Angry Youth Comix

Angry Youth Comix (Collected Editions) #1-3

by Johnny Ryan

Johnny Ryan's utterly unpretentious taboo-tackling is an infectious and hilarious bombardment of political incorrectness, taking full advantage of the medium's absurdist potential for maximum laughs. In an age when the medium is growing up and aspiring to more mature and hoity-toity literary heights, Ryan builds on the visceral tradition that cartooning has had on our collective funny bone for over a century. Now, for the first time, all fourteen issues of Ryan's career-defining comic Angry Youth Comics (2000-2008) are collected in one place. All the comics, the covers, and even the contentious letter pages, in one toilet-ready brick shithouse. "Johnny Ryan is the funniest cartoonist working today." -Peter Bagge

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics, Smut, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Satire

426 pages, ebook

First published February 10, 2015

About the author

John F. Ryan IV (born November 30, 1970, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American comics creator, writer, and animator. In a throwback to the days of underground comix, Ryan's oeuvre is generally an attempt to be as shocking and politically incorrect as possible.
Ryan started his career self-publishing Angry Youth Comix, a series of eleven mini-comic issues from 1994 to 1998. In 1998, he began showing his work to Peter Bagge, creator of Hate comics, who introduced the material to Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics. In 2001, Fantagraphics began publishing volume 2 of the series.
Among Ryan's creations there are the comic strip Blecky Yuckerella and the comic book series Prison Pit.
In animation, Ryan has worked as story editor for the Looney Tuness and co-created the Nickelodeon show Pig Goat Banana Cricket with Dave Cooper. Ryan and Cooper have collaborated on a number of comics as well, usually under the pen name 'Hector Mumbly'.
Ryan's illustrations have appeared in MAD, LA Weekly, National Geographic Kids, Hustler Magazine, The Stranger, and elsewhere. Ryan has also done work for clients such as Nobleworks greetings cards, Rhino Records, and Fox TV. His comics have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Reviews

[Jan Philipzig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snuff Films, Nazi Memorabilia, Smooth Jazz

This book reminded me of an experience I had when I was about seven years old. I was sitting in the back of the car, when out of the blue (as far as I was aware) my mom gave me the opportunity of a lifetime: “For one minute, you are free to say all the bad words you can think of. There will be no punishment.” What?!? I could not believe my luck!!! After about five seconds I ran out of bad words, of course, but that did not stop me - I just kept repeating the same ones over and over again until the minute was up. Needless to say, this was one of the highlights of my childhood. And as you can tell from my rating, my sense of fun has not matured much over the last forty years...

Just to give you a better idea of what to expect from this book, I’ll quote main character Loady’s classified ad for you: “SWM likes snuff films, Nazi memorabilia, smooth jazz. Looking for some stupid bitch to come to my shack, sweep my floor, clean my toilet, fuck me, and then get the hell out! NO UGLIES!!” What can I say, Shakespeare it ain’t, and if you have better taste than me you probably want to stay as far away from Angry Youth Comix as possible. Make no mistake, this book is offensive in every possible sense of the word, it makes Beavis & Butt-Head look like the Teletubbies. I just happen to have a weird sense of of humor, that's all. Sorry...

[XenofoneX · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angry Youth Comix was disgusting, offensive stuff, and if you've ever said something along the lines of "I don't think you should laugh about that sort of thing"... just waddle away and feel awesome about your moral superiority. You win. But this is the work of a skilled equal opportunity offender, one of the funniest fuckers in comics... thanks to a busted moral compass and a case of terminal Tourette's. You don't have to be a dead-eyed psychopath to laugh at this shit, but it helps.

Beginning as a self-published mini-comic, AYC eventually caught the attention of Fantagraphics Dictator Gary Groth, whose misanthropic funny-bone was almost broken reading the bile-rendered yuk-yuks of the ugly, antisocial nerd responsible, Johnny Ryan.

Groth was so impressed, he resisted his natural humanity-hating impulses and talked Ryan out of suicide - actually a nightly cartoonist ritual - because he knew that nerdboy would soon unleash a wonderful cataclysm of shit and dick jokes, one that would blight the earth and smite the self-righteous religious sorts & politically correct assholes alike. Or at least annoy them.

The first fancy-looking issues of AYC from Fantagraphics were a revelation; reading those indescribably fucked-up stories - "The Whorehouse of Doctor Moreau" set a nice tone early on - it seemed like a particularly gutsy publishing decision to open the smelly iron sewer-gates of Johnny Ryan's conscious and sub-conscious mind, salvaging the most hideous, revolting chunks to laugh at and celebrate in traditional comic-book form. Ryan's 'artistic' sensibilities seem custom-built for the medium of cheaply-made mini-comics, but Fantagraphics & TCJ co-founders Gary Groth & Kim Thompson have always been hardcore libertarians & contrarions, so it proved to be a perfect union of shit-disturbing assholes & professional provocateurs.




