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Unspeakable Acts
Darkly humorous cartoons satirize the cruelty, insensitivity, tactlessness, and crassness of people in a portrayal of the absurdity of modern life
96 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1988
7 people want to read
About the author
Simon Bond
41 books2 followersFrom the "Guardian" obtiuary:
Simon Patrick Everett Bond was born of British parents on 19 August 1947 in New York City. He was the second son of Terence Bond, a political secretary at the United Nations, and Hilda Everett. The family returned to England when he was four. In London, he attended Preston Manor County Grammar School, Wembley, before studying graphics at West Sussex College of Art and Design in Worthing (1965–68). His first job was as a paste-up artist on Tatler magazine (1969–70) before returning to the US on health grounds.
For more than a decade he lived in Phoenix, Arizona, where the climate was better suited to his chronic asthma. He then worked in a variety of jobs, including dealing in antiquarian prints and pictures and performing stand-up comedy in clubs while also contributing cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, National Lampoon, New Yorker, Men Only and Vole.
In 1976 he published his first book, Real Funny (1976), and soon afterwards mentioned the idea for a macabre cartoon book about dead cats to his friend, Terry Jones of Monty Python, who he had met in London. Jones liked the idea and recommended it to the British publisher Methuen, who published it as 101 Uses of a Dead Cat (1981). The book was an instant and enduring success, eventually selling more than two million copies and being published in 20 countries. Despite frequent attacks by cat lovers (Time magazine called him "the Charles Addams of ailurophobia"), Bond always maintained that he meant no harm by the book and was not only fond of cats but had even owned four himself at various times (as well as a dog); the only problem was that he was allergic to them.
At first he had no plans for a follow-up cat book and concentrated on a screenplay, Shorts, satirising the media, and another cartoon collection for Methuen, Unspeakable Acts (1982). However, in 1982 he returned to London, began contributing to Punch and Private Eye, and produced a new cat collection, 101 More Uses of a Dead Cat (1982) with tie-in calendars appearing in 1983 and 1984.
In 1985 he married Linda Marshall, and moved to the Jacobean Great Addington Manor near Kettering in Northamptonshire. Here he continued to produce at least one cartoon book a year, including Uses of a Dead Cat in History (1992). In 2001, to mark the 20th anniversary of the first book, Methuen published Complete Uses of a Dead Cat (2001), incorporating all three volumes. In 1993 Bond and his wife moved to Langer, Nottingham.
In all he published more than 20 collections of drawings, including Odd Visions and Bizarre Sights (1983), Uniformity (1986), A Bruise of Bouncers (1987), Battered Lawyers and Other Good Ideas (1989), Odd Dogs (1989), Holy Unacceptable (1990), Commuted to Life (1992), Everybody's Doing It (1993) and three children's books featuring the teddy bear Tough Ted. He also illustrated two books by Alan Abel, Don't Get Mad, Get Even! A Manual for Retaliation (1983) and How to Thrive on Rejection: A Manual for Survival (1985), as well as Percy Richer's Richer's Legal Nuggets (1987) and Tom Isitt's Secrets of the Queen's Closet (1988). His last published book was 101 Uses of a Dead Roach (2002) with an "epitaph" by the celebrity drug-dealer Howard "Mr Nice" Marks.
Bond, who once said that he loved thinking up ideas but truly hated drawing, usually sketched his cartoons with a 2H pencil on A4 cartridge paper, working up the finished drawing with a fine Edding needlepoint nylon-tip pen. However, for his bookwork he tended to draw actual size. He never used washes, tints or cross-hatching, preferring to draw up-and-down lines for shadows. For colour work he preferred coloured pencils.
Below average height, he spoke with a soft English accent and usually wore spectacles. He was a keen collector of antiques and was also very interested in sport, especially cricket and football (Nottingham Forest FC).
Simon Patrick Everett Bond was born of British parents on 19 August 1947 in New York City. He was the second son of Terence Bond, a political secretary at the United Nations, and Hilda Everett. The family returned to England when he was four. In London, he attended Preston Manor County Grammar School, Wembley, before studying graphics at West Sussex College of Art and Design in Worthing (1965–68). His first job was as a paste-up artist on Tatler magazine (1969–70) before returning to the US on health grounds.
