The Envious Siblings: and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes

by Landis Blair

Eight gleefully macabre vignettes by an award- winning comics artist, as delightful as they are deadly.

Inspired by the dark imagination of Edward Gorey, Envious Siblings is a twisted and hauntingly funny debut. Comics artist Landis Blair interweaves absurdist horror and humor into brief, rhyming vignettes at once transgressive and hilarious. In Blair’s surreal universe, a lost child watches as bewhiskered monsters gobble up her fellow train passengers; a band of kids merrily plays a gut-churning game with playground toys; and two sisters, grinning madly, tear each other apart. These charmingly perverse creations take ordinary settings—a living room, a subway car, a playground— and spin them in a nightmarish direction.

Envious Siblings heralds a brilliant new cartooning talent, and will captivate readers who have thrilled to the lurid fantasies of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein, and Tim Burton.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Horror, Poetry, Humor, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2019

About the author

Landis Blair illustrated the prize-winning graphic novel The Hunting Accident and the New York Times bestseller From Here to Eternity, and has published illustrations in the New York Times, Chicago magazine, and Medium. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

HAPPY POETRY MONTH!

april is national poetry month,
so here come thirty floats!
the cynics here will call this plan
a shameless grab for votes.
and maybe there’s some truth to that—
i do love validation,
but charitably consider it
a rhyme-y celebration.
i don’t intend to flood your feed—
i’ll just post one a day.
endure four weeks of reruns
and then it will be may!

*************************



this book is an all-new addition to the wonderful world of darkcute graphic novelry; eight short singsongy illustrated poemstories reading like a mishmash of roman dirge meeting edward gorey meeting shel silverstein.

the artwork is wonderful



with many animal shenanigans





and the stories—the situations—are great, including the wordless The Awful Underground, which is about monsters wandering onto the rush hour subway and eating commuters one by one, unnoticed by all but one little girl, who soon finds herself outnumbered.



another favorite offers up new uses for playground equipment for budding psychopaths children.





the writing of the stories is the book’s weakest link. it's by no means bad, but of the three components: concept, art, and writing, the writing ranks last.

on the one hand, he manages his rhyme scheme with far more consistency and skill than lang leav, but there are only so many rhyming couplets one wishes to read in a single sitting, and sometimes the rhyme seems forced (I have an older sister, we rode the train one day/But she didn’t like it ‘cause it made her joints all splay) that’s probably just a personal gripe—for the most part, the poems “work,” and they’re funny, and if your aim is to write in the gorey/silverstein tradition, you’re gonna be using a lot of rhyming couplets and that's what nursery rhymes are and who am i &etc.

on a positive note, The Envious Siblings is my favorite poem, and, not coincidentally, the most silverstein-y of them all; a tale of rapidly escalating jealous dismemberment, but—you know—in a fun way: Angie envied Abby’s feet, Sawed them down and ate the meat/Abby envied Angie's lips, Sliced them thin and made some whips.

also - blair gets commitment points for writing the acknowledgments page in rhyming couplets, which ends with a special thank you to the man himself

To him my last grateful remark,
For coaxing me into the dark
Edward Gorey

and for those of you who love endpapers the way that i do—here are some! 





a fun and morbid book whose accompanying merch i would gladly buy. TAKE ME TO YOUR MERCH!!

come to my blog!

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspired by Edward Gorey, Landis Blair's latest (and truest to his primary interest), a collection of eight macabre stories, and just in time for Halloween, is The Envious Siblings. He's not quite Gorey as writer, but he is closer to him in meticulous, cross-hatched, pen and ink style, adding in his own more cartoony elements with a Goreyan haunted landscape.

Recalls, too, Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein. Twisted humor, both macabre and absurd, it's not for kids.for instance, two envious sisters, grinning madly, tear each other apart; that is, until mom shows up to "end it all." The best of them proceed in a somewhat predictable fashion until you are pushed off a cliff or a hand crashes through the wall to grab you by the throat (yes, this is a reference to The Night of the Living Dead). The surprise endings are Gorey-worthy, but the artwork is the real treat. Tales of Mystery and Imagination (and Humor)!

[Kim Friant · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars—I was surprised and excited to get this book in the mail. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I’m torn between saying that I’m totally gonna read these stories to my kids and horrified that I would even consider that! I truly enjoyed this stories and found them imaginative and entertaining! Obviously I couldn’t recommend that all people read these to their kids, but hey, I wouldn’t mind reading them to mine. The rhymes are cute and the artwork is macabre but not explicit. Overall, this is a great collection and I think a wide range of audiences would really enjoy it.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable, and rather macabre, collection of amusing nursery rhymes with some excellent illustrations. The Awful Underground & Honourable Beasts are my two favourites, but they are all well worth a read. These rhymes are especially enjoyable if you are a fan of Edward Gorey.

[Melina Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creepy e perturbador!

Olhando rápido para a capa, pode passar a impressão errada de que é um livro infantil ou juvenil, mas acho que tá mais pra +18 porque as histórias são bem violentas.

Espero que a Darkside traga esse título pro Brasil porque definitivamente não tem editora que combine mais com a vibe desse livro.

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was slow to warm up to the stories because they were all written in verse, but the gruesome and gory atmosphere and macabre visual punchlines at the end of each won me over. Very fitting for Halloween season.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark humor, similar to, and inspired by, the works of Edward Gorey, such as "The Gashlycrumb Tinies". Neither the art nor the stories and poems are as good as the best of Gorey, but that is an impossibly high bar for anyone. One off-putting thing for me was that the characters in these stories are smiling broadly even while being maimed or killed.

I enjoyed these, but they won't stick in my mind the way Gorey does. (Two of this author's works published online but not included here will stay in my mind: The Progressive Problem and The Regressive Solution. Warning: a cat is mistreated.)

This guy can draw! That is even more evident in The Hunting Accident than it is here.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Envious Siblings: and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes by Landis Blair is fun in a creepy, crazy kind of way. This very Gorey-like collection is full of sinister ways to use playground equipment for bodily harm, skeleton puppets, subway creatures, and evil deeds. Ya know everything to make you cackle and grin like a psychopath! :)

We start off strong with “Malicious Playground”. The evil grins on the kids were perfect! Haha…I’m betting Dad didn’t have fun with the lads though. And “My Suspicious Sister” was twisted and clever—it made me smile. But the stories and rhymes became more predictable and less subtle as we moved along.

Still a horrifyingly fun read for readers with a taste for the macabre. Pick it up from your local Library. I’ll be on the lookout for more from Mr. Blair.

[Thijs Werkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duistere humor, morbide, rijm, vermakelijk en goed getekend.

[Armando · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of macabre poetry and drawings to go along with it. My absolute favorites are The Malicious Playground and The Envious Siblings. The first is just great dark humor, and the second while doing the same, also captures the playful yet annoying games we played as children. And the artwork for all of the poetry did so well with the words, that it made the poems all the more enjoyable.

While filled to the brim with dark humor, there is also a beauty to some of its poetry. Like for example, the Refinement Tree, that shows a boy falling from a large tree losing a memory after each branch hit, landing ti the ground having lost all of his memories but content. But it's the last image that shows the true beauty of this comic (don't necessarily want to give this away).

I just found out from some friends that April is National Poetry Month, so this is a perfect book to jump into.

[Beth Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morbid, gruesome, and fun! Great art work.

[Rose | Adventurous Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not gonna lie, this was 50% very creepy/demented and 50% laugh-out-loud funny.

The best stories were the ones about the envious sisters and the kids on the playground.

[Mees · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightfully creepy

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trying way too hard to be Edward Gorey, and falling way way short.

[Linda Munro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about as strange as they come.

If you are into sick humor, this book is for you. Apparently I am because I caught myself giggling a few times as I read.

I have always thought of Grimms' Fairy Tales as a bit grim; but these should give kids nightmares for years to come!

A definate 3.5 star!

[Ags · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really fun break book while I was working at the library. So weird. This includes a collection of short stories/illustrated poems, all but one told in rhyme, and all but one f cryeaturing children doing - or having done to them- disturbing things. There might be some morals hidden here (children playing rough is actually so crazy some times, kids shouldn't wander off alone, envy will rob both people of their lives, all of our memories - good and bad - can make us discontent). But, mostly, this was "just" entertaining. Other than shared style/tone, I didn't sense a shared theme among the stories. I normally don't love that kind of disconnectes reading experience, but this set-up is just so weird that I enjoyed it. Notably, the bizarre combination of (a) rhyming + essential illustrations that you need to understand the plots with (b) gruesome plots was really interesting.

Some of the language was really clunky - but, largely, this was super fun to read!

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book apes the work of Edward Gorey, but lacks everything that makes Gorey's work wonderful.

[stefiereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bizarre. Morbid. Disturbing. Dark. Creepy. More than creepy actually.
This book may look like a kids book, but I don’t think it is suitable for kids at all. Nope. Just nope.

There are 8 macabre vignettes in this book and the most disturbing ones for me were The Envious Siblings and Honourable Beasts. But I love them all.

I showed my husband a page from this book and he couldn’t take it. He was so surprised how bizarre this book is. So, if you can’t take seeing people or kids being hurts, maybe you might want to think twice before picking this one up.

But honestly, it’s my cup of tea, and I knew from the very first page I would give this book five solid stars.
As Edward Gorey fans, I love Landis’ works. Brilliant!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a galley copy of this at BookExpo 2019. It was disturbing and vile and I absolutely loved every page of it.

[Andréa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan.

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Sarah B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very entertaining but it was also very disturbing. These are short little comics about kids. And the kids are either doing very disturbing things (like trying to injure each other on purpose) or they are in strange situations (like a train packed full of monsters). There are often rhymes to go along with the pictures. At least one situation involved neglectful parents.

Truthfully I don't know what to think of it. I guess it is a modern version of the old horror comics?

As I said it is both entertaining and disturbing at the same time.

[Suvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy Halloween! If you're looking for something light but still sinister with your cup of tea, a love letter to Edward Gorey is the perfect read for this time of year. These eight illustrated poems are macabre, twisted, gruesome, and delightful. The art is the star here, and although it's hard to pick a favorite, I would say Honourable Beasts - with its morbid twist ending - and the wordless The Awful Underground stood out.

[Liv · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was trying to hard to be Edward Gorey but it fell a bit flat. The rhyming was a bit awkward in places. And I was often left wondering why Blair even used certain stanzas when they didn't make sense.

It made me think of Nightmare Before Christmas, during 'Making Christmas' when Jack says "No, no, no, now that's all wrong" like this book has the spirit but it doesn't understand what's so special about Gorey.

[Ken Yuen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spooky, morbid, macabre, and quite funny and amusing. There's a worthy comparison to Junji Ito with the creepy grins and the inability to predict what will happen upon flipping the page. It seems to have no floor on how dark the subject matter can be, without being overly gross or clinically grotesque.

A lot of fun for people with a dark sense of humor.

[Nicole]

I don't know that I can really give it a star rating, I don't typically read "nursery" rhymes. Obviously these are not for kids. It's very morbid but still entertaining. I liked it, just don't know what star rating to choose.

[Sarah Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge Edward Gorey fan, I admit that I was worried this would be a straight ripoff of that macabre master. But as you progress further into these little tales, the more you realize that Landis Blair is a grim genius in his own right, going further than even Gorey in pushing the taste limit. This makes for a nice, creepy, and fast read that any Gorey fan would enjoy (along with, perhaps, Gaiman fans).

[Heatherinblack · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE, good dark goth, LOVE!

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for something a little more Addams Family, I guess.

[giulisbookshop · Rating 4 out of 5]

ci ripenso spesso, un libro geniale e macabro, storie con un crescendo grottesco e un finale inaspettato e fragoroso: assolutamente da recuperare!

[Dakota Roos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that looks like it is good for children, but is actually good for the kids who never grew up or out of Halloween.

Very morbid, and I would say only for the morbid sense of humor!
I won this book on a Goodreads giveaway and am so glad I did. Happy Halloween!