myself to keep reading rather than hungering for more. He just isn't as consistently witty as Dilbert or Get Bucky or Marmaduke. Just kidding Marmaduke sucks like a whirlpool, it's the same gag every frickin day, I wish they get it out of the paper already. I love off the wall humor, and he's got talent, so I'm glad he's around because it's one of the better strips today, but he too often just tries to pass off crassness as humor, which it seems is popular by the likes of many comediennes today, however I prefer more talented wit in my humor like his strip from last month I already mentioned.
I bought this book because it's a compilation and a good way to learn more about the artist and his art, so no regrets.

I love Pearls Before Swine, and this is a great compilation. I enjoyed it so much, I plan to send it to my son so that he can enjoy it as well.

Got this book for my daughter this Christmas because she loved the first one I bought, St. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club. She loves reading the comics on the Sunday paper, and that's how she first asked for her first Pearls Before Swine book, because she was curious if the strips on the Sunday paper were all there was to it. Like the other book we have, the strips offer nuggets of humor with hints of worldly wisdom, cynicism, satire, hyperbole, analogy, smart-alecky and "That's life" kind of stuff that becomes part of our life experience as we go on living in this world. This book's characters somewhat epitomize how we should not take life too seriously so we don't go bonkers trying to live too hard!

I purchased this as a Christmas stocking stuffer for my beloved. I know that she is fond of this cartoonist's work. Now, when we have occasion to spend a quiet evening together watching TV, she amuses herself during bouts of advertising by perusing the cartoons in this book. She laughs out loud for several minutes at a stretch, until whatever show we were actually viewing returns to the screen, at which point she reluctantly puts the book back down until the next bout of advertising. I know from her laughter that she is enjoying the book, and I enjoy hearing her laugh, so its a win win. Plus she feels compelled to share some of her favorites with me, on the spot. They are really funny, and when she finishes going through the book, I will probably use it as she has been. If this catches on, I'm sure that television advertisers will put a hit out on this cartoonist.

This book is just the thing to pass the day and to bring some humor to
your day and to teach how to see the funny side of life as well.

There would be millions of young boys out there that would love to invite Calvin over when those oh so annoying parents inflicted one of those evil girl babysitters on them. There are quite a few other storylines involved in this book, but that strip is definitely worth of the title billing in the publication.

Bill Watterson is a genious. There's no other way to put it. Calvin and Hobbes is one of the Great Comic Strips of our times and this collected edition is an incredible read. Highest possible recommendation.

This book is a collection of short comic stories about a 6-year old boy named Calvin and his "invisible" friend Hobbes. Hobbes is Calvin's stuffed-animal toy tiger that is real to Calvin and only Calvin can hear Hobbes talk. Rosalyn is Calvin's babysitter and he almost "hates" her.

Calvin spends time with his babysitter because he is simply too much for his parents to handle and they need an occasional break like going out to dinner together. So they hire Rosalyn, a teenager, to sit Calvin. Rosalyn is paid well, so she agrees to babysit the little "twerp" but she regularly is asking for a pay rise.

The conflicts between Calvin and his sitter Rosalyn are the source for the many great comic interactions. For example, when Calvin learns that Rosalyn wants to study for an important school exam, he tells Hobbes - "Tonight Hobbes! The Revenge of the Babysats! Thus begin the hilarious antics that everyone from ages 8 and up will love to read about.

It is my feeling that Bill Watterson had enough integrity and ethics to prevent the syndicate from cranking out endless meaninglessly repetitive compilations. Of course, he did quit partly because he was becoming disgusted with many of the commercial aspects of his work. With most comics, even good ones, the collections get stale after a few. Watterson's collections dont. There are a dozen or so C&H compilations/collections, but you wont be dissapointed with owning the whole shebang, especially since Watterson frequently did a lot of extra work to ensure that each collection had something new to offer. Even without this extra stuff, Watterson's body of work is extensive enought to warrant owning all these collections. He was steadily cranking out great material for a decade or so, and if you are like me you will be reading some C&H weekly for as long as you are on this earth, so tons of books is not a bad thing. Basically, I wholeheartedly reccomend all the books. If you like one you will like them all. They only get better as you get to know the characters. Watterson never goes for the cheap laugh by having any of the comic's principals act out of character. As you progress through the years with C&H, and I do reccomend reading them in order, you will see how art progresses and grows when the artist is committed to excellent work. So, go get the first one, titled simply Calvin & Hobbes, and then start down the enjoyable road to making Calvin and his tiger a pleasant little chunk of your life. (Yes, i have repeated this review for every C&H book I own, wich is all of them, so get used to seeing all this anytime you look one of them up)

