FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
CARTOONIST: Michael Kupperman
32 pp., B&W, $4.50
Because the Direct Sales market for comic books has actually reduced both the number of readers and genres of books published, many comic book fans only know two types of humor comics: superhero parody (and to a lesser extent parody in general) and funny animals (also known as anthropomorphics). However, last year Fantagraphics introduced adventurous readers to Michael Kupperman’s TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE, a comic book in which the author finds humor in every corner possible – from books and comics to real life. The (still) new year welcomes a second issue.
Thrizzle’s humor is actually more firmly rooted in traditional humor comic magazines of various stripes than in humor comics. We can obviously compare this to MAD Magazine, but Thrizzle is also similar to The Onion, with a bit of ZAP Comix thrown in the mix. Kupperman’s sensibilities are very much like the gag cartoonists who’ve appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, or any of the larger literary and adult magazines that publish humor cartoons.
The first time I read this I thought of “Monty Python,” and apparently I wasn’t alone, although “In Living Colour,” and “MAD TV” also come to mind. Like these series, Kupperman uses lots of parody, but he also applies farce and satire. One of his favorite subjects is parodying old advertisements, especially the ones that used comics to sell their products – the famous Charles Atlas “Mac gets sand kicked in his face,” being a good example. One of his ads mockingly asks, “Are you being worn out by unnecessary foreplay?” which encourages the frustrated husband to order a small robot, a “4-Playo 3000,” which performs foreplay on the wife and lets the husband know when his spouse is warmed up for actual intercourse.
Kupperman also sends up film noir using silhouette drawings and “Space Patrol” using a create your own adventure scenario. There’s so much more, as this 32-pages comic book easily offers 40+ pages of humor. I can only give it my highest recommendation.
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