For more than a decade he lived in Phoenix, Arizona, where the climate was better suited to his chronic asthma. He then worked in a variety of jobs, including dealing in antiquarian prints and pictures and performing stand-up comedy in clubs while also contributing cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, National Lampoon, New Yorker, Men Only and Vole.
In 1976 he published his first book, Real Funny (1976), and soon afterwards mentioned the idea for a macabre cartoon book about dead cats to his friend, Terry Jones of Monty Python, who he had met in London. Jones liked the idea and recommended it to the British publisher Methuen, who published it as 101 Uses of a Dead Cat (1981). The book was an instant and enduring success, eventually selling more than two million copies and being published in 20 countries. Despite frequent attacks by cat lovers (Time magazine called him "the Charles Addams of ailurophobia"), Bond always maintained that he meant no harm by the book and was not only fond of cats but had even owned four himself at various times (as well as a dog); the only problem was that he was allergic to them.
At first he had no plans for a follow-up cat book and concentrated on a screenplay, Shorts, satirising the media, and another cartoon collection for Methuen, Unspeakable Acts (1982). However, in 1982 he returned to London, began contributing to Punch and Private Eye, and produced a new cat collection, 101 More Uses of a Dead Cat (1982) with tie-in calendars appearing in 1983 and 1984.
In 1985 he married Linda Marshall, and moved to the Jacobean Great Addington Manor near Kettering in Northamptonshire. Here he continued to produce at least one cartoon book a year, including Uses of a Dead Cat in History (1992). In 2001, to mark the 20th anniversary of the first book, Methuen published Complete Uses of a Dead Cat (2001), incorporating all three volumes. In 1993 Bond and his wife moved to Langer, Nottingham.
In all he published more than 20 collections of drawings, including Odd Visions and Bizarre Sights (1983), Uniformity (1986), A Bruise of Bouncers (1987), Battered Lawyers and Other Good Ideas (1989), Odd Dogs (1989), Holy Unacceptable (1990), Commuted to Life (1992), Everybody's Doing It (1993) and three children's books featuring the teddy bear Tough Ted. He also illustrated two books by Alan Abel, Don't Get Mad, Get Even! A Manual for Retaliation (1983) and How to Thrive on Rejection: A Manual for Survival (1985), as well as Percy Richer's Richer's Legal Nuggets (1987) and Tom Isitt's Secrets of the Queen's Closet (1988). His last published book was 101 Uses of a Dead Roach (2002) with an "epitaph" by the celebrity drug-dealer Howard "Mr Nice" Marks.
Bond, who once said that he loved thinking up ideas but truly hated drawing, usually sketched his cartoons with a 2H pencil on A4 cartridge paper, working up the finished drawing with a fine Edding needlepoint nylon-tip pen. However, for his bookwork he tended to draw actual size. He never used washes, tints or cross-hatching, preferring to draw up-and-down lines for shadows. For colour work he preferred coloured pencils.
Below average height, he spoke with a soft English accent and usually wore spectacles. He was a keen collector of antiques and was also very interested in sport, especially cricket and football (Nottingham Forest FC).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 16, 2010
Simon Bond got famous for his book of cartoons on the repurposing of dead cats. But I think it's safe to say he did not get "famouser" with this book. I liked it. A few of them are funny. Nothing that you're going to remember on your deathbed. The funny thing is that Mr. Bond really can't draw all that well. But he doesn't have to. He's like the kid who sat next to you in the most boring class (Civics?) drawing pictures of the teacher (300 lb. Mr. Pratt) walking around unaware that pieces of school furniture were adhering to his sticky, adhesive-like layer of perma-sweat. It might be a cheap shot, but it got the job done. And that's pretty much what's going on in this book.
April 4, 2021
Definitely some have me a good chuckle out loud. Very warped humor. Drawing style is interesting.
April 17, 2014
By the author of 101 uses for a dead cat. This one is not quite as funny, but there are several great cartoons nevertheless.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews