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Nuts
Remember how baffling, terrifying, and sad childhood really was? Now you can laugh at it.
In this thematically and narratively linked series of one-page stories originally published in the National Lampoon’s “Funny Pages” section throughout the 1970s, the master of the macabre eschewed his usual ghouls, vampires, and end-of-the-world scenarios for a wry, pointed look at growing up normal in the real, yet endlessly weird world. This is essentially a lost Gahan Wilson graphic novel from the 1970s and '80s.
Watch as our stoic, hunting-cap-wearing protagonist (known only as “The Kid”) copes with illness, disappointment, strange old relatives, the disappointment of Christmas, life-threatening escapades, death, school, the awfulness of camp, and much more — all delineated in Wilson’s roly-poly, sensual, delicately hatched line.
If you don’t remember what it was like being a child, this book will bring it all back… for good or for ill! This new hardcover edition reprints every single “Nuts” story from the Lampoon (rescuing over two dozen pages from oblivion), with a critical essay about the strip by Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth.
In this thematically and narratively linked series of one-page stories originally published in the National Lampoon’s “Funny Pages” section throughout the 1970s, the master of the macabre eschewed his usual ghouls, vampires, and end-of-the-world scenarios for a wry, pointed look at growing up normal in the real, yet endlessly weird world. This is essentially a lost Gahan Wilson graphic novel from the 1970s and '80s.
Watch as our stoic, hunting-cap-wearing protagonist (known only as “The Kid”) copes with illness, disappointment, strange old relatives, the disappointment of Christmas, life-threatening escapades, death, school, the awfulness of camp, and much more — all delineated in Wilson’s roly-poly, sensual, delicately hatched line.
If you don’t remember what it was like being a child, this book will bring it all back… for good or for ill! This new hardcover edition reprints every single “Nuts” story from the Lampoon (rescuing over two dozen pages from oblivion), with a critical essay about the strip by Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
2 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Gahan Wilson
282 books49 followersGahan Wilson was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations.
Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style, and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more gothic, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross, and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters, and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
His cartoons and prose fiction have appeared regularly in Playboy, Collier's Weekly, The New Yorker and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. For the last he also wrote some movie and book reviews. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy magazine.
His comic strip Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of childhood in strips like Peanuts. His hero The Kid sees the world as a dark, dangerous and unfair place, but just occasionally a fun one too.
Wilson also wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthology Again, Dangerous Visions. The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate, until... He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos.
Additionally, Gahan Wilson created a computer game titled Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House, in conjunction with Byron Preiss. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house, by interacting in various ways with characters (such as a two-headed monster, a mad scientist, and a vampiress), objects, and the house itself.
He received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, and the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Gahan Wilson is the subject of a feature length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
Wilson's cartoons and illustrations are drawn in a playfully grotesque style, and have a dark humor that is often compared to the work of The New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams. But while both men sometimes feature vampires, graveyards and other traditional horror elements in their work, Addams's cartoons tended to be more gothic, reserved and old-fashioned, while Wilson's work is more contemporary, gross, and confrontational, featuring atomic mutants, subway monsters, and serial killers. It could be argued that Addams's work was probably meant to be funny without a lot of satirical intent, while Wilson often has a very specific point to make.
His cartoons and prose fiction have appeared regularly in Playboy, Collier's Weekly, The New Yorker and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. For the last he also wrote some movie and book reviews. He has been a movie review columnist for The Twilight Zone Magazine and a book critic for Realms of Fantasy magazine.
His comic strip Nuts, which appeared in National Lampoon, was a reaction against what he saw as the saccharine view of childhood in strips like Peanuts. His hero The Kid sees the world as a dark, dangerous and unfair place, but just occasionally a fun one too.
Wilson also wrote and illustrated a short story for Harlan Ellison's anthology Again, Dangerous Visions. The "title" is a black blob, and the story is about an ominous black blob that appears on the page, growing at an alarming rate, until... He has contributed short stories to other publications as well; "M1" and "The Zombie Butler" both appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and were reprinted in Gahan Wilson's Cracked Cosmos.