No matter how many times I read them, I can never get tired of Calvin and Hobbes. They're funny, creative, and are always getting into some sort of hijinx that could just about get them grounded for life. "The Revenge of the Baby-Sat" offers such adventures as that in a funny and entertaining way.

Calvin is always getting into trouble. Him and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, are always faced with obstacles; from Calvin's parents to his teacher. One of the main obstacles he faces in this book is a deranged baby-sitter (or at least, that's how he sees her). But hey, no problem! Calvin and Hobbes have a plan to get back at the baby-sitter once and for all!

Other adventures in the book can be found, such as:

*Calvin tries to play hooky*
*Calvin's picture session with his father*
*The Beanie Epic*
*Calvin forgets his "bug project"*
*Calvin's house gets broken into*
*"The Pushing of the Car Down the Drive" incident*
*Calvin cleans his room*
and many more!

"The Revenge of the Baby-Sat" is127 pages of Calvin and Hobbes hilarity. Bill Watterson never ceases to amaze me with his witty creativity and well-executed humor. This is something that can be enjoyed by kids, as well as adults. This is an outstanding collection of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips that should be checked out by anybody who's a fan of the comic strip (or anybody who loves to laugh). A five-star collection that continues to entertain me without missing a single beat.

What started as a project to print every single Spy Vs. Spy strip Prohias did (plus some that were done by his successors) evolved into a tribute to their creator.

The strips are all here, but there are also a couple of nice essays and rememberences detailing Prohias flight from Castro's Cuba and life in America. Plus they printed some of his pre-Spy Vs. Spy strips.

These strips were meant to be read once a month or more. I've noticed if you read too many in a row, they lose their edge. Still, that's no knock on the work. If you remember these strips from childhood or liked the animated Mad TV segments, this book is well worth a look.

Spy vs. Spy has always been my favorite section in MAD magazine since I first started reading it many years ago. Each new issue I got, I would immediately turn to the "Joke and Dagger Department" which is specifically reserved for this strip. It was not until I was much older however did I realize that Spy vs. Spy were really a parody of the cold war. This book is the complete collection of Antonio Prohias's iconic creation including every Spy vs. Spy he ever illustrated. Additional biographical and bonus information on Prohias is another amazing feature of this collection and his immense contribution to MAD magazine is truly shown. The Spy's elaborate methods of destroying one another will keep you laughing for hours with this book! Which Spy will win next? Black or White?!

I loved the unexpectited endings. I liked seeing them beet up each other. They also tell abought the auother`s life in the begening.

Classic book with background information. Creative, imaginary, entertaining & impossible enterprises detailed. Great for adults to younger teens. Originally purchased for my 12 year old and so popular he and his friends that we gave several as gifts to his friends. My 8 year old also picked up the book and spent time studying the pictures and laughing at the absurd lengths these spys go to.

"Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook" collects the complete run of the late Antonio Prohias' comic strip from 1961-1987, published by MAD Magazine. The title characters are two equally sinister agents--one dressed in black, the other in white--who constantly war against each other with many a different scheme.
On occasion, the Spies are joined by the Gray Spy--a female operative who always triumphs over the Spies, who are blinded by their love for her. This book also contains artwork by Bob Clarke and Peter Kupfer. There are also extras in this book, including photographs of Spy merchandise, unpublished sketches and essays by Prohias' friends at MAD.
This book has a secret agent, film noir feel to it. It appears that the comics were easily inspired by The Shadow--but to a greater extent, the Cold War.

How can second-rate gory horror comics be so much fun? I reread THE ZOMBIE FACTORY three enjoyable times, and I still can figure it out!

If you enjoy violent and unsettling comics in the tradition of the legendary EC Comics, look no further. These classic 1960s' "wet" tales of undead rampages will surely satisfy your carnivorous comic book cravings.

