WORK IS HELL.

Life in Hell #2

by Matt Groening

Rare. 1st Edition.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Cartoon, Comedy, Comic Strips

36 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Matthew Abram Groening is an American cartoonist, television producer and writer from Portland, Oregon.

Groening is best known as the creator of The Simpsons. He is also the creator of Futurama and the author of the weekly comic strip Life in Hell. Groening distributed Life in Hell in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked.

He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. The cartoon is still carried in 250 weekly newspapers.

Reviews

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questions: What do I want to be if I grow up? Why would anyone want to hire me? What if I make the wrong career choice? What if I don't like my job? How come I have such bad luck? How can I get rich? Does life have to be this tedious? When is my coffee break? Why me?
Answer: Get back to work.
(Chapter 1)

He is Matt Groening. You may remember him from such television series as The Simpsons and Futurama. He is also the creator of Life in Hell, a comic strip published from 1977 to 2012. There are several books, I own a few now, but I felt the urge to start my reading experience with “Work is Hell”, the second book (1986). After all, that volume was the one that caught my interest in the first place and made me want to find his comics. It has been published many years ago and it is still so contemporary. And it will always be. Some topics do not change. For better or for worse.

I enjoy comics, they are a fantastic tool to deal with certain matters from a funny/funny-ish angle. Since I know that a particular situation can be perceived as sad or tragic, I still need to know how to look at it from a different perspective. Nothing will go away for its own. Tragedy will not go away. Routine will not go away. Loneliness will not go away. But the way you look at them might help you get through the night and perhaps, help you to find the vision and the strength to change something.
Am I giving to much credit to a simple comic strip? Probably. And no.

Work is a vital part of life. Unless you are the privileged son of some celebrity and you can make a living out of that (or you become a fashion designer, second most wanted career for these people), then you will have to work. There are some fortunate people that decide very early what they want to do with their lives and work hard to get what they want. That is as old as Confucius. “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. It seems easy. A simple concept that would make you stop existing to start living. Pretty words. And yet, a big part of the planet has to work.

So you will have to excuse me if this picture resonates deeply in the realms of your working soul.



It is simply fascinating. How an innocent-looking cartoon can make its way to the nooks of your heart, leaving a sense of uncertainty or emptiness in it. That is empathy, my friend. You feel what the little anthropomorphic rabbit is feeling. You are wearing his little shoes while contemplating his tedious life. (Hope you are not reading this today, on a melancholic Sunday.)

Life can be beautiful, if you choose wisely. And choosing what you want to do with your life... well, I cannot think of anything more important than that–besides family. For that decision will affect you, who you are, who you are going to be, your social life, your love life, you mental health, etc.

From chapter 2 to 3, Groening described all the types of bosses and employees that you could find along the intricate path towards work. I must admit that "The smiling idea-stealer", "The smiling backstabber", "The scatterbrain", "The babbling fool", "The schemer" and "The insufferable office wiseguy" are persistent characters in the devious universe that an office has. And there is a funny cartoon that perfectly describes what this is all about: "The young hopeful", "The young hopeless" and "The young hateful". We ended being a product of this tricky universe. We try to fight it with all our strength. However, we are most likely to succumb. Unless we do something. What to do? Hmm. How would I know?! I live in a country where if you have a suffocating yet secure job, you must feel gratitude. There is a lot of people that does not even have that. So the only choice is to swallow all your tragic insecurities and anxiety and deal with it. Or quit your job and follow your old dreams with the possibility of being happy for the first time in your life. Or losing your roof and a couple of pounds in the way. A big sea full of contradictions.

Then I found Chapter 9, a brilliant portrayal of the inner thinking of an employee. Groening depicts with some fresh comic skills the whole world that runs wild in the mind of a worker. I mean, you will not find yourself laughing hysterically but you will be amused by his undeniable wit. However, you cannot help feeling that quiet yet overwhelming sensation of anguish. "The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes", Gogol once wrote. You understand the worker. You wish you could help him to find a way out and save him from that Kafkaesque atmosphere of big piles and meaningless numbers.

Anyway, there are many exaggerations in this comic strip. Not all bosses are jerks and not all employees are vicious backstabbers that are glad when you get scolded. But it is a pleasant read that will make you think about your own life. Your work: hell, paradise or something in between.

This rant is about to end. And it all comes down to this:

This is probably my last review of 2014.
A new year is about to begin.
Try to avoid
hell.


Dec 28, 14
* Also on my blog.
** Photo credit: Matt Groening

[Maricruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hace años me gustaban más las tiras de Life in Hell. Ahora me cansan un poco, pero lo que sigue pareciéndome hilarante, insuperable y genial es todo lo de Jeff y Akbar.

[Megan Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm about to start a new job, so these comics felt especially relevant (even though I'm excited about my new work place). As always Life is Hell comics are so complex, unpretentious, and unexpected.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt Groening always doing the things right.
Very good.

[Greg Lemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not read this book in a long time, but it came out about the time I got my first adult job working 8-5 in a cubie. It made life tolerable, hence 5 stars for being a life altering work.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt Groening is of course the creator of The Simpsons, which I used to watch religiously but haven't felt compelled to for a years now.

He started out though as a modest cartoonist, combining crude yet characterful drawings with wry, gentle observations about childhood, school, work, love anf hell. Before Bart and Homer there were Binky the rabbit and twins that look like Charley Brown in a fez named Akbar and Jeff.

Work is Hell is a compilation of strips drawn between 1983-86, but apart from the occasional reference to Reagan, they could have been written at any time, none have really dated.

Strips such as "The 81 Types of Employees" give Groening an opportunity to show just how many different expressions he can conjure up with a minimum of curving lines and well placed dots and dashes, whereas a series of faux magazine covers shows his lightly subversive side (Sullen Teen magazine features an article on 'Threatening Suicide - as a method of controlling Mom and Dad').

Donuts make a few welcome appearances, a few gags are very funny (e.g. one of the plates in a montage called 'The Road to Womanhood' shows 'First time you put Ken on top of Barbie') but generally it's more pleasant than hilarious, just as the early episodes of The Simpsons were before the committee of great writers such as Brad Bird etc joined the show.

[Josephus FromPlacitas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come to Akbar and Jeff's Laundro-Hut! U Wash, U Dry, U Wait, U Scram.

God, I read these old cartoons and I wish Groening every bit of success he's gotten.* These are great. He's the undisputed mockery king of suburban hellishness and urban drudgery.




*Unless he regards the unkillable zombie corpse of The Simpsons to be some sort of curse, in which case I wish him, um...not every success?

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad gave me this book 17 or 18 years ago and I can still say that it makes me laugh out loud. There is so much truth (and humor) in Groening's renditions of the types of bosses and co-workers, the purgatory of boredom often experienced in an office job. There is stuff in here that is straight out of the 80's, but it is fun to look back on.

[Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Haven't read this since I was in college in the late 80's. I remember loving it then, but it has definitely lost it's luster in the last 25 years. "Love In Hell" is definitely worth revisiting, but I think the rest can be skipped..... unless you just want to see the early workings of the mind that brought us "The Simpsons."

[Su · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regalo de navidad adelantado, justo cuando recién iniciaron mis vacaciones: el mejor momento para leerlo. Si estuviese trabajando, al día siguiente de terminarlo buscaría pelea con todo el mundo. Me hizo reír y al mismo tiempo quería iniciar una mini crisis de la edad media para abandonar toda esperanza. Cumplió mis expectativas :D

[Fira · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is suitable for fresh graduates who look for job. It's explaining how work is in funny way. Since Matt Groening is famous for The Simpsons, I enjoyed it as well as I enjoyed watching the Simpsons.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt Groening's sarcastic look at the world of work is pure genius. I learned the truth of the title on my first day at my first job at the age of ten: picking strawberries at Erickson's farm in Vancouver, Washington. I made $17. Not $17 per hour or $17 per day, but $17 for the summer.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The public library had these four books and I read them sometime in high school. I wound up buying them from the library later when they were getting rid of them.

[keatssycamore · Rating 5 out of 5]

That Matt Groenig was, in fact, kind of a comic strip genius.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is painfully funny since you can't help but recognize yourself in it. Sadly (& gladly) I gave my copy to a former boss when he transferred to another bureau years ago.

[Charles]

way before the Simpsons, this book enabled me to understand my workplace and survive it.

[Mark Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

More relevant to me than the Dilbert comics.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as funny as his other work, but I still enjoyed it.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hee.

[Lachlan]

cool ranch

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these cartoons are older than I am but many of them remain timeless. A good read for anyone who has ever had a shit job.

[Bradley Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1986, the second compilation of Groening’s alternative dark satire comic explores the maddening and soul crushing existence of working in an office. With clever comics such as profiles of the types of coworkers and bosses you find in an office, the pressure and joy of quitting, and musings on the creative atrophy offices inspire, Groening captures the essence of work culture in a timeless way that still resonates nearly four decades later.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is worth the read for The 81 Types of Employees alone. I learned more from that than any trust fall exercise in mandatory training.

[Lachland Larbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a fan of the Simpsons, Futurama and Disenchantment. I wanted to check out Matt’s early work. Pretty funny stuff

[Daniel Ordaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm amazed of how relevant this is nowadays.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life in Hell is still as hilarious as ever.

[Misto · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best way to prepare yourself for work.