Underworld: My Little Funny

Comic Strips
Underworld: My Little Funny
By Leroy Douresseau
January 10, 2005 - 15:37

Fantagraphics Books
Writer(s): Kaz
Penciller(s): Kaz
Inker(s): Kaz
Letterer(s): Kaz
Cover Artist(s): Kaz
ISBN: 1-56097-567-9
96 pp., B&W, $9.95

He writes for Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants” and has contributed to RAW creators, Art Spiegelman & Francoise Mouly’s Little Lit, but Kaz has been a darling of alt and mainstream cartoon circles for almost two decades. UNDERWORLD: MY LITTLE FUNNY is the fifth collection of his weekly humor comic strip published in alternative newspapers both in the U.S. and Canada.

In the world of newspaper publishing, both mainstream and otherwise, there is no shortage of humor comic strips. There is, however, a shortage of the kind of gently scatological humor and adult-skewered gag strips that freely poke fun at everything from politics and society to religion and culture. Pop culture gets it up the rear from a number of sources, but finding raw and blunt satire in the comics pages is difficult.

Kaz freely uses monsters, aliens, funny animals, everyday objects, freaks, retards, and outcasts as the players in his frequently burlesque strip. A few are mild in spite of their frankness, and some of are genuinely funny. Some gags just fall flat and others seem weird for no particular reason other than just being off-center. For people who really love comic strips, though, consider this book a must-have, even if it has a few warts. B