This Is A Bad Time: A Collection of Cartoons

by Bruce Eric Kaplan

In this brilliant new cartoon collection, Bruce Eric Kaplan examines the lives and loves of anxious housewives, mournful insects, crabby senior citizens, self-righteous toddlers, bitter sheep, and befuddled businessmen, among others. If you are one of the above, or know anyone who is, or ever hope to be one yourself, this book is for you. In this brilliant new cartoon collection, Bruce Eric Kaplan examines the lives and loves of anxious housewives, mournful insects, crabby senior citizens, self-righteous toddlers, bitter sheep, and befuddled businessmen, among others. If you are one of the above, or know anyone who is, or ever hope to be one yourself, this book is for you.

Genres: Humor, Cartoon, Graphic Novels

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2004

About the author

Bruce Eric Kaplan, known as BEK, is an American cartoonist whose single-panel cartoons frequently appear in The New Yorker. His cartoons are known for their signature simplistic style and often dark humor. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and has worked on Six Feet Under and on Seinfeld (funnily enough, one of his most well-known episodes is one where Elaine becomes increasingly frustrated over what she takes to be an utterly nonsensical cartoon in The New Yorker). He graduated from Wesleyan University where he studied with Professor Jeanine Basinger.

Kaplan joined the crew of Six Feet Under during the first season in 2001 as a supervising producer. He scripted two episodes of the first season – "The Foot" and "The New Person". He was promoted to co-executive producer for the second season in 2002 and wrote a further two episodes – "The Invisible Woman" and "The Secret". He remained a co-executive producer for the third season in 2003 and wrote a further episode entitled "The Trap". He was promoted to executive producer for the fourth season in 2004 and wrote another episode "The Dare". He served as executive producer during the fifth and final season and wrote his last episode "The Silence". Kaplan wrote seven episodes in total for the series.

He has authored and illustrated six adult titles for Simon & Schuster: the cult classic The Cat That Changed My Life; the collections, I Love You, I Hate You, I'm Hungry, No One You Know and This is a Bad Time; and Every Person on the Planet and Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, both featuring the wonderfully neurotic Brooklyn couple, Edmund & Rosemary. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hit a lull at my job yesterday where even every little bit of busy work was done. I couldn't noodle away a few minutes checking email or newsfeeds since there is no internet or cell phones allowed in the workroom. But, hey, it was a library workroom, and there were shelves of books all around me. And this book of cartoons was the first to catch my eye. In three minutes, I had covered several dozen pages, and liked what I saw well enough to check out the book so I could finish it at home.

The cartoons in this collection mostly appeared in the New Yorker, and while I have never cracked the cover of an issue of that magazine, I'm aware of the reputation of its cartoonists. The cerebral humor here never made me laugh out loud, but it did elicit reactions ranging from silent appreciation to small groans.

The gags are mostly set in a timeless epoch that evokes 1950s America, with office men wearing ties and housewives wearing high heels. (At least I think they are heels; Kaplan has a strange way of drawing feet.) The characters are homogenous white middle class sorts, and the jokes mostly revolve around the battle of the sexes or midlife crisis themes. It's all very bland and mild, but there are some thinkers and clever bits that will linger with you.

All in all, not a bad way to fill a lull.

[Immigration Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEK has been, is, and will continue to be, funny. Read his books!

[m0se · Rating 3 out of 5]

some hits and some misses, wouldnt reccomend reading it all in one sitting, good coffee table book you skim through everyonce in awhile.

[Tom Romig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typically wonderful BEK cocktail party setting. Woman says to man, "I was reading somewhere that people are stupid." Feeling stressed in this shock of a post-election period? Do what I'm doing and turn to Bruce Eric Kaplan to sharpen your ironic take on the world, the only appropriate way to get through the long dark years ahead of us.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

BEK is too good!