I'm sure there's many a millennial getting pissy that this book even exists... especially in such a lovingly designed, impeccably constructed, deluxe hardcover format, collecting the entire 450-or-so pages of the iconoclastic Angry Youth Comix run. It just seems wrong somehow, like a filthy hobo in a tin-foil hat stuffing himself into the bespoke suit he just stole from a dead man. But once I had this improbable slab of a book in my hands, I was pleased to notice that the classical cover motifs of decorous vines and grapes and flowers had been suitably fucked-with and corrupted... look closer; it's actually all a tangle of dicks and cunts and tits and farting asses. How nice. It also bears a perverse similarity to the original Pantheon hardcover of 'Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth', sans dust jacket.

So... you've got racist, homophobic, sexist jokes... moving from Hitler and the Holocaust to 9/11, from school-shootings to abortion, from religion to clusterfucks gone horribly wrong. But Ryan's humor is wrapped up in multiple layers of satire. It has no winners, tows no political lines... and in the humorless, mindlessly PC atmosphere of 2019, that's never been a more dangerous position for cartoonists, comedians & commoners alike. No one looks good. AYC is transparently offensive, but never hateful. If there were any hint of an agenda, any sense that this might serve as propaganda, it would immediately collapse under its own weight.




Most importantly, this shit is fucking hilarious. After getting to know Blecky Yuckarella, Loady McGee and Sinus motherfuckin' O'Gynus, you might wind up as a giggling, drooling idiot with a glorious mullet and zits on your tits. By the end, you probably won't remember anything from college, your wedding day, or the birth of your firstborn child, but you'll remember every second you spent on a toilet with crystalline clarity. That said, DON'T buy this book. There. Now if someone buys it and hates it, I am absolved of responsibility.

[Maggie Siebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

i inherited this book and a few other jiz collections from my friend megan, who died two years ago this month. before i moved to new york and was still just visiting, we used to hang out and get extremely baked and watch movies and bullshit and go to comic book stores and play magic and all the shit you do with your girl friends. she spoke in this almost monotone jersey voice that would suddenly become bright and animated whenever she laughed or got excited about something. not since high school had i met someone and felt so immediately comfortable and understood. we bonded over dick jokes and gore and dork bullshit. her blunt advice and simultaneous unwavering support made her the kind of friend i expected to have all throughout my life. and then a little under a year after i moved here she killed herself and there was no more megan and my world has been a whole lot less bright since. after she died her family took care of her belongings but left us a lot of the tjings she probably would have wanted us to have. my cat sterling sits in a chair of hers every day, and we have this big fucking taschen octopus book we have not been able to find a home for. and i have the magic cards and her johnny ryan comics. she showed them to me one of the first times we hung out and i was instantly enamored. she first loaned me a copy of prison pit, which is now my copy of prison pit. i have followed his work since we met, and i have kept the books dutifully on my shelf since they came into my possession. but i haven't cracked them until today because they fucking bum me out, too, and it's the time of year where i get really fucking sad about all of this, about how our friendship was destined for greatness and how it all went to shit. last night i had a dream that my whole family died and it lasted all night, and i woke up pissed and miserable and something made me decide that i was going to finally read every issue of angry youth comix. and i did, and i spat laughter all over the apartment all day over shit like "my stupid wife" and "ku klux kuties" and all the other puerile juvenile infantile gags that are executed with such style and even something approximating grace underneath all the blood shit piss and cum and also shit. i laughed and then i thought about meg laughing at the same shit when she bought this book however many years ago and then i laughed more because nobody loved cracking up more than her. and i imagine the conversations we could have had about all the pitch perfect alt comix parodies and how much the new yorker does suck complete dick and how dicks and pussies and genital warts are the funniest things on the planet, and not even just because we're trans but because being human is gross and funny and fucking stupid. and life has indeed been so fucking stupid since she decided not to be part of it anymore. but i am thankful that on days where i might be thinking about dropping out for good myself i have some things i can turn to that will remind me of the gifts your loved ones can give you, even and especially when those things are boner jokes.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Crumb on crack? I initially thought he would like that kind of compliment, but Ryan is so irreverent and gross, he would probably just smear some disgusting bodily fluid on that comment. There is possibly more offense in any square inch of these comics than in anything else I have read. And that is saying something, as I am a fan of Crumb. Though in this versus some other comics he has done, he is actually trying to be goofily funny, with big-nosed cartoony characters done in old-fashioned Golden Age style, har har. Hey, I gave these two stars, I admit he has talent as a comics artist. And it's not that I was at all offended. This is work accomplished over the years 2000-2008, maintaining a certain bottom level of offensive material. No topic is off topic, as if he dares The Comics Code to come roaring back in at him. But we are in different times, and it is hard to find lines to cross that actually shock, in my opinion.

