Trundling Grunts

by Glen Baxter

Since narrowly failing to win the Nobel Prize in 2001, Glen Baxter disappeared to a remote hillside fort in eastern Holland to continue his research on vole classification. Some ten months later, he emerged from his stronghold and made his way to Soho Square where, after a brief scuffle, he was reported to be in possession of a small fustian-lined hamper containing a manuscript that was to be Trundling Grunts.

Genres: Comics

Hardcover

First published October 21, 2002

About the author

Glen Baxter (born 4 March 1944), nicknamed Colonel Baxter, is an English cartoonist, noted for his absurdist drawings and an overall effect often resembling literary nonsense.
Born in Leeds, Baxter was trained at the Leeds College of Art. His images and their corresponding captions employ art and language inspired by pulp fiction and adventure comics with intellectual jokes and references. His simple line-drawings often feature cowboys, gangsters, explorers and schoolchildren, who utter incongruous intellectual statements regarding art and philosophy.
Baxter's artwork has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and The Independent on Sunday.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned from this book that there are many ways of looking at the world that I hadn't even considered. Its the very dry, and often cruel, wit and the peculiarly serious expressions of the people in the illustrations that make this book so funny. Like Monty Python, this type of humour is generally appreciated by the British but leaves Americans cold.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vaguely amusing- I could tell there was plenty of funny flying right over my head.

My rating doesn't mean much because so much of the humour gets lost in "translation" despite being Fraternalinguistic.

I'm as weird as we come- so bizzar(b/d/f/g/m/n/p/q/t/v) viewpoints aren't offpudding to my sensibilities and don't typically confuse me YET I was constantly bewildered and mostly felt out of my element. My judgement is, if family types can't keep up with your act, it's out too far on a limb. How are the masses enjoying this? (That's my bruised intelligence praying the ocean-divide is the reason I didn't jive.)

The art only "works" in askewed fashion- in any other genre it would be flat and boring. The different types of paper were sometimes interesting but mostly annoying or difficult to read visually.

[Paul Cowdell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably 3.5 - not his best stuff, but some definite high points.

[Jade Wallace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full of nonsensical wah-wah jokes & art that looks more like textbook cartoons than anything else. Makes me wish I was reading Far Side comics.

[M.R. Dowsing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often hilarious, sometimes just plain baffling, but always a great style.

[Genine Franklin-Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dear friend, Robyn, and I have appalled those around us in a cafe when we read this aloud. Our laughter may have been inappropriately loud. We consider appreciation of Glen Baxter's humor to be a test of a person's character. We also think he might be Gary Larson's British cousin.

No wimples after 7 p.m.