THE ZOMBIE FACTORY, with its black-and-white retro horror comics, is a superb example of why the comic industry instated a Comic Code. Left to their own devices, it would have just been a matter of time before Bob Kane or Jack Cole had Batman or Plastic-Man disembowel or behead some hapless jewel thief. Fun, bloody, and a cool glimpse into a world of comics that might have been.

Crammed with all manners of undead evil, THE ZOMBIE FACTORY will most certainly delight the most discrimination horror comic reader with its tales of unbridled evil. My favorite story involves a nazi war criminal and a pair of gloves made from human skin.

These delightfully degenerate comics, the kind not suitable for the sensibilities of the easily disgusted, are deliberately designed to dishevel one's nerves with its relentless excesses of bloodshed at the rotting hands of the undead. Anyone of these blood-splattered tales would feel right at home residing a movie theater screen with the caption, "directed by George Romero."

This is possibly the most beautifully rendered graphic novel (if something of these dimensions can be called a novel) ever. Dave McKean is best known for doing the cover art for all 75 issues of Neil Gaiman's landmark Sandman comics series, and as the director of the independent film Mirrormask. Not all of his fans may know about McKean's solo comics work. Cages, his magnum opus, was originally released in 10 issues, over a period of 6 years, dogged by publishing difficulties and McKean's busy schedule. It was worth the wait, for within it McKean shows himself to be an extraordinary storyteller in his own right, as well as being a wonderful draughtsman and illustrator.

Worth every penny of the fifty bucks.

I read this book a couple of years ago, and reread it a few weeks ago. I have never come across a story like this, in particular a story TOLD like this. With an incredibly impressive array of visual/narrative techniques, McKean presents an allegory (if that's what it is; the book can be ambiguous concerning certain developments) of creativity as well as despair, abandonment, frustration, and above all, the realization that things are actually pretty wonderful, if we can manage to alter our perspectives.
This is one of the crowning achievements of the graphic medium, and a landmark in literature.

I've bought this graphic novel 3 years ago.
I've just read it in past 4 days.
Why?
I don't know.
Maybe I was afraid of it, maybe I wasn't ready for it yet.
I didn't know what to expect from that pages, that cages...
When I finished it today I was just... it's hard to explain the combination of feelings in my head and soul.
As a painter, graphic novel artist and comic strip teacher, I use to search for a new worlds, to find some new stories to tell to my friends and people that surrounds me.
And I'm aware of numerous traps that lurking behind every corner of creation.
I use to tell my students: Be creative, free your mind and fly through the limitless fields of mind, through the many rooms and hidden windows.
And than again, I find myself captured in some sort of cage.
But the love always sets me free.
Dave McKean is one of my few favorite artists.
A genius that combines techniques, always searching for some new expression.
In this complex and moving book, you can find him using sometimes scratchy ink outlines an rapid brush movenents, everything black and white, (with some blue and greenish tone).
Also a few in colour painted panels, an photomontages.
The storyline is good, sometimes monotone but filled with phylosophy about God, art, creation, love, meanings of existence...
I think that I'm going to read it few more times... There's something left, hidden between those dark walls, and spattered lines.
But all I can do is recommend this amazing 500 pgs long book to you,
and you will be next to enter that other- but so close to us - world.

I passed this large 500pg graphic novel in my bookstore many times before i decided to 'staisfy my curiosity'. So i bought it. Upon opening the cover, I was awestruck at the pages in front of me. The book is simply (in my opinion) one of the finest examples of visual story-telling (in the comicbook sense) that I have ever seen. It's a book I can point to and say, "There, THATS how far you can go with the medium!".

Dave McKean is not one of my favourite writers or artists, but this is one of the best 'books' i have ever held in my hands. The story is interesting, layered & strange. This book is not a 'snack'. It's a big 'meal', that you'll put in the freezer & reheat again to consume over & over. The visuals are not 'text-book' comic style illustrations, but rather 'artistic'. It's stylised. The book is a piece of art. The quality of the book itself (Cover, inside pages & size) - is something you rarely (if ever) see on shelves. This book is not cheap, but once you open the pages, you wouldn't care if you paid twice the price. It's that good.