Woud I censor this? Nah, I wouldn't censor anything. But I was actually kind of bored by it after a short time, and just plodded my way to the end. I smiled sometimes, but never laughed aloud as many of y'all did. I'm just not a Ryan fan, I feel like his game isn't that interesting to me. . . and he wouldn't be a big fan of me, either, I bet!

What do I really think of it? I think the point of this is to shock and offend and keep every possible censor OFF to show you that darker side of the imagination, as in the MOST offensive versions of The Aristocrats. That line-crossing thing about comedy, that interests me, and I loved that film, and thought the most offensive versions of that joke were the funniest. But I just didn't love this. I get it, but it's just not my thing.

[Steve Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

**Warning - provocative pictures below**


Weep Softly, Precious Nerd

This comic is Buddy Bradley's extended riff on the aristocrats joke, so you know we're getting into offensive territory.

As an aside, this kind of absurdist line-crossing humor has traditionally been taken up with particular enthusiasm in Turkish comics. Long-running monthly anthologies like L-Manyak and Lombak showcase a proliferation of styles and ideas whose irreverent portrayal of sex and violence - often in the service of humor - can be eye-opening:





You can even go back to the 30's in publications like Karikatur to find a flourishing graphics scene in Turkey marrying humor with political satire (as well as racial stereotyping):







Current turkish artist Baruter is a direct descendent of Ramiz's Karikatur heritage, and though his work doesn't have the same political focus, it's highly skilled and promotes shock value:



I see Angry Youth Comix as sharing much the same philosophy as this gag-driven, expertly-rendered turkish satire. In fact after Bagge, Marek, and Sad Sack; turkish comics is exactly where my mind went while reading AYC. And it's an interesting comparison because I've often felt an unredeemable nihilistic edge in the turkish comics world that makes me wonder what, if anything, the gratuitous elements are being deployed in the service of. AYC sometimes seems to ring those same alarm bells, but I think there is a target for all the hateful bile Ryan summons. That target is an unfair world. And for a comic that feels like the aristocrats, it's only natural that the master of this joke, comic Gilbert Gottfried, has more reason than anyone else on earth to believe this world is unfair (sorry, Gil). Right On, Johnny.

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Offensive, just for the sake of being offensive.
Jokes felt forced. In fact, not funny at all.
Quite lengthy, so don't bother wasting your time.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love offensive comics, if you love no-holds-barred storytelling, if you have a dark, dirty side that takes delight in scatological, sexual, tasteless, and even racist, ethnic-based, and gender offensive humor, then this collection is for you. Ryan is not a creator for the head, by any stretch of the imagination, but one who you turn to for guilty pleasures. Having read this, I feel the kind of shame, regret, and defeat at overindulging myself in food and drink...while at the same time nursing the memories of having enjoyed the pleasures in the moment. Angry Youth Comix may be no more, but it's nice to have this nice hardbound volume to remember those shameful moments of buying the original single issues.

[Betzim Gdolot · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can get a chuckle every 50 pages, but overall, it's very try-hard, relying on over-the-top offensiveness as the main mechanism for humor.

Offensiveness can be effective in humor, as long as it's accompanied by a joke. Being offensive just for the sake of it is just kinda dumb

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's like Ryan made a list of every offensive topic he could think of and made a point to cover each one in his comic. There's racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, graphic sex, sexual violence, pedophilia, blasphemy, prolific profanity, and even Constitution defacing! It's one thing if blue humor is pointed, or clever, or insightful, or, hell, even funny. But most of this isn't. Don't get me wrong-for the sake of validating my perspective I will confess that I laughed right out loud at robotic ejaculate tasting like cheeseburgers. But I didn't laugh at a whole lot else. We are warned right from the start that this is angry humor, as if such a thing could exist. More like anger masquerading as humor, perhaps? Part of what makes this kind of humor effective is timing. A well-placed crude joke can make the mediocre brilliant. But this is relentless. And not only relentless but aimed at a very narrow audience. I will confess to being surprised at the number of congratulatory letters from women, but we have no way of knowing how particularly curated the letters columns are. I would be willing to bet money that not too many people of color would take an interest in this.
Now for the all-important question: am I offended? Disgusted, yes. Bored, absolutely. But offended? Not really. You don't like this sort of thing, don't read it. It's that simple. It's not mainstream, that's for sure, so it's pretty easy to avoid. But I do want to know its place and purpose, which I realize is another discussion in itself. The only thing I could think of was that if this had gotten into more of the right hands, maybe we wouldn't be calling Donald Trump our president right now. And that's enough to justify the existence of anything.

[Lawrence]

It was lovely. I cried at the end.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Johnny Ryan's comics. His unapologetic and unyielding humor with his sharp cartooning work in tandem to create some of the most delightfully vile comics ever. But there is a such thing as too much, and this collection is exactly that. The sheer excess that is Angry Youth Comix comes to the point of staleness rather quickly, and I found it a struggle to get through this. Perhaps that's on me and stretching out the read would have balanced this out more, but I'm too used to reading books from cover to cover to do that.

The most prevalent strips in Angry Youth Comix involve the two characters Loady McGee & Sinus O'Gynus. Loady is the beating heart of Angry Youth Comix - he's vulgar, vengeful, spiteful, ugly and engages in every possible vice. To balance out Loady is Sinus, the bland, cardboard cutout of a human being who soaks up Loady's excess. The dynamic is fun for sure, especially in stories like them going on a double date together. The jokes, when they land, are genuinely great. But they don't always land, and often can be quite cringe-inducing.

Johnny Ryan is definitely an acquired taste, and Angry Youth Comix is as potent a batch of obscene comics as one might encounter in the wild. Buyer beware for sure.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had Johnny Ryan books in my comics library for years and like Crumb, Ivan Brunetti, and countless obscure 1960s underground comix I believe they deserve consideration for a variety of merits.

This collection is racist, sexist, violent, blasphemous, tasteless but taken together and read as one 388 page collection it actually is filled with a high degree of hilarity in an ironic way. I can’t explain it really. I’m 49 years old. I’m an educator who works with children. I’m a father. But there’s just something about it’s over the top crudeness that is satisfying. It’s kind of like discovering MAD magazine for the first time as an 8 year old.

[John “Hoss” · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vulgar, distasteful, but absolutely hilarious and fantastic stuff. Johnny Ryan has a great sense of humor and style that is expressive and fluid (even without a leaking penis or dripping vagina). His single panel gags are some of the most depraving and hysterical work out there. The stories in this series are funny and completely exaggerated beyond any level. It’s worth a read, and can be appreciated for its sheer depth of stupid humor. But it’s not stupid, there’s a lot of craft and care behind this collection.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesus Christ almighty. I mean, what can you say?

[D B · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the graphic novel equivalent to Hogg Sam Delany.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy muy bestia pero te ries. No apto para todos los gustos ya que es más animal que Simon Hanselman y ya es decir.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some classic bits in here, but not really how you should read AYC it turns out. Too much at once numbs the whole experience.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I just need to read the dumbest comix I can find. This is up there (down there?)

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doesn't offer much. It falls short on wit. There are no brains or social irony to any of these explorations of juvenile depravity. Honestly it's not that funny and seems to have no direction like what you find with Crumb, Kupperman or Kaz. I might recommend Kaz's Underworld to anyone who wants a similar grizzled comic with twisted characters yet has genuinely humorous wit.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Public library copy.

This was a nicely produced book in the manner most fancy Fantagraphics material are published. The content was mature in a Robert Crumb sort of way with mainly sick and twisted tales of d*ck and fart jokes.

I prefered the funny single gag strips to any of the long form stories. I didn't love the work, but I wasn't shocked or disgusted with it. In fairness, it's just not the kind of work I'm most interested in reading.

[Ruz El · Rating 5 out of 5]

The humour is so misanthropic and lazy with the constant gay, race, dick, fart joke variety that I can't help but love it. I grew up on offensive humour, I know it's wrong, I CAN'T HELP IT! This shit be funny, and Johnny Ryan, I love you.

This collection is perfect. The cover is beautiful with it's farting asses and dicks, every issue is represented and re-printed perfectly. It's a work of art that deserves to be in every stinking home! Long live Loady McGee!

[Alex Firer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like these but man oh man. Reading this in a treasury does it no favors. You start seeing repitition, the enemy of shock comedy! Nay I say! Nay! Anyway these are very fun.the spider webs of what entails "offensive jokes" are already showing on these but luckily Johnny Ryan's voice is more than just booger jokes.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gross, vulgar and irreverent really don't seem to cut it in this case, but I suppose that's what I should expect from part of the Humble Bundle Forbidden Books collection. I could try to be pretentious about how AYC sheds light on the absurdity of modern comics (and perhaps even life!) but I'm still too embarrassed to admit that I actually read all of this.

[Brian Alan Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nihilism, gross-out humor, anti-PC, anti-God, anti-children, anti-humanity. Lots of dicks. Funny, bizarre genius. Robert Crumb was even offended by this fucking guy. Can you believe it? Yes."

Excerpt from yesclash.com

[Twan · Rating 5 out of 5]

FUCK YEAH

[Grant Laird]

A most interesting graphic novel I ever read so far... This is not for everybody for sure. I enjoyed his artistic especially with black & white - simple yet gross and silly. Basically.