The Most Dangerous Game: A Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Collection

SMBC: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

by Zach Weinersmith

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) is at heart a geek comic, but it nevertheless addresses a broad range of topics, such as love, relationships, economics, politics, religion, science, and philosophy. It is one of the fastest growing comics online, having sextupled in readership since 2008. SMBC appeals to many different groups, as evidenced by the fact it has been featured on a variety of important websites and blogs, including The Economist, Glamour, BoingBoing, Bad Astronomy, Blastr, Blues News, Joystiq, The Washington Post, Freakonomics, and more.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Webcomic, Fiction, Comedy, Comic Strips

Kindle Edition

First published December 13, 2011

About the author

Zachary Weinersmith (born Zachary Alexander Weiner) is an American cartoonist, who is best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). He is the author of two other webcomics, the completed Captain Stupendous with artist Chris Jones, and Snowflakes, co-written by James Ashby and also illustrated by Chris Jones. He also founded the sketch comedy group SMBC Theater with James Ashby and Marty Weiner in 2009.

Weinersmith has been involved in writing and drawing comics since his high school years, but he first published on the internet in the late 1990s. His early comics usually had three or more panels, but after 2002, he switched to drawing predominantly one panel comics. He stated in a 2009 interview that he was glad to have decided to draw one panel comics because he felt three panel webcomics had become a webcomic cliche by that time, and that there were almost no decent one panel comics on the internet. More recently, he has drawn a mixture of single and multi panel comics for SMBC.

Weinersmith's webcomic was recognized in 2006, and 2007 with the Web Cartoonists' Choice Award for Outstanding Single Panel Comic,[3] and received nominations in 2003,[4] and 2008.[5]

SMBC is at heart a geek comic, which nevertheless addresses a broad range of topics, such as love, relationships, economics, politics, religion, science, and philosophy. As shown by the diverse range of blogs listed above, it appeals to many different groups.

SMBC has around 250,000 daily readers, served over 300,000,000 comics in 2010, and is one of the fastest growing comics online (has sextupled in readership since 2008). The comics have been featured on many important blogs, including The Economist, Glamour, BoingBoing, Bad Astronomy, Blastr, Blues News, Joystiq, Washington Post, Freakonomics, and more.

Zach has a degree in Literature and 3/8ths of a degree in physics. He enjoys reading about math, logic, science, history, fiction, and philosophy. His hobbies are space travel, dinosaur riding, and wishful thinking. He currently lives in southern California with his beautiful and brilliant wife.

Note: Zach publishes SMBC and SMBC material under both "Zach Weiner" and "Zach Weinersmith".

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pants-wettingly funny collection of intelligent cartoons.

Here's my favorite:

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second SMBC collection in the Humble Bundle is just as great as the first. Now I just have to find the time to sit down and read all the comics on his website. This may take a while.

[Remo · Rating 5 out of 5]

SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) es un comic que se lleva publicando desde 2002. El autor lleva no sé cuántos años publicando viñeta diaria. Eso hace que en el día a día haya un poco de todo. Por eso los (pocos) recopilatorios que tiene son mejores, porque hay algo de selección.

Los temas principales que trata el autor son la religión, el amor, la filosofía y la ciencia. Y bajo la aparente ligereza del cómic a veces se esconden críticas y pensamientos muy, muy profundos (otras veces no se esconden sino que el autor nos golpea con ellos en la cara).

Clic en las imágenes para ampliar.

Hay chistes que parecen simples pero que admiten muchos niveles:


y otros son frikadas matemáticas más clásicas:


Los hay también que son humor per se:

Y otras veces que el autor toma un pensamiento cualquiera (no sabemos ir a cagar sin el móvil) y le pega tres vueltas de tuerca:

Mientras que muchas otras veces el autor nos endosa unas filípicas que molan mucho pero que están más cerca del ensayo filosófico que del cómic de humor. Y me suelen gustar mucho. Sobre el sentido de la vida:

Sobre el papel de la ciencia:

Y sobre nada menos que la Teodicea (cómo compaginar la existencia del mal y el sufrimiento en el mundo con un Dios omnisciente, omnipotente e infinitamente bueno. La página española de la wikipedia es una mierda):

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books like this are hard to review because they're so varied. The humor from one strip vs another and all that. That said i do enjoy most smbc comics so it was pretty good.

[***Dave Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

In varying parts irreverent, intellectual, and psychologically twisted, these strips from SMBC are often brilliant, frequently mordant, and usually damned funny. Of course, with any sort of comic strip, your mileage would wildly vary, but, having saved a bunch of these to disk as I read them, it's cool to get them in bound (and oversized) form.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 1 out of 5]

A collection of comics previously published on the web. Mostly with themes of science, economics and anti-religion in which I had no interest nor found amusing. There are some sex and philosophical themed ones that were ok. I laughed at one. Not my cup of tea.

[Crunknor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not always perfect, but frequently brilliant.