Additionally, Gahan Wilson created a computer game titled Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House, in conjunction with Byron Preiss. The goal is to collect 13 keys in 13 hours from the 13 rooms of a house, by interacting in various ways with characters (such as a two-headed monster, a mad scientist, and a vampiress), objects, and the house itself.
He received the World Fantasy Convention Award in 1981, and the National Cartoonist Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Gahan Wilson is the subject of a feature length documentary film, Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
June 8, 2013
While these strips are not particularly funny, it's quite clear that Wilson has never forgotten his childhood. It's all here - the horrors of school, first funerals, summer camp nightmares, special Christmas presents, annoying relatives, closet monsters, and even the sticky floors in movie theaters. How could I have forgotten that? I had a good chuckle remembering the time at one matinee when my friend Linda stepped right out of her shoes and we had to pry them off the floor.
Good times.
Good, sticky times.
Good times.
Good, sticky times.
May 7, 2021
This is a collection of strips from National Lampoon in which Wilson showcased the triumphs and tragedies of childhood from the perspective of The Kid, a hunting-cap wearing small youngster who has a unique yet universal viewpoint of doom, depression, and disappointment seasoned by occasional small triumphs to celebrate. Many of them aren't really funny, but ring true because they make you remember similar situations of past over-reaction. I preferred his single cartoons with supernatural themes, but this book is often poignant in showcasing a child's viewpoint.
September 1, 2023
Really brought back lots of memories about being a kid and trying to figure out how the world really worked! Gahan Wilson is cutting and insightful in his observations. This book reminded me of myself (12-14) very much; started thinking of long lost friends who I have not seen for decades.
November 18, 2011
The all-time greatest comic strip about what it is to be a child, ever. Insightful, hilarious, poignant and dripping truth from every panel, "Nuts" is, was and ever will be in my pantheon of most life-altering reads. It showed me that comics could be more than just gag-driven. Beautifully drawn and essential to any library of cartoon books.
July 20, 2017
Remember Nothing you did was right, except that when it was right you were never sure why it was right
This may be a comic strip layout, and classic Gahan Wilson comic drawing, but this is not a comic strip. Originally published in the National Lampoon Nuts is a cross between a graphic novel, and is so named on the cover, and a shared biography of what many of us, from the pre hi tech generation experienced as very young children. Much of this collection is not funny, or is not exactly funny. It does not have to be. Being a kid is mostly about the fact that you do not fit in. You are aware that something is not right even if you are not always sure why or what you are supposed to do about it. Recommendation A must for Gahan Wilson fans, just be aware this is not his usual funny dances with monsters. For the rest this is one of the most honest views of the kid's world you can get without taking a class on early childhood development.
The title- Nuts is inspired because it intentionally evoked the then reigning cartoon about children, Charles Shultz’s Peanuts. But the word is or was the word kids of that age were most likely to use to express the continuing frustration being that age. The rest of the title panel is a short introduction to the particular frustration, insight, win or fail that will be the theme of each installment.
Gahan Wilson’s Nuts gets it that much of childhood is overcrowded, ill-fitting confusing and frustrating. Victories tend to be small and personal. Insights are as likely to come from failures as from introspection. There may be monsters out to get you, only they are more likely to be adults then anything with too many legs. A break through moment is when you can convince yourself that that noise in the ill lite basement can only be mice. I mean those are just mice.?? Right? - harmless, scratchy mice.. agreed?, right ? Just mice.
This may be a comic strip layout, and classic Gahan Wilson comic drawing, but this is not a comic strip. Originally published in the National Lampoon Nuts is a cross between a graphic novel, and is so named on the cover, and a shared biography of what many of us, from the pre hi tech generation experienced as very young children. Much of this collection is not funny, or is not exactly funny. It does not have to be. Being a kid is mostly about the fact that you do not fit in. You are aware that something is not right even if you are not always sure why or what you are supposed to do about it. Recommendation A must for Gahan Wilson fans, just be aware this is not his usual funny dances with monsters. For the rest this is one of the most honest views of the kid's world you can get without taking a class on early childhood development.
The title- Nuts is inspired because it intentionally evoked the then reigning cartoon about children, Charles Shultz’s Peanuts. But the word is or was the word kids of that age were most likely to use to express the continuing frustration being that age. The rest of the title panel is a short introduction to the particular frustration, insight, win or fail that will be the theme of each installment.
Gahan Wilson’s Nuts gets it that much of childhood is overcrowded, ill-fitting confusing and frustrating. Victories tend to be small and personal. Insights are as likely to come from failures as from introspection. There may be monsters out to get you, only they are more likely to be adults then anything with too many legs. A break through moment is when you can convince yourself that that noise in the ill lite basement can only be mice. I mean those are just mice.?? Right? - harmless, scratchy mice.. agreed?, right ? Just mice.
September 10, 2012
This is great stuff--you might call it Wilson's take on Peanuts: the life of the kid through Wilson's macabre lens. It was originally published as a one-page (or half-page, actually) strip--with a handful of longer sequences--over several years in National Lampoon, and it's generally hilarious stuff. It deals with what kids are really like--what they think, want, hope and fear--often with stress on the fear. Some of the funniest strips, indeed, deal with childhood traumas of various kinds; one of my favourites shows us the kid visiting his sick uncle in the hospital and getting progessively more horrified as his uncle hacks and coughs. Not for all tastes--the panels are cluttered and dense, the content often (mildly) disturbing, the humour cynical or wry, or even vicious, without much in the way of warmth or sentiment, but it's brilliantly funny. Highly recommended.
August 17, 2011
I love this collection of comics. Gahan Wilson is able to recall childhood moments beautifully, without sentimentality. Like, the time you saved and saved and finally bought that submarine model (insert anything else here) you just had to have. Then you got it home and tried to jam those itty little parts together and realized there was no way it was going to live up to your expectations. That final panel with the kid sitting glumly with his crummy little model globbed together and that magnificent submarine moving away, out of his imagination and his life. "So long, Wolf U-Boat!"
December 13, 2008
These cartoons originally appeared in National Lampoon. A very perceptive take on what it is like to be a kid. I read it every once in a while and it helps me remember what it was like to be a kid myself.
September 12, 2008
being a kid, from a kid's perspective is rarely captured by adults. wilson gets it. what is "jagging off?" will it really make you go blind? why are grownups so worried about stuff?.. fantastic.
January 21, 2020
These aren’t the funny sort of cartoons, but moreso the poignant and the grotesque – often both. Sadly, I don’t particularly enjoy that sort of cartooning, nor was this quite the satire of Peanuts I was expecting. I suppose this long-running strip from National Lampoon’s “funny pages” is more of an esoteric and philosophical satire and response than a parody.
February 15, 2014
As (grotesquely but realistically) magnified by the mind of the child, Wilson portrays the fear and obsessions of childhood along with a few serene moments of happiness. An unnamed boy grapples with adjusting to the often incomprehensible world around him. It’s filled with adult expectations, school, summer camp, friends, relatives, comic books, scary movies and places, imaginary monsters and real death.
I about laughed myself sick reading numerous strips. My prime example is the strip on page 37. The reader is invited to “Remember how the people who ran you kept putting you in places you didn’t want to be such as Cub Scout meetings, and birthday parties of people you hated, and summer camps?”—I can’t speak to Cub Scout meetings or birthday parties, but Wilson captures the essence of summer camp in six panels—A day at Camp Lone Tall Pine Tree: the Klang! Klang! of the wake-up bell and shout, “Breakfast time! No lazy boys! 5:30! Everybody up! And then breakfast itself: “What is this horrible red stuff I’m drinking? I bet it costs about two cents a gallon” as the boy next to you chokes and spits his out. Then the hike up Dead Pine Tor as the sweating boy thinks to himself, “What the hell are we doing this for?” Now his fellow camper is pleading, “Honest. Mr. Knudson—I twisted my ankle! It really does hurt!” He’s comforted by Mr. Knudson’s motivational reply, “Don’t be a Sissy, there!” The penultimate panel is swimming in the lake. One boy examines a strange dark something dredged from the depth, in the distance someone is calling for help because he can’t swim, and the protagonist is hauling himself up onto the raft while choking on “that green slime” he swallowed. The final panel is the campers copying the obligatory letter home telling the folks, “I’m having a good time here at Camp Lone Tall Pine Tree. Mr. Knudson said I was doing well. Love”
My sides hurt after read this, even after repeat readings, but extracts from the word balloons only without Wilson’s distinctly creepy art fail to convey the full experience.
