Should You Be Laughing At This? Hugleikur Dagsson (Writer & Artist). Michael Joseph (2006)

A collection of  brutal cartoons that are shocking and very funny, this is comedy without humour. Each carton is a confrontation for the reader, a single fierce idea presented with the minimum context required to sell it and set up to jolt a laugh before the reader can stop themselves.
The ideas themselves are deliberately provoking, they read like the statements a child would make to an adult to get a reaction. They are not serious decelerations, they are carefully formulated to shock and push the boundaries of the acceptable. In and of themselves they are not funny, they are not really anything in fact. Just a string of unrelated ideas that are unattached to anything and would be rapidly become just noise by themselves.
The art is slightly developed stick figure work, there is not attempt at any real detail or form. There is just enough shape to give the reader enough clues to identify what is required.
When Hugleikur Dagsson combines the two very unpromising elements he creates a very sophisticated and  thoughtful comedy. The art provides a context that just tips the words over from being empty talk to having some concrete impact, they are now part of an action or a situation. The idea now has some impact, it can be seen in action and sounds, they gain a voice. In this way they are read very differently, they are heard as much as read and get straight to readers bump of comedy. This is the part of the brain that find the unexpected and the normally unspeakable funny, shocking but funny too.
Achieving this balance where the art and the words support each other without distracting from either is a stunning talent, the simplicity of the art rests exactly against the extremity of the ideas and removes the dangerous violence that could easily be there. These become comedy rather than unreadable smears of bile, in answer to the reasonable question of the title, yes you should,out loud.

The PreHistory of The Far Side. A 10th Anniversary Exhibit. Gary Larson (Writer & Artist). Warner Books (1992)

A very enjoyable and engaging book that allows Gary Larson the room to talk about his comics and other topics as well as presenting a gallery of Far Side cartoons.
The first section is the origin of the Far Side, including picture from young Gary Larson's life that are as clever and sharp as any Far side panel. The steady development of the perspective that came to flower in the Far Side is nicely laid out, the same humour is evident, its really  form that developed rather than the content.
The second section is a fascinating look at the various processes that Gary Larson used to develop a Far Side panel. Gary Larson tackles the most absurd and important question that any creator gets asked, "Where do your ideas come from?". For all of us with our noses pressed against the wrong side of the window from the creative process this is heartfelt, we can see what the creator sees after it is shown to us. We participate but do not create, and it is entirely fair to wonder "How did you see that?", see something that is crystal clear after it has been pointed out and completely, cosmically invisible beforehand. Gary Larson does not answer the question anymore than anyone can, what he does do is generously share the visible steps in a process that lead to a panel. Most importantly for any Far Side fan it includes the Cow Zero panel, the first Far Side panel featuring a cow, and happily it is a joy as well.
A Sketchbook Sampler and Stories are just what the titles say they are, random jottings that Gary Larson insists have no relevance or significance, except for the fact that they are the random sketch book of the creator of the Far Side and feel like roads not taken, directions that could have been followed if the Far Side format not established itself as creatively satisfying.
Mutations (Mistakes, Mine & Theirs) is a section about elements of a panel that Gary Larson now regrets or dislikes and mistakes made in the publishing process. Subtle Things is a detailed process look at some of the elements of some Far Side panels, why they work or did not.
One of the most fascinating part of the book is Public Response, complaints about Far Side panels from newspaper editors and readers. The range of complaints is very wide and all to take a single panel cartoon much too seriously.
The final two sections of the book are Rejected Cartoons, and the Exhibition, a selection of Far Side panels that Gary Larson has chosen form from the previous 10 years of work because he liked them.
Single panel cartoons are astounding difficult to pull off, everything has to be clear all at once so the carton explodes like a firework. Gary Larson manages to cram so much unseen context into a simple subtle panel that each cartoon unfolds in the reader's imagination at the speed of light. Whatever the idea he sees it in a way that is entirely , colossally obvious and hilarious after you read it and utterly mysterious before that. Probably the most astonishing aspect to the whole thing is that each time I read them, they are still new and dazzlingly funny, the creative force burns each time.  A great book that happily explains noting about an extraordinary talent but shows it off to wonderful effect.

