book data
129 ratings,
3.84
average rating, 33 reviews
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published
May 30th 2007
by Fantagraphics
details
Hardcover, 172 pages
isbn
1560977922
(isbn13: 9781560977926)
description
Nihilism and self-loathing scale unprecedented comic heights in this autobiographical collection.
A psychiatric case study masquerading a fancy-pants g…more
A psychiatric case study masquerading a fancy-pants g…more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 170)
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avg 3.84
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
grandmas who fart blood
Ivan Brunetti's humor is toxic and misanthropic; self-indulgent and self-deprecating. He peels back the layers of politeness in everyday social situations as it leaves us sensitive artistic types (for whom Ivan is often the stand-in in these comics) frail and vulnerable ...not to mention angry to near-sociopath levels. In the hands of a lesser writer, it would be disastrous (think the bland "edgy" humor of "Family Guy" and comedian Sarah Silverman or of the boring observation...more
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Read in January, 2007
Collecting his 12 year journey that is Schizo 1-3 Brunetti proves that out of the hundred or so autobiographical cartoonists who’ve lingered like ganglions for over a decade, Brunetti is one of about five that should be doing this kind of work. Brutally honest, he’s like watching a hyper depressing, yet still at times hysterically funny, comic book version of Annie Hall. The book’s introduction is actually written by Brunetti’s therapist. He portrays himself as a hard R-rated, bearded, f...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone, cartoomists, miserable fucks
I like Ivan Brunetti's work a whole hell of a lot, but this book is hard to read in one sitting. I find I have to read a few pages, go out for a breather, read a few more, go out for a drink, read a few more and then just go on a full fledged bender. But read with caution, his misanthropic ramblings start to make sense after awhile and we really don't need a world full of angry, bitter people calling each other "candy asses" and vomiting all over each other and ramming kerosene soaked ...more
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Read in March, 2009
ivan brunetti may well be the true end point of human expression...
after the romantics and the realists, after the modernists and the high modernists, after it all has been experienced and passed through, when we find ourselves landing hard on the stony earth of the postmodern, we'll see brunetti sitting there waiting for us, naked and shamefaced, wincing in a pool of his own sweat and urine...
when all the psychological attempts to reconcile ourselves with a hostile and confusing wor...more
after the romantics and the realists, after the modernists and the high modernists, after it all has been experienced and passed through, when we find ourselves landing hard on the stony earth of the postmodern, we'll see brunetti sitting there waiting for us, naked and shamefaced, wincing in a pool of his own sweat and urine...
when all the psychological attempts to reconcile ourselves with a hostile and confusing wor...more
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Read in January, 2009
recommends it for:
nobody I respect.
"Oh... Heavens me! Whatever was I thinking?" asks the charicatured Ivan Brunetti immediately after gouging out the eyes of (and urinating upon) the corpse of his fellow man. "I could get in trouble for this."
And so opens the cesspool of sex, crime, vitriol and violence that is Brunetti's "Misery Loves Comedy." Blanketed between a drab green, dust jacket-less cover, the materials presented are reprints of Brunetti's earliest work, from "Schizo"...more
And so opens the cesspool of sex, crime, vitriol and violence that is Brunetti's "Misery Loves Comedy." Blanketed between a drab green, dust jacket-less cover, the materials presented are reprints of Brunetti's earliest work, from "Schizo"...more
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Filthy, self-loathing, hilarious, and brilliant. Ivan Brunetti is deeply fucked-up but ultimately likable and understandable.
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You have to be seriously sick to enjoy this book. I sure did! This is basically a collection of Schitzo, all of which I already owned but I loved it so much I had no problem doling it out for this beauty. True misery is a beautiful thing. Ivan Brunetti is suicidal, homicidal, and hilarious throughout, saying all the things we dare to think and then also drawing them. The ironic thing about it is that laughing really makes you feel good.
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Read in August, 2009
Too gross. Too whiney. Too much like every other self-deprecating, self-pitying American cartoonist who likes to draw grody dicks. I actually couldn't make it 1/3 in because I was so bored with the tone but I did skim and read some of the gags in the back also. Not my cuppa.
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Read in May, 2009
This book would probably be considered obscene in many counties across the USA. Brunetti might be one of those cartoonists who would be in a mental health facility if not for his artistic outlet. He himself admits as much. Definitely not for everyone. It made me laugh out loud.
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
lovers of misery, misanthropy, humor, the most elegant line in contemporary comics
This collection, of the first three issues of Ivan Brunetti's marvelous Schizo, is one of the most beautiful comics i have ever read. Ivan has some issues for damn sure. His therapist writes the introduction. In the letters page for Schizo 2, R. Crumb asks, "Have you ever heard of Prozac?" Brunetti's views in these pages are dark, self loathing and misanthropy are the prevalent textures. However, underneath all of that lies a true bruised hopefulness and a tentative love of the wo...more
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Oct 24, 2009
Barbara Trinh
is currently reading it
Sometimes this book makes me so depressed I want to pull my eyes out and throw them in the air while shooting them with a shotgun.
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Read in September, 2008
if i could give this book a million, trillion stars i would. brutally (uh, brutally BRUTALLY) honest, vulgar, offensive, depressing, and brilliantly funny. it's like being tickled with a feather while a 1000 lb weight presses down on your chest, suffocating you into hysterics. unrelenting, crushing...jeeze, this guy makes me feel so much better about myself i can't even tell you. plus, he's a fantastic cartoonist. seriously, if you can't laugh at some of this stuff (and, oh man, it gets dark) th...more
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Read in July, 2008
I'm not even trying to read much of this at a time. I've read about halfway through the first of three issues of Schizo collected here. The misanthropy is surpassed only by the self-loathing. It reminds me of reading the issue of "Answer Me" where the Goads gleefully cheer on the top 100 serial killers, or the top