[Brett Bydairk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal strips.

[Ambassador]

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) is at heart a geek comic, but it nevertheless addresses a broad range of topics, such as love, relationships, economics, politics, religion, science, and philosophy. It is one of the fastest growing comics online, having sextupled in readership since 2008. SMBC appeals to many different groups, as evidenced by the fact it has been featured on a variety of important websites and blogs, including The Economist, Glamour, BoingBoing, Bad Astronomy, Blastr, Blues News, Joystiq, The Washington Post, Freakonomics, and more.

Breadpig donates its profits to Khan Academy, a not-for-profit organization with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.

**

[Heino Colyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the first collection, Save Yourself, Mammal!: A Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Collection, I read this book on my phone but did not quite enjoy it as much. While topics still ranged from science, politics and economics to religion and relationships, I found the humour less consistent. Some strips raised interesting questions, but if you are looking to read some Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and have not checked out Save Yourself Mammal, rather go do that.

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has some great strips (the Elements take on Who's on First is a particular favorite), and some insightful (and usually depressing, though still funny) moments. Some of the jokes will go over reader's heads (there were several I didn't get), but it's got a lot more hits than misses, and when it connects, it does so thoroughly. Definitely not child-friendly, though. They won't get most of it, and a large number deal with sex and death and futility. Like the father's protracted thought-process on whether or not to tell a child their dog is going to doggy heaven...

[Matija · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of really golden ones in this one as well, but in the end, not enough extra content over online archives (in fact, there's none), to warrant a rave.

Really, ebook webcomic collections are kinda pointless, since you can get the same for free online in an easier to read format, anyway. Print books would probably net at least a star more, but the authors should also take note and provide additional, perhaps exclusive content for the books, rather than just republish stuff from the webpage with minimal effort.

[Talia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book and the first book in a HumbleBundle pack. If you're not aware of HumbleBundle, google it and then go buy. They are simply AMAZING.

Anyhow, before HB, I'd never heard of SMBC. I wish I had, though. His comics are irreverent and topical - perfect for me. Although some people might get a bit uncomfortable at the sometimes-sacrilgious tone of his work, I find it amusing, as I've never been one to take offense at people taking a light-hearted swipe at the seriousness of religion.

Anyhow, a fun book that will make you laugh - I recommend it!

[Science For The People]

Featured on Skeptically Speaking's special episode "Smart Comics for Smart People" on September 7, 2011, during an interview with comic author Zach Weiner. http://skepticallyspeaking.ca/news/we...

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite webcomic and a daily must-read. Incredible balance of insightful science and logic and humor. Only drawback of this collection is that I have read all the strips already. They still hold up.

[Richard Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some longer strips here than the previous 'Save Yourself, Mammal!', perhaps leading to less laugh out loud moments and more probing social comment. In general though, still smart, still funny, still ahead of the game when it comes to short form comic strip humour.

[Martin Nilsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal in its webcomic form, and this is a nice collection. My purchase of the book was mainly a way to support Zach Weiner economically. Hopefully, he will continue the webcomic and other projects for a very long time!

[Bear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Per the same review of Zach Weiner's other book - Another book of random comics, but this one held less hilarity for me. Its got quite a few quick comments that made me chuckle, but by in large i just shook my head at the majority

[Seth Courrégé · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's unfortunate, but these read much better on the actual site, plus there's an extra gag for many of these strips in the site- think of xkcd's mouseover text but with images. So I've got to agree with other reviewers: great content but I see no real reason for this ebook to exist.

[Wolgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If asked what the best web comic ever is, I'd be hard pressed to pick between SMBC and XKCD. Fortunately we live in a world where both exist.

SMBC acts like XKCDs slightly unstable and perverted cousin. Great intelligent humor, mixed in with fart and dick jokes.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Same as the last - the ones with math, nerds, and children were the best. The ones with philosophy were less enjoyable to me.

[Larry Kenney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as funny as the first collection, but still a great addition to the series.

[Marcelo Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

As good as the first one. The "Choose your own adventure" was better than the one in the first book, now introducing redirections.
The jokes were funny but I still miss the red button hover.

[Nicole C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd never seen this comic before. I got this book as part of a Humble Bundle a while back. Some of these were quite funny, others thought-provoking. A few might have been over my head.

[Saretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raccolta di vignette su varie tematiche, politica, tecnologia, scienze, religione etc...

---

Pack of web comic scrip about various themes like politics, technology, science, religion etc..

[Todd Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love SMBC, and this is tome is a great installment of the greatness that is SMBC.

It is a collection of a bunch of comics from a specific time frame of mostly around 2011.

[Doug Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second collection of these webcomics wrapped into one package. Like Save Yourself Mammal, it's also filled with amusing side jokes and ways to explore the book.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just gotta love the way science, politics and humanity comes together in a mix of comics with a pH way above 7.
Having said that, be prepared to be (slightly to severely) offended.

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Amy]

I haven't read it yet