What do you think?
Rate this book
Why Do They Kill Me?
by Tim Kreider
Cynical, astute, blackly hilarious, and deeply biased, these cartoons are neither the superficial, obvious jibes that appear in your daily paper's editorial section nor the didactic left-wing rants syndicated in your local alternative weekly; they are the artistic equivalent of hollow-point bullets fired from a high-powered rifle with a laser sight directly into the brain of the Bush administration.
Cynical, astute, blackly hilarious, and deeply biased, these cartoons are neither the superficial, obvious jibes that appear in your daily paper's editorial section nor the didactic left-wing rants syndicated in your local alternative weekly; they are the artistic equivalent of hollow-point bullets fired from a high-powered rifle with a laser sight directly into the brain of the Bush administration.
136 pages, Paperback
First published July 11, 2005
114 people want to read
About the author
Tim Kreider
12 books422 followersTim Kreider is an essayist and cartoonist. His comic "The Pain--When Will It End?" ran in the Baltimore City Paper for 12 years and was collected in three books by Fantagraphics. His first collection of essays, "We Learn Nothing," was published by Free Press in 2012. He has written for The New York Times, The Men's Journal, Nerve.com, The Comics Journal, and Film Quarterly. He is at work on a new collection for Simon & Schuster, "I Wrote This Book Because I Love You." He lives in an Undisclosed Location on the Chesapeake Bay.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 31, 2018
https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/172441...
David Foster Wallace was spot-on in his assessment stating Kreider Rules. The magnificent cartoons and accompanying text in this book proves that point on every page. It becomes obvious the more you read and view these why Kreider had to quit drawing. The angst and daily onslaught on his psyche had to be killing him. I cannot imagine what it would be like for him today with Donald J. Trump in the White House. Kreider likely would be checking himself into a local insane asylum or drinking himself not far short of oblivion. To think that Little George Bush was portrayed in these texts as our new presidential buffoon. Who would have thought that we would come to elect an even bigger one? Donald J. Trump makes a dwarf of Bush’s dumbness. And Trump’s claims a personal genius that far surpasses any dumb claim Little George would have made about his own brain. But the one thing they both have most in common is that neither one reads.
In some ways it saddens me that Tim Kreider quit drawing cartoons and brought to a close his adding critical text beside them in which his reasons and inspiration behind them added significant light to his creations. But his latest book of essays is certainly amazing, and he is most likely taken more seriously in his New York Times articles and opinions than his bitingly humorous and sarcastic cartoon depictions regarding what ails us in our country. His anger really shows through these important cartoons, and it is understandable why he had to stop drawing them. But they sure are good.
David Foster Wallace was spot-on in his assessment stating Kreider Rules. The magnificent cartoons and accompanying text in this book proves that point on every page. It becomes obvious the more you read and view these why Kreider had to quit drawing. The angst and daily onslaught on his psyche had to be killing him. I cannot imagine what it would be like for him today with Donald J. Trump in the White House. Kreider likely would be checking himself into a local insane asylum or drinking himself not far short of oblivion. To think that Little George Bush was portrayed in these texts as our new presidential buffoon. Who would have thought that we would come to elect an even bigger one? Donald J. Trump makes a dwarf of Bush’s dumbness. And Trump’s claims a personal genius that far surpasses any dumb claim Little George would have made about his own brain. But the one thing they both have most in common is that neither one reads.
In some ways it saddens me that Tim Kreider quit drawing cartoons and brought to a close his adding critical text beside them in which his reasons and inspiration behind them added significant light to his creations. But his latest book of essays is certainly amazing, and he is most likely taken more seriously in his New York Times articles and opinions than his bitingly humorous and sarcastic cartoon depictions regarding what ails us in our country. His anger really shows through these important cartoons, and it is understandable why he had to stop drawing them. But they sure are good.
November 10, 2018
Wow! Dated, but he sure hits a lot of chords on issues that I agree with. Technically this is not a graphic novel but a collection of political cartoons often accompanied by short essays on how they came about, what kind of criticism they received, and other tidbit. They would drive much of my family crazy, and I'm sure quite a few on the Right were exasperated by him, if they even looked at the work. I wish I had come across his work sooner, and I definitely am going to try his other books.
July 26, 2021
I’m not sure what I was expecting. Too low brow for me.
September 11, 2013
I'll confess I'm nostalgic for the bad old days of the Bush Era, when we plunged into a senseless war in the Middle East on flimsy pretexts, when the constitution and civil liberties were trampled in the name of security, theocratic thugs and business suited crooked ravaged the country, and above all *I* could hate the moronic man-child that called himself the President.
Well, Kreider hits that nostalgia just right. As a person he lays it into Bush relentlessly, flaying open the hypocrisy and fear of that sad era. As an artist, he is a treasure-Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman in one. Every line of his frantically inked cartoons is dripping with style and venom, and this book has over 100 with accompanying short essays explaining his creative process (booze, bitches, late night phone calls, Vicodin) and current events. The only problem with Kreider is that he retired in 2009, although I'm sure that like Jesus, he is just waiting for when we need him.
Well, Kreider hits that nostalgia just right. As a person he lays it into Bush relentlessly, flaying open the hypocrisy and fear of that sad era. As an artist, he is a treasure-Hunter S Thompson and Ralph Steadman in one. Every line of his frantically inked cartoons is dripping with style and venom, and this book has over 100 with accompanying short essays explaining his creative process (booze, bitches, late night phone calls, Vicodin) and current events. The only problem with Kreider is that he retired in 2009, although I'm sure that like Jesus, he is just waiting for when we need him.
July 9, 2011
Tim Kreider is amazing, and this book compromises some of his best work. The content of the cartoons is as brilliant as their execution. He uses expressive, old-school line work and masterful caricaturization to breathe life into some of the most piercing, insightful, and cynical-yet-hopeful commentary on the first part of that dark period of acute dementia our nation suffered between 2000 and 2009. His work is hysterically funny, and each comic is accompanied by a brief, equally-brilliant artist's statement that discusses the context of the cartoon.
Oh, and the back cover is illustrated with a picture of Ronald Reagan's rotten, flyblown head stuck on a pike. It's worth buying for that alone.
Oh, and the back cover is illustrated with a picture of Ronald Reagan's rotten, flyblown head stuck on a pike. It's worth buying for that alone.
January 20, 2017
A good reminder about how terrible 2000-2004 was on the eve of the Trump presidency.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews