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Written by Byron Kerman Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:00

It's strips like "Snake'N'Bacon in Therapy," in which a couples therapist looks down on a snake and a piece of bacon sharing the couch. She asks them each to make their special noise. The snake hisses an "SSSSS," and the bacon makes the sound of his own frying, also an "SSSSS." Now, why can't they get along?

32 pgs., B&W, $4.50, SC
W/A: Michael Kupperman

While reading Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle #3, one name occurred to me time and again: Glen Baxter. Kupperman and Baxter have virtually the exact same derangement. Both draw scenes in a stilted, decidedly old-fashioned style, and then mock the staid mood with wildly absurd humor.

For Kupperman, it's strips like "Snake'N'Bacon in Therapy," in which a couples therapist looks down on a snake and a piece of bacon sharing the couch. She asks them each to make their special noise. The snake hisses an "SSSSS," and the bacon makes the sound of his own frying, also an "SSSSS." Now, why can't they get along?

In "Porno Coloring Books," Kupperman imagines the covers of X-rated coloring books, including one with a bicentennial theme. "Spirit of 1769" depicts Ben Franklin putting on his bifocals and heading under a woman's skirt.

Good night!

In "Storm Cloudfront's Julius Caesar," a TV weatherman tries his hand at literature: "Citizens of Rome! A cold pressure front is moving in from the southwest..."

In a riff on the famous Charles Atlas ads from old-school comic books, a man shamed by his inability to talk about banisters is schooled by "The Manister."

This sophisticated lunacy reads like MAD Magazine on acid. Me likey. | Byron Kerman