The often used cliche, "If you only buy one graphic novel a year, make it this one" is perfectly valid for this book.

.

Okay, well there's lots of things to say about this book. On first glance, Dave McKean's artistic style seems rough and unskilled. But I knew him from the amazing images he put together for the Sandman series. And as I read this book, I saw how behind all the scribbly lines was a clear vision, and the ability to portray emotions and scenes with precision. And yet it's not beautiful. It's scribbly and rough.

His storyboarding is amazing. He can show time and movement and emotion incredibly well. He uses the medium of comics in an expert manner.

The characters are interesting, and the dialogue is very authentic and real. You can sink yourself into any scene and believe it. He paints the characters in terms of their words and emotions as well as he depicts their movement, the passage of time, and the images behind the images. It feels much like Gaiman's work. There's an intimacy of character that draws you in, past any dislike you may have of the artistic style at first.

But what I didnt like, and the reason I gave it a 3, is that there isnt an overall story. McKean hints at a story, and brings in elements with a lot of potential, from the supernatural to gods and conspiracies, but he doesnt go anywhere with them or attempt to explain them or justify their existence in the story. It's as if he read imaginative stories all day long and this was the confusing, odd dream he had afterwards. I kept hoping he'd weave it all together in the end, but he doesnt. It meanders without purpose. The telling is good, but what is it telling? I really dont know. And thus, it is unsatisfying.

From his early punk rocker days to carvorting with todays biggest celebrities, Dan Mathews spins a hilarious web of globe trotting adventures sprinkled with a dash a seriousness that brings light to an important subject matter; animal cruelty. From humble beginnings, success and notoriety certainly haven't changed his life long goals or sparkling personality. If you like Augusten Burroughs style of writing, grab this book and be prepared to laugh out loud. If I ever end up in a jail cell somewhere, I hope Dan is sitting next to me.

This book was simply fantastic! Funnier than David Sedaris, and a story that draws you in. You don't have to like PETA to love this book, by the way. My non-PETA friends are all enjoying it as much as I did. It's entertaining in its own right - a fabulous read. I honestly couldn't put it down. Highly, HIGHLY recommend it.

Major kudos to Dan for writing such an entertaining, honest (but not at all "in your face") and mind-shifting book about the suffering of the non-human animals that we share this planet with. I read Committed in one day. I loved it. This book proves that humor, compassion, optimism and love can change the world. If I was not a vegan before reading this book (I went vegan 5 years ago at age 37 and have never regretted it) I surely would have changed my ways after reading it.

Both highly entertaining and full of scary, disgusting stories of the atrocities committed to animals world-wide, this book made me feel nauseous, horrified, and finally inspired that one person can make such a difference. It made me want to give up meat, join PETA and Dan in his animal crusade. Strongly recommend for animal lovers, those thinking of becoming vege and needing an extra push, and anyone wanting to do something more with their lives beyond a regular nine-to-five job.

This book was so much more than I expected! I was interested to learn more about the life of a PETA insider, with this book I got that but also so much more; reads like a really fun and wild novel. Dan Mathews tells the fascinating story of his life with laugh out loud humor and eye popping detail. Makes me want to go out for drinks with him and learn more. Definely recommended for anyone desiring to read a great book - not just for us crazy vegans. ;-)

I got this book for my friend as a Christmas present and I ended up reading the whole thing before I gave it to her. This book is hilarious how we all seem to function with the same hates on many tiny things.

It's just what you expect to get when you order the product, hilarious. The pages are filled with almost any awkward situation you have ever been in and then some. It's great to pick up and browse through for a few minutes when you want a good laugh.

I was overwhelmed and under pressure the day before Christmas Eve at Barnes & Noble. This seemed funny, but I started to put it back because it was just another one of the many useless gift-y books... but every time I flipped to a random page, I laughed hysterically.

It's just extremely witty and well-written. I've since decided to order more as gifts for friends of mine. These are the things we think but do not say, or sometimes don't even admit to ourselves because they're so obsessive or silly.

Worthwhile, humorous, and entertaining.

This is the only book I've ever read that basically gave me one long continuous laughing attack.

I bought this book for my parents as a Christmas gift and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting before I gave it to them. It completely cracked me up.