Mondo Boxo: Cartoon Stories

by Roz Chast

A collection of multipanel "short stories" includes sixty examples of Chast's best work in extended form, with "Poets on Strike," "Maids from Space" and "The Magic Mountain"

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Cartoon, Humor

96 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Rosalind "Roz" Chast is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker. She grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, the only child of an assistant principal and a high school teacher. Her earliest cartoons were published in Christopher Street and The Village Voice. In 1978 The New Yorker accepted one of her cartoons and has since published more than 800. She also publishes cartoons in Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review.

Chast is a graduate of Midwood High School in Brooklyn. She first attended Kirkland College (which later merged with Hamilton College) and then studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and received a BFA in painting in 1977. She also holds honorary doctorates from Pratt Institute and Dartmouth College, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is represented by the Danese/Corey gallery in Chelsea, New York City.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I sometimes find Roz Chast's cartoons amusing, but this 1987 collection was so bizarrely dull, it almost seemed as though the dullness was the point - the constant subversion of the expectation of being amused by a cartoon. That said, I did chuckle a bit over "The Trail Elves," which details a knock off branch of scouting for girls even more off brand than other Girls Scout imitators that Chast makes up, such as "Fireplace Girls." But that was pretty much the only exception. It's unclear if any of these mostly page long "stories" were published in The New Yorker, the home for most of Chast's work. I tend to think not, simply because I don't remember them ever publishing full page cartoons in my youth.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book just wasn't as interesting as the other Roz Chast books I've read. Her punchline-free cartoons are witty and fresh in short cartoons, but when these stories drag on for two pages and then have a dull ending her humor loses its charm.

[Dave Riley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Moderately quirky. But should we care? Indeed it becomes all rather repetitive.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual for Roz Chast, these are simple, short comics about things either so mundane or so absurd that you wouldn't think anyone would write about them. For whatever reason, they resonate with me. It helps to be from NYC (I'm not but my parents were, and I've spent time there) and Jewish (I am). This came out in 1987, but it was surprisingly not all that dated.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loopy fun. I think her later work is much stronger, but it's interesting to see how she's changed over time.

[Brigid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading books on any day regardless of the weather but agree with the common belief that rainy days are especially cozy when it comes to reading. I have specific qualifications for books I like to read on rainy days—most often, I enjoy rereading humorous and pleasant books that make me feel particularly grateful to be dry at home and laughing, as opposed to wet outside and making the best of things. Mondo Boxo: Cartoon Stories by Roz Chast is exactly the kind of book that makes me cherish rainy reading days. First, I cannot go further without addressing this issue: this is one of the most fun book titles to say and repeat!

So what is Mondo Boxo, anyway?! Sporadically throughout this book, readers are treated to the contents of several short booklets with titles like “Travel Guide to The Midwest,” “The Piece of Thread,” and “A New York Evening.” “Mondo Boxo” is another short booklet that follows the Box family who live at 121 Old Box Lane. The boxpeople have very adorable square-shaped thought bubbles and live in a box-centric existence, with hobbies like “stacking” and “knocking over.” “Mondo Boxo” only encompasses two of the pages in this book, and as much as I enjoyed the title of this book and the boxpeople themselves, the rest of the stories featured in this book are also tremendously fun. This is a world in which poets can go on strike and cause mass confusion: “People were thrown into a dither, fearful of poetry shortages.”

“Maids from Space” contains a panel that has caused me to laugh out loud every single time I have looked at it, as one of the mysterious space maids knocks over a bookshelf with a human being desperately screaming, “NO!!!” Another highlight for me was “Daisy Steps Out,” a story about Daisy the cow escaping her dull farm life by jumping onto a passing pick-up truck. The zany illustration of Daisy flying through the air accompanies the inspiring words: “Just one long running jump, and I’d be in like Flynn.” Mondo Boxo is a very cute book to hang out around the house and giggle with, and I rate it as four-out-of-five-stars.

[Adna · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection of strange stories. I liked her other works much better. This book had rather mediocre drawings and story-lines were dry.