I about laughed myself sick reading numerous strips. My prime example is the strip on page 37. The reader is invited to “Remember how the people who ran you kept putting you in places you didn’t want to be such as Cub Scout meetings, and birthday parties of people you hated, and summer camps?”—I can’t speak to Cub Scout meetings or birthday parties, but Wilson captures the essence of summer camp in six panels—A day at Camp Lone Tall Pine Tree: the Klang! Klang! of the wake-up bell and shout, “Breakfast time! No lazy boys! 5:30! Everybody up! And then breakfast itself: “What is this horrible red stuff I’m drinking? I bet it costs about two cents a gallon” as the boy next to you chokes and spits his out. Then the hike up Dead Pine Tor as the sweating boy thinks to himself, “What the hell are we doing this for?” Now his fellow camper is pleading, “Honest. Mr. Knudson—I twisted my ankle! It really does hurt!” He’s comforted by Mr. Knudson’s motivational reply, “Don’t be a Sissy, there!” The penultimate panel is swimming in the lake. One boy examines a strange dark something dredged from the depth, in the distance someone is calling for help because he can’t swim, and the protagonist is hauling himself up onto the raft while choking on “that green slime” he swallowed. The final panel is the campers copying the obligatory letter home telling the folks, “I’m having a good time here at Camp Lone Tall Pine Tree. Mr. Knudson said I was doing well. Love”
My sides hurt after read this, even after repeat readings, but extracts from the word balloons only without Wilson’s distinctly creepy art fail to convey the full experience.
November 24, 2014
I found this book from some 30+ years ago, which, as I recall, I purchased from the Quality Paperback Book Club. Mr. Wilson’s full-page strips graced the pages of “Playboy” and “National Lampoon” back in the day, and recounted the adventures, fantasies, horrors and general point-of-view of a, I guess, eight-or-so-year-old boy named Charlie. There were seldom any adults drawn in the panels, being mostly disembodied voices in the background of Charlie’s verbalizations or thoughts. It deals with being ignored, confusion about death, girls, school, friendships, and life in general. My favorite was one in which Charlie purchases a model kit of a submarine, and after all the difficulties in assembly, it turns at last into a real submarine that talks to Charlie as it’s on its way to adventures galore! Even today, these little stories are relevant and nostalgic, and spot on for climbing into the mind of a child.
My perusal of Wikipedia has indicated that Mr. Wilson is not only still alive, but has a long history of writing and illustrating horror/fantasy works, having been influenced by such publications as “Mad” (a perennial favorite of mine) and the cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and has in turn influenced other “fringe” artists such as Gary Larson. Bravo, and five stars, Mr. Wilson!
My perusal of Wikipedia has indicated that Mr. Wilson is not only still alive, but has a long history of writing and illustrating horror/fantasy works, having been influenced by such publications as “Mad” (a perennial favorite of mine) and the cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and has in turn influenced other “fringe” artists such as Gary Larson. Bravo, and five stars, Mr. Wilson!
August 28, 2016
I like how Gahan fleshes out his “little kid” memories with an adult face and acidic epithets, while still holding true to his childhood interests and ignorances. He remembers most adults as indescribably strange, and complains about their rules and mistakes with the scowl of a nursing home crank. Wilson shares dozen of situations in which children deserve to be treated more like adults, and adults deserve to be scorned for acting so childish. Favorites include: Cousin Claude, the lanyard, making models, and his Friday sundae.
The child’s profanity fits the bitter/innocent twist, but it’s not a selling point for me. And there’s no doubt that this is a Gahan Wilson production. His childhood tastes lean toward science fiction and suspense, and his visuals can be heavy on the gross factor. Maybe the strips worked better in their original magazine serial. The swearing and gore and “Remember” phrasing gets repetitive for me in book format.
The child’s profanity fits the bitter/innocent twist, but it’s not a selling point for me. And there’s no doubt that this is a Gahan Wilson production. His childhood tastes lean toward science fiction and suspense, and his visuals can be heavy on the gross factor. Maybe the strips worked better in their original magazine serial. The swearing and gore and “Remember” phrasing gets repetitive for me in book format.
October 6, 2011
The all-time greatest comic strip about what it is to be a child, ever. Insightful, hilarious, poignant and dripping truth from every panel, "Nuts" is, was and ever will be in my pantheon of most life-altering reads. When first exposed to it back in 1979 it showed me that comics could be more than just gag-driven. Beautifully drawn and essential to any library of cartoon books, Gahan Wilson's masterpiece is collected [almost] in its entirety in this new hardcover edition. My only beef is I wish the two longer strips that originally ran in color appeared so in color here. Nonetheless, this book is terrific and I'm delighted Fantagraphics published it.
April 15, 2012
The Christmas story in this book is one of the finest short stories I've ever read. The Kid's put through an emotional wringer on Christmas morning, and Gahan Wilson captures every last detail. It's an absolutely perfect story, and the rest of this collection captures a great artist at the top of his game.
January 11, 2016
This was pure Gahan Wilson. I enjoyed this book simply because it showed what a kid had to face and in some case even today face. Many times I thought been there, done that. It is nice to know what other people had to put up with was just like your childhood problems. Some were big and some were small, but they could only be seen from kid's eye level.
September 24, 2018
I have a rule of thumb (What does that really mean?) that anything that makes me laugh is 5 stars. Not ever panel is funny, though well drawn. But when it was (funny) I laughed long and almost hard. 5 stars.
January 22, 2012
Yay Gahan Wilson!
August 30, 2012
Fantastic comic strips about childhood. No sentimentality. An honest and clear-eyed remembrance of just how much it can suck to be a kid.
January 23, 2019
Glad I got this. Good stuff.
August 22, 2019
A little Calvin and Hobbes, a little Life In Hell, a lot of Wilson's singular weirdness and wit. I'll never again accept stories about childhood that don't have the kids cursing
November 10, 2021
When you are young and under the dubious control of adults, what they say and do often seems incomprehensible. Multi-panel cartoons depicting some of the most common situations are collected in this book. Most open with a text caption explaining a situation that children encounter.
For example, there is the caption “Remember the first time you began to suspect that there would never be an end to getting because no matter what you got there was always something else waiting to be gotten next?” No wisdom. just a fact and a statement of the basic economic principle of unlimited wants.
Another example is, “Remember the first time you had to wait for something you really wanted, maybe because you had to save up for it, and how you wanted it more and more?” In this case, the basic principle of delayed gratification.
Although the messages are presented in the form of cartoons, there is a great deal of wisdom in this book. In many ways it is a basic primer on what life has in store for you as you age into an adult.
For example, there is the caption “Remember the first time you began to suspect that there would never be an end to getting because no matter what you got there was always something else waiting to be gotten next?” No wisdom. just a fact and a statement of the basic economic principle of unlimited wants.
Another example is, “Remember the first time you had to wait for something you really wanted, maybe because you had to save up for it, and how you wanted it more and more?” In this case, the basic principle of delayed gratification.
Although the messages are presented in the form of cartoons, there is a great deal of wisdom in this book. In many ways it is a basic primer on what life has in store for you as you age into an adult.
January 31, 2018
This is like Calvin and Hobbes with less cuddly moments and a lot more cursing. Gahan Wilson's comics about the horrors of childhood as published in the National Lampoon in the 70's still ring true in a lot of ways (although many of the specific examples feel dated - it's 50's era childhood, so sort of like A Christmas Story). It's a strip about children for adults looking back on it. It's rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but it does resonate on a regular basis. Gahan Wilson's art style kind of works, although he doesn't get much opportunity to stretch his style like his Playboy works did; much of the book is frames of two eyes under a big hat and a preponderance of text. It goes to some dark places, uses a fair bit of profanity, but still feels remarkably apt. I'm not sure I could really recommend it, but I don't feel like it was a waste of my time to read.
