Dan and Larry in Don't Do That!

by Dave Cooper

Since the debut of Cooper's ongoing comic book series Weasel in 1999, which has already garnered several industry awards after only three issues (including one Harvey Award and two Ignatz Awards), Cooper has become Fantagraphics' most successful creator to debut in the 1990s since Chris Ware. Cooper is also one of the most idiosyncratic and talented cartoonists working today. Dan & Larry is a twisted fable about an ugly young duckling named Dan and his best pal Larry. Unlike most ugly duckling fables, this duckling stays ugly, and the only way he ever looks good is in contrast to an even uglier world surrounding him.

A highly uncomfortable and thinly-veiled portrait of adolescence, Dan & Larry is a story of lost innocence as told through a surreal landscape and anthropomorphized "funny animals" cast as children, all rendered with Cooper's impeccable composition and linework. The story addresses themes of sexual and verbal abuse with unflinching candor, while Cooper's dark sense of humor resonates throughout his wildly imaginative visuals. Cooper is also an accomplished animator, creating designs for animated television series like Matt Groening's Futurama.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

Paperback

First published June 2, 2001

About the author

Dave Charles Cooper is a Canadian cartoonist, painter and animator.
Cooper was born in Nova Scotia in 1967 and grew up in Ottawa, where he still lives.
He began his career in underground comics in the early 90's . His most notable works are Weasel (2000, Fantagraphics), winner of an Ignatz Award and a Harvey Award in 2000, and Ripple (2003, Fantagraphics). A retrospective of his comic artwork took place in Angoulême and Paris in 2002.
In the 2000's Dave moved to painting and animation. His oil paintings have been shown at galleries and museums in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Madrid. In animation, Cooper has developed the tv shows Pig Boat Banana Cricket for Nickelodeon, The Bagel and Becky Show for Teletoon/BBC and the short adult film the Absence of Teddy Table.

Reviews

[Chumbert Squurls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Cooper spins a tale about a hideous duckling going through adolescence in a sweaty, rubbery wasteland where role models are sleazy creeps and staring at breasts have replaced playing with action heroes. The more one reads the more one comes to realize how similar this world is with our own. Dan And Larry is about growing up as an outsider in a lonely world. Horrible, hilarious and highly recommended.

[Titus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired by Dave Cooper's own experiences, this is a story about a 12-year-old boy’s ambiguous and ultimately abusive relationship with a 26-year-old man. However, rather than tell this story in a straightforward, realistic manner, Cooper employs surrealism: the young protagonist is an anthropomorphic duck, his mentor-friend-abuser is a balloon-headed robot-looking thing, and the situations in which they find themselves range from the mundane to the inexplicably bizarre.

I love plenty of realist fiction, and even some memoirs, but here I think Cooper has found a way to address his themes that's much more effective, compelling and memorable. Although there are aspects that seem to be taken directly from real life, it's the outlandish, cartoonish, fantastical elements that really drive home a sense of horror and confusion. As a friend of Cooper's explains in my copy’s introduction, the comic eschews autobiographical veracity to focus on authentically capturing the feel of a dark period in the author's life, and I think it's very successful in doing so. By creating a strange universe where the reader doesn't know the rules and boundaries, Cooper simulates the experience of being a young, naïve, fearful kid struggling to navigate a confusing and hostile world.

Central to the comic's success is Cooper's top-tier cartooning, which combines bold, iconic character designs with dense crosshatching in an idiosyncratic style that looks absolutely great. His characters walk the line between cutesy and creepy in a way that really gets them under the reader's skin, with an abundance of ambiguous facial expressions, awkward grins and anxious sweats. On top of that, at several points he manages to depict what I can only describe as unspeakable horrors – things that don't make rational sense, but are viscerally disturbing.

In sum, I think that this comic is nothing short of brilliant, and I'm surprised that it seems to be practically forgotten.

[Betzim Gdolot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trauma is hard to handle. Every person who ever got some shit going on in their life handles it differently, and more importantly - sees it differently.

This comics is a mix of Dave Cooper's autobiographical story of abuse by an older man and his dreams (or should I say nightmares..)

This one hit me right in the guts....

The cartoonish art camouflages at first the devastating experience Dave had. The events in the beginning seem random, but as the story progresses I felt more and more nauseous and disgusted, but also really felt bad for the chicken character (Dave) who is abused and used by the robot character (the pedophile who abused Dave).

A good read, which made me appreciate Dave cooper for more than just his phat female art. This book shows that Dave is a master of portraying emotional moments in artistic way.

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sucio y turbador, unas alocadas aventuras que te dan la vuelta.

[Jameson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid fun until it took a hard turn into child abuse. Interesting take on it, just not what I’d ever care to read about.

[Valéria. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The f**k did I just read?

[Reyel2107 · Rating 5 out of 5]

so much fun !!!!