Affairs of the Heart. Patrick Wade. William Heinemann Ltd (1985)

Beautiful art and a savage humour create a glorious collection of cartons about love, sex and relationships. The cartons nicely sidestep the frequent cliches of domineering or overly enhanced women and submissive or sorry looking men. The cast look like humans and there is a strong sense of personality about them that adds force and depth to the punchlines. The writing is very vivid and matches with the art to create a pitch perfect balance. A rather faded looking man on the phone to a retailer complaining that he had ordered a Victoria Principal blow-up doll, on the bed behind rests a Margret Thatcher doll. What gives the multiple punchlines in the cartoon a real lift is that it has been done without malice, the man is not treated as a social inadequate, he is allowed be an annoyed customer first.
While the cartoons that have straightforward punchlines are excellent, the best cartoons in this collection are the ones which hint at a greater context outside of the moment in time spotlighted by the cartoon. A man caught is an absurdly compromising position calling out to his wife that he "can explain almost everything." That almost is the stamp of greatness, it allows the reader into the situation in the most vivid and direct way and gives the situation a life beyond the page.
A cartoon called "The Conversation Piece" is bitingly funny, the body language of the cast is eloquent. It also highlights one of Patrick Wright's astonishing skills, he can draw clothes than drape and fold naturally, suggesting the body underneath in fluid and subtle way. This masterful collection is a joy, funny and observant, biting without cruelty, astonishing.

F Minus. Tony Carrillo. Andrews McMeel Publishing (2007)

This is a collection of Tony Carrillo's clever, snarky and very funny single panel cartoons. While the cartoons follow no particular content theme or strategy, the format is consistent. The cartoons do not have captions, usually one of the cast within the panel is speaking which provides the text element.
The art is very distinctive, Tony Carrillo uses the minimum level of detail required to enable the person or object to be identified, the facial features of the human cast are expressive and minimal. The body language of the human cast is wonderfully expressive, it is very subtle, there are rarely any dramatic gestures. The underlying attitude of the person could not be clearer.
The power of the cartoons lies in the clever and very pointed ideas that they are expressing. One cartoon has a young boy returning home from school, the school bus is visible in the background, standing just inside his front door wearing just his underpants and school bag thinking "Hmm... Feels like I should have woken up by now."
There is a very astute balance between the elements in the cartoons in the collection, the art and text act together, they do not opposes or repeat each other. The work has an enjoyable sour tang at times, one carton has homework graded "C" fixed to the cistern of a toilet while a father tells a little boy " Sorry Mikey, you know the rules. Only A's go on the fridge."
There is a welcome range of topics in the work, some are absurd and some simply silly, all have been carefully set up to deliver the maximum punch. This is smart work that bears considerable re-reading without loosing its impact or humour.

The Best of Gahan Wilson. Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner (Editors). Underwood Books (2004)

Gahan Wilson is a cartoonist with a enjoyably morbid sense of humour and a distinctive artistic style. This book collects cartons from the span of his career as well as commentary from the artist. The cartoons are mostly single panels, there are a few examples of some strips Gahan Wilson did too. The humour is biting and sometimes is very savage. One full colour panel shows discarded and broken toys in an attic anticipating a nostalgic visit from their owner when he is old and feeble and finally within their power. The caption is tightly composed, it draws all the latent menace from the toys and their situation. The drawing does not emphasise the menace of the toys, the tension arises from the expert combination of the text and the drawing.

Gahan Wilson has a very distinctive style, his cast look as though they are slightly melting, they gather in folds of skin and lines that gives tremendous expressiveness to their actions. His monsters have a plastic, slightly liquid quality that both makes them more horrible and clinging and more comic. The art nicely captures the essential absurdity of a horrifying situation just before it becomes truly horrible. It is a fantastically difficult moment to capture, Gahan Wilson has the enviable talent to locate it and capture it precisely.

The precision of the writing that is evident in the captions is a joy to read. The captions do not repeat the idea in the drawing, they cunningly comment on it or act to provide a sharp context, as where a blood splatter hunter is congratulated by a companion for eliminating an entire species. The smiles of achievement on their faces are sincere and untroubled. This brilliant book provides a great showcase for a tremendous talent, a dark, shiver inducing pleasure.

The Best of H.T. Webster. A Memorial Collection. Simon and Schuster (1953)

Harold Tucker Webster (1885–1952) was a widely syndicated cartoonist in the US from the 1920s to the 1950s. He drew single panel cartoons that frequently ran along a theme such as "Life's Darkest Moment" and a series that gave rise to a new word in English, "The Timid Soul". The protagonist of the Timid Soul series is Casper Milquetoast, a man whose severe timidity ensured that milquetoast has entered English as an adjective.

H.T.Webster's topics were the small triumphs and disasters that occur in any life and that linger much longer in our memories that they should do. He captures, with understated skill the pleasure or sting of the moment without ever undermining those involved. There is a strong wash of nostalgia in his work, in particular where it features barefoot boys that echo his own rural boyhood in the wonderfully named town of Tomahawk in Wisconsin. One of the reasons that H.T.Webster's work is still appealing today is that he clearly liked people, his cartoons of the arguments that can erupt between husbands and wives over a game of bridge are done with a lack of spitefulness that makes them a pleasure still.

As someone with a near mystical lack of ability with anything mechanical or electrical I can strongly attest that the look of mingled relief and pride displayed by the man in the picture above has been drawn from life. Superb drawing and incisive writing that nailed the underlying emotion and captured the humour make H.T.Webster a master of his craft, a book to savour.

The Brinkley Girls. The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons From 1913-1940. Trina Robbins (Editor), Fantagraphics Books (2009)

Nell Brinkley's stunning art graced the pages of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers for more than thirty years, her warmly romantic drawings of beautiful women and handsome men made her a star in her own right. This book is a superb demonstration of why she was so popular and a testament to an extraordinary talent that deserves to be restored to public attention. Nell Brinkley's elegant art captures the spirit of light hearted glamour and deeply romantic beauty in a way that photography, however creatively manipulated, cannot. The art communicated the ideal with such directness, with the necessary air of fantasy and with the emotional context so intimately drawn into the cast that they remain as seductive today as they did decades ago.

The Brinkley Girls are very distinctively of a type, they are willowy, with glorious hair that that frames their wide eyed expressive faces. They are dressed in the gorgeous clothes that flow and swirl around the them with such stunning details and colours that they are virtually characters in themselves. In the illustrated romantic serials that Nell Brinkley wrote as well as illustrated she clearly had a strong preference for spirited heroines who were willing to take bold action to protect their lovers. In particular the "Golden Eyes" serial is an outstanding example of the astonishing talent. The story is melodramatic to the core, the flowing artwork is joyous. In later serials where she was illustrating the stories by other authors that features more conventionally constrained heroines, her art is still luminous, the fashion details and calmly understated sexuality of the heroines are treasures of lush romance.

The volume is beautifully produced, the artwork is crisp and the details bright and clear. The pieces by Trina Robbins are informative and very well written, they add an valuable critical commentary to the art.

Practicing People Skills on Ballard Street. Jerry Van Amerongen.Syren Book Company (2007)

Middle-aged suburbanites have been a carton staple for a very long time, usually a satiric one, used to exploit their pretensions or the gap between their aspirations and the grim reality of their lives. In the daily newspaper , single panel cartoon, Ballard Street, Jerry Van Ameongen manages to be affectionate, very funny and truthful all at the same time. This collection is not an examination of the comic virtues of desperation, it is full of people happily and fully living out their dreams. While the dreams may be building a somewhat haphazard replica of the Great Sphinx in your back garden or being a bus enthusiast they are being pursued with whole hearted commitment and passion. There is an tremendous pleasure in the cartoons at the sheer absurdity of life and the truly ridiculous nature of it. The cast of the characters are frequently baffled by their own actions or wondering how to cope. They are never treated with a sarcastic edge by Jerry Van Ameongen, they are presented to the world with care and attention.
One of the most distinctive elements in the very funny collection is that there are no children among the cast, there are dogs but no cats. The dogs are fully fledged characters in the cartons, some of the best explore the relationships between people and their pets. Each panel is a snapshot of a life that strongly suggests the rest of the life beyond the panel. This collection is proof that amiable humour is neither weak-kneed nor stupid, these are clever, carefully crafted cartoons that cast an angled glance at life and capture the extraordinary that lies hidden out in the open.

Willie and Joe. The WWII Years. Bill Mauldin. Fantagraphic Books. (2008)

A very handsome, two volume set of the wartime cartoons by Bill Mauldin that enraged General Patton, who wanted to throw Bill Mauldin in jail for "spreading dissent" and were loved by the millions of infantry soldiers who lives he illustrated. What makes this much more than an interesting historical document is that the jokes are still funny long after the context for them has receded far from the public memory. These were intended for a very specific audience who would read them in a very specific context. The were being read by soldiers and civilians who were in a war and would read the public context for the cartons as much as the actual content. It was this that caused General Patton such rage, the context gave the content a dangerous edge. Today, when they context of WWII is as far away as the Jurassic Age all we have is the content and that makes reading them a completely different experience.

Bill Mauldin realised that being a soldier, war time or peacetime, is primarily a job, much like any other job that functions within a large bureaucracy and management structure. The cartoons are about people at work, the absurd constrictions and the petty rules that define work, the comradeship that exists between people thrown into work together and the uneasy relationships between those who give orders and those who obey them. That the context is military at peace or war is far less importance that the shared experience of anyone who has had a job and the frustrations and oddities that come with working. In particular reading the cartoons of his unshaven GIs at war in Europe, the struggle in not with the enemy it is with the Army and sometimes with your fellows. It rings as true now as it did for the audience in the trenched and tents who saw that someone actually understood what it was like to do what they did.

In the last months of his life Bill Mauldin received thousands of letters and cards from old veterans and their relatives, they knew that he was on their side and in a war that is deeply precious knowledge. This box set is worth getting because a talented artist still shines as brightly today as he did over sixty years ago.