And Now, Sir ? Is THIS Your Missing Gonad?

by Jim Woodring

Cartooning visionary Jim Woodring is known for his mind-bending graphic novels wherein innocent character Frank explores the surreal world of the Unifactor — including Weathercraft, Congress of the Animals, Fran, and Poochytown. Woodring’s newest book, And Now, Sir — Is This Your Missing Gonad?, collects a medley of drawings set within his strange universe, with equally mysterious and bewitching captions added — like New Yorker cartoons laced with potent psychedelia. 

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

96 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2020

About the author

Jim Woodring was born in Los Angeles in 1952 and enjoyed a childhood made lively by an assortment of mental an psychological quirks including paroniria, paranoia, paracusia, apparitions, hallucinations and other species of psychological and neurological malfunction among the snakes and tarantulas of the San Gabriel mountains.

He eventually grew up to bean inquisitive bearlike man who has enjoyed three exciting careers: garbage collector, merry-go-round-operator and cartoonist. A self-taught artist, his first published works documented the disorienting hell of his salad days in an “illustrated autojournal” called Jim. This work was published by Fantagraphics Books and collected in The Book of Jim in 1992.

He is best known for his wordless comics series depicting the follies of his character Frank, a generic cartoon anthropomorph whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling. A decade’s worth of these stories was collected in The Frank Book in 2004. The 2010 Frank story Weathercraft won The Stranger’s Genius Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for that year. The most recent Frank book, Congress of the Animals, was released in 2011.

Woodring is also known for his anecdotal charcoal drawings (a selection which was gathered in Seeing Things in 2005), and the sculptures, vinyl figures, fabrics and gallery installations that have been made from his designs. His multimedia collaborations with the musician Bill Frisell won them a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. He lives in Seattle with his family and residual phenomena.

-Walter Foxglove

Reviews

[Geoff Winston Leghorn Balme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazed Seuss esque creatures and often alien landscapes colliding with absurdity, horror and silly jokes.
Some of this book operates like shocks to the expectation experience, possibly opening artistic / creative channels.

I tried to take it slow but ended up binging.
Fun!

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usual psychedelic weirdness from Jim Woodring, featuring Frank, Pupshaw, Man-hog, and other oddities, minus a storyline: the pictures are just one-page one-offs with non-sequitur captions. Not essential Woodring, but good enough for fans.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is a curiosity from the canon of Jim Woodring's most famous creation, the somewhat oblivious anthropomorph Frank. It's not essential Woodring by any measure, but the casting of the usually wordless Frank comics into single-panel cartoons with captions is something new, as though these were "The Family Circus" or "The Far Side" equivalents from the Unifactor (the mysterious realm where Frank makes his home).

As with anything that Woodring does, there's no obvious narrative or logical structure at work here, but the visual language of Frank's world is as strong as ever, and it's clear that the artist has not yet exhausted the possibilities of his invented universe. And it's worth mentioning the colored paper used throughout the volume, which somehow lends the grotesque proceedings the feel of a children's activity book: further evidence that the pairing of Jim Woodring and Fantagraphics Books remains a vital creative force.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preferred reading this as an artbook, not really paying attention to much of the captions. Certainly a fans-only release. The artwork is great but nothing we haven't seen in other collections of Frank's adventures.

[Eliacquatico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro per lo zoccolo duro dei fan di Woodring. Bei disegni nel caso in cui ti piaccia l'autore, le didascalie invece non apportano nulla, tranne il fastidio di averle lette.

[Eric T. Voigt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The text isn't all that amusing.

[Morpheus Lunae · Rating 4 out of 5]

And now this is what I call a proper dream diary. All I want now is to get to read the earlier Woodring books to get more context and also see how his style developed.

[Andrew Metadrouid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer Frank and friends to be wordless, but this was still enjoyable…especially the art

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A large part of Jim Woodring's appeal for me is the sheer creative scope in which he's cultivated the dreamscape-laden world of The Unifactor, the bizarre land where Frank and his supporting cast live out their surreal adventures. The indelible aspect of Woodring's work is that it is largely indescribable outside of vague superlatives, since so much of his artwork is tapping into the subconscious and otherworldly. And that feeling I have fits the majority of Frank stories I've read, though this might be the one exception.

And Now, Sir? Is THIS Your Missing Gonad? differs from other Woodring works set in The Unifactor in that we don't follow a continuous Frank adventure. Instead, we're presented with a series of one-page spreads that feature Frank characters and settings, but also have bizarre blurbs affixed to them. It's not really an artbook, but it also sort of is one. Described as Woodring's "private amusement" more than anything, I would say the description doesn't really mean anything to any aside from Woodring himself. What this book is can be more akin to a series of gag sketches whereby the captions detail a joke that clearly seems like an inside joke shared between Woodring and the cast of Frank. The prose style feels reminiscent of Dr. Suess cartoons, but bent into an even more alien way. These are funny no doubt, but the itch in the back of the mind will always be - "what the hell does this mean?".

I liked this, though to me the surreal whimsy that is every other Frank comic is sorely missed here. Woodring's artwork is always enticing, so going through this for just the spectacularly bizarre designs was enough for me. Your mileage on this will vary, and for me I enjoyed this but not nearly in the same way as I've liked his more prominent works.

[Raven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Completely non-narrative, this book is a collection of Jim Woodring’s grotesque illustrations with whimsical captions. The use of varying transparency white ink on different colored papers makes for an interesting effect. Unfortunately there are too many double page spreads in this book where details are lost in the gutter of the binding, despite otherwise being a very polished presentation of Woodring’s art.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as fun as an actual Frank story, but still plenty of immaculate weirdness to enjoy. This obviously let Mr. Woodring get a few more bizarre ideas out on to the paper without having to string any of them together.

[Woody Hayday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully printed, epic Woodring illustrations, but if you want any sort of narrative, read Woodring’s other books.

Woody

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why hasn’t the New Yorker published these or at least Hustler?!?!

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations were great. The captions seemed unrelated more than half the time and weren’t funny or clever. Could have been 5 stars without the words. 😂

[Alex Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool little book.

[Marek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kolejne dziwne zakątki Unifactora. Na szczęście nie trzeba czytać podpisów pod rysunkami.