June 7, 2021
Very much like "A Christmas Story" but in comics form, this is a collection of late 70s nostalgic-but-not-too-nostalgic realistic stories about what's scary and stressful and exciting about being a kid; the characters curse in the not-quite-sure-how-to way that I remember, and there are confusing adults, particularly the ones who aren't your parents, like the scout leader or the butcher who finds the profession cathartic. The chubby characters fill the frames, usually bundled up against the cold and eyeballs buggin out. Most of these are one-pagers but there is a longer one near the end about Halloween with some amazing faces (masked and unmasked faces. Most of the stuff in here, I didn't experience (I'm not a boy and didn't grow up in this era) but emotionally it all makes sense.
March 14, 2021
Absolutely, bar none, the best book about being a kid that I've ever read. I don't know if it's universal, or if Wilson was just the same kind of kid that I was, but he remembered it spot-on. Not some idealized picture of a golden age, or a horror show tell-all, this book has its nameless protagonist going through small-scale adventures that seem huge to him, facing the normal challenges, and generally being a pretty relatable (sometimes dense, sometimes annoying, sometimes delightful) pre-adolescent. I buy every copy I see, just in case one of them gets ruined; I always need a backup. And it's funny as hell.
December 21, 2023
I had forgotten just how funny Wilson's cartoons are. Wonderful to see them again!
February 2, 2017
This was my first graphic novel and I didn't really enjoy it, but maybe it just wasn't the right one for me.
This book is a collection of comics originally written in 1979 about the authors memories of how hard it is to be a kid. The main character is really pessimistic and just has a different sense of humor from me. The fact that it was all written before I was born may also have impacted the differences in humor due to cultural context of the time. I don't mind cussing and there wasn't much of it in this book, but I can't stand when people say Goddamn or use the Lords name in vain and this book does that a fair amount.
However, there were a few pages that were comical and made me chuckle, so this wasn't a complete loss!
My sister recommended a different graphic novel so I will try that one too before I brush off the whole genre.
This book is a collection of comics originally written in 1979 about the authors memories of how hard it is to be a kid. The main character is really pessimistic and just has a different sense of humor from me. The fact that it was all written before I was born may also have impacted the differences in humor due to cultural context of the time. I don't mind cussing and there wasn't much of it in this book, but I can't stand when people say Goddamn or use the Lords name in vain and this book does that a fair amount.
However, there were a few pages that were comical and made me chuckle, so this wasn't a complete loss!
My sister recommended a different graphic novel so I will try that one too before I brush off the whole genre.
August 9, 2016
Despite all the waxing nostalgic about childhood, I found Gahan Wilson's method of telling what appears to be his own comic tales rather dull. Some of the comics in Nuts made me smile, especially the ones about school and education — they remind me a bit of Calvin and Hobbes, which is probably my favorite comic ever.
But as for funny? Not so much. None of the short comics are presented well: the boxes are small and packed full of both text and images, which makes them nearly impossible to read. I had to hold the book an arm's length away from my face just to read any of it. Not really worth the time or effort slogging it way through the whole book, short as it is.
But as for funny? Not so much. None of the short comics are presented well: the boxes are small and packed full of both text and images, which makes them nearly impossible to read. I had to hold the book an arm's length away from my face just to read any of it. Not really worth the time or effort slogging it way through the whole book, short as it is.
June 18, 2012
Sorry to say that this material isn't for me. The writing and humor felt really dated even though it only goes back to the 1970's. Still, this is a lovingly compiled collection of Wilson's series that was featured in 'National Lampoon' and fans of this strip will appreciate the beautiful construction of this compilation.
August 4, 2012
I wish the afterward had been the preface. It would have helped to be able to put this collection of comics in context. It's purported to be about childhood. It wasn't any childhood I'd encountered. If I'd realized it was originally published in the National Lampoon, it would have helped.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews