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The Pain: When Will it End?
SOCIAL SATIRE IN A MISANTHROPIC AND EXISTENTIAL VEIN, IN THE GRAND TRADITIONS OF KLIBAN AND STEADMAN Tim Kreider's cartoons, previously seen only in the Baltimore City Paper, have attracted a cult following for their razor-sharp intelligence and unprecedented viciousness. His manic, spontaneous line, and his eye for facial expression, gesture, and detail make his cartoons more than one-shot gags. His humor is both crudite and puerile, as personally revealing as a drunken blackout and as politically trenchant as a lone gunman. Kreider's work has been likened to the foul result of inbreeding between Ralph Steadman and B. Kliban. The wide range of subject matter in this collection, from religion and politics to Nietzsche and pie, from sex and violence to the sheer pointlessness of it all, can only be suggested by a sampling of titles: "Breakfast for the Devil, " "The Four Press Secretaries of the Apocalypse, " "Learn German While Drunk, " and "I'm Sorry I'm So Horrible." (The collection also includes the unspeakable "Graveyard Shift at the Pussy Juice Factory.") Kreider's vision of the human condition is of a man distracted from the vast starship hovering over his city by a glimpse of a pretty girl's ass; his version of the existential abyss is a cruddy laundromat with old magazines spilled on the plastic chairs and the word "FAGOT" scratched on a dryer; and the only hope or joy he finds in this life is in jigglin' dem monster juggs or setting a monkey's ass on fire. You may be ashamed to laugh, but laugh you will.
144 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2004
240 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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 5, 2017
I had read six or eight pieces of TK's (essays, op-eds..) and loved them. Like, loved them so much I heckled everyone I knew into reading them, whether they wanted to or not, until they finally gave in to avoid be nagged. Like considered sending him fan mail. I was that into him. Looking for his printed work was the next logical conclusion, and I picked up both this (after seeing a dozen or so of his comics) and We Learn Nothing (I'm about 1/2 finished).
I am less of a TK fan after reading The Pain and the first half of We Learn Nothing, and it's tough for me to articulate why. TK is smart- crazy smart, often wonderfully insightful, and always an incredible wordsmith. On these grounds alone I feel like an asshole (doubly), for not loving this work and for judging him in a shitty goodreads review.
The Pain--, it's raunchy, okay. It's edgy, okay. The pages are utterly overflowing with bodily fluids, hairy asses, and dicks. So. many. dicks. Add that to a very clear Problem With Women that is also obvious in his essays, (We Learn Nothing), and I almost can't remember ever being so off-put by the sheer gross "masculinity" of a work before. Am I that person? I'm neither the PC police or conservative, in any sense of the word. And let me be clear, TK's work is NOT misogynist/sexist. In fact, 90% or better of this work is lampooning the "grossness" of men. And maybe that's the problem. I do not see men as inherently more disgusting than women. I don't empathize with woe-is-me-I-can't-get-laid-and-im-obsessed-with-getting-laid. I do not find women overly complicated or in need of explanation. The weight of a perceived gender divide in his work makes me feel alienated. I don't know how else to describe it except to say in all other aspects I feel akin with TK in his wisdom and belief systems, except in what it means to be a man, or a woman (specifically in how they relate to each other). And that annoys the shit out of me.
The icing on the cake was an essay of his I read where he hypothesizes on the difference between passionate love & successful partnerships/marriages. He assumes (because he hasn't experienced it) that the two are mutually exclusive. I find this boring and obtuse. In most other respects, he is able to elucidate on the human condition in such a way that feels universal, and not limited to his experiences. Anytime romantic anything comes up, in essays or comics, he sounds like a whining early twenty-something, desperate to justify his romantic failures by defining the terms for the rest of us. I don't know, maybe I'm reading into it too much. I just know I prefer Tim Kreider when he's talking about cats, bugs, politics, or the police.
I am less of a TK fan after reading The Pain and the first half of We Learn Nothing, and it's tough for me to articulate why. TK is smart- crazy smart, often wonderfully insightful, and always an incredible wordsmith. On these grounds alone I feel like an asshole (doubly), for not loving this work and for judging him in a shitty goodreads review.
The Pain--, it's raunchy, okay. It's edgy, okay. The pages are utterly overflowing with bodily fluids, hairy asses, and dicks. So. many. dicks. Add that to a very clear Problem With Women that is also obvious in his essays, (We Learn Nothing), and I almost can't remember ever being so off-put by the sheer gross "masculinity" of a work before. Am I that person? I'm neither the PC police or conservative, in any sense of the word. And let me be clear, TK's work is NOT misogynist/sexist. In fact, 90% or better of this work is lampooning the "grossness" of men. And maybe that's the problem. I do not see men as inherently more disgusting than women. I don't empathize with woe-is-me-I-can't-get-laid-and-im-obsessed-with-getting-laid. I do not find women overly complicated or in need of explanation. The weight of a perceived gender divide in his work makes me feel alienated. I don't know how else to describe it except to say in all other aspects I feel akin with TK in his wisdom and belief systems, except in what it means to be a man, or a woman (specifically in how they relate to each other). And that annoys the shit out of me.
The icing on the cake was an essay of his I read where he hypothesizes on the difference between passionate love & successful partnerships/marriages. He assumes (because he hasn't experienced it) that the two are mutually exclusive. I find this boring and obtuse. In most other respects, he is able to elucidate on the human condition in such a way that feels universal, and not limited to his experiences. Anytime romantic anything comes up, in essays or comics, he sounds like a whining early twenty-something, desperate to justify his romantic failures by defining the terms for the rest of us. I don't know, maybe I'm reading into it too much. I just know I prefer Tim Kreider when he's talking about cats, bugs, politics, or the police.
January 24, 2018
Not so much a cartoon person, but these are very good. Easy to understand why DFW loved Tim Kreider and said, "Kreider Rules!"
August 20, 2021
I feel compelled to write this review for two reasons: one, because I have been a fan of Tim Kreider for many years, beginning with my first year of college in 2005 when I randomly stumbled upon this very book listed on Fantagraphics' website. Something about the bloody, in-your-face cover and the blurb about the book's contents got me interested, and it eventually lead me to the official website of "The Pain," where Tim has archived many of his works and the entertaining artist's commentary essays that accompany them. Two, because the most "liked" review of this book is from someone who previously dug some of his work but now seems awfully critical of him after reading this book and his essays that deal more with relationships, and I feel compelled to write something down to serve as a counterpoint to that review.
Tim is just one of the most interesting and coolest people I can think of, which is why I've kept up with his career over the years. He started out with drawing cartoons like these and later moved on to a career in essays published in lofty places like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and the Atlantic, and juxtaposing his essay work with stuff like The Pain is fascinating. It creates a full picture of a person with very different facets to his life: the kind of guy who writes thoughtful, insanely well-written, somber pieces about relationships, friendships, politics, and life in general, and the kind of guy who draws hilarious, surreal, violent, and/or grotesque illustrations, some of which have titles like "Graveyard Shift at the Pussy Juice Factory." Yes, really.
True, he can sometimes feel like a total Guy, hyper-focused on casual sexual encounters, bodily fluids/gasses, and throwing back beers with his dude-pals, but there's also a side to him that is sensitive and introspective, the kind of person who appreciates reading fine literature, fostering long-standing friendships with women, and doting over his cat. Some people can't stand his lifelong fixation on what he calls "passionate affairs" and his inability to maintain a long-term relationship on anything other than a feline, but me, I find it all enthralling. You know, not everyone is the type who naturally understands how to keep up a marriage or partnership that lasts for decades. And that's fine that Tim might not be that person, too, because I don't know if I would find his work as interesting if it went in that direction.
Also, he's the sort of person who is very candid about how much he's grown over the years and about the various mistakes that he's made along the way. He readily admits that he comes across as an angry "sorehead" during his political cartooning years, and he'll be the first one to admit that he's had countless romantic encounters go sour because of his own self-sabotaging actions or flawed thought processes. Tim strikes me as someone who is constantly aware of himself, but not in any kind of narcissistic sense -- more like somebody who frequently thinks about his actions and where he fits in the world. More artists would do well to follow his example.
Anyway, this book is terrific, filled with some of Tim's best and most iconic work (I would easily rank "Don't Mind Grandpa" as one of my favorite cartoons ever drawn). Admittedly, not all of the humor has aged well; a lot of the racial stereotypes didn't throw me as much back in 2005 but now look and sound very jarring today. Also, a handful of the work featured here isn't really funny or meaningful; sometimes Tim just draws something bizarre because he can. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Oddities like "A Useful Mnemonic (Popcorn Before Pie)" or "He's Got...Complicated Pants!" have the whiff of an in-joke that Tim and his buddies thought was hilarious at the bar but doesn't translate well into a cartoon gag. And I'm not sure what to make of stuff like "Feedin' Time" or "Oh, You -- You Ruin Everything!" But at least they're interesting.
To sum up, I'll quote David Foster Wallace from his blurb on the back of the book: Kreider rules.
Tim is just one of the most interesting and coolest people I can think of, which is why I've kept up with his career over the years. He started out with drawing cartoons like these and later moved on to a career in essays published in lofty places like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and the Atlantic, and juxtaposing his essay work with stuff like The Pain is fascinating. It creates a full picture of a person with very different facets to his life: the kind of guy who writes thoughtful, insanely well-written, somber pieces about relationships, friendships, politics, and life in general, and the kind of guy who draws hilarious, surreal, violent, and/or grotesque illustrations, some of which have titles like "Graveyard Shift at the Pussy Juice Factory." Yes, really.
True, he can sometimes feel like a total Guy, hyper-focused on casual sexual encounters, bodily fluids/gasses, and throwing back beers with his dude-pals, but there's also a side to him that is sensitive and introspective, the kind of person who appreciates reading fine literature, fostering long-standing friendships with women, and doting over his cat. Some people can't stand his lifelong fixation on what he calls "passionate affairs" and his inability to maintain a long-term relationship on anything other than a feline, but me, I find it all enthralling. You know, not everyone is the type who naturally understands how to keep up a marriage or partnership that lasts for decades. And that's fine that Tim might not be that person, too, because I don't know if I would find his work as interesting if it went in that direction.
Also, he's the sort of person who is very candid about how much he's grown over the years and about the various mistakes that he's made along the way. He readily admits that he comes across as an angry "sorehead" during his political cartooning years, and he'll be the first one to admit that he's had countless romantic encounters go sour because of his own self-sabotaging actions or flawed thought processes. Tim strikes me as someone who is constantly aware of himself, but not in any kind of narcissistic sense -- more like somebody who frequently thinks about his actions and where he fits in the world. More artists would do well to follow his example.
Anyway, this book is terrific, filled with some of Tim's best and most iconic work (I would easily rank "Don't Mind Grandpa" as one of my favorite cartoons ever drawn). Admittedly, not all of the humor has aged well; a lot of the racial stereotypes didn't throw me as much back in 2005 but now look and sound very jarring today. Also, a handful of the work featured here isn't really funny or meaningful; sometimes Tim just draws something bizarre because he can. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Oddities like "A Useful Mnemonic (Popcorn Before Pie)" or "He's Got...Complicated Pants!" have the whiff of an in-joke that Tim and his buddies thought was hilarious at the bar but doesn't translate well into a cartoon gag. And I'm not sure what to make of stuff like "Feedin' Time" or "Oh, You -- You Ruin Everything!" But at least they're interesting.
To sum up, I'll quote David Foster Wallace from his blurb on the back of the book: Kreider rules.
January 8, 2010
Cartoons my Tim Kreider, who is awesome.
Check out some of his articles in the Nytimes. Here is a great one:
http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...
Check out some of his articles in the Nytimes. Here is a great one:
http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...
July 31, 2013
Kreider secured his spot in my Top 5 favorite cartoonists with "The Man Who Kisses Things".
August 20, 2008
I love this book. Rude, Crude humor!
July 9, 2013
Not his best work but a fun read just the same.
August 19, 2016
Political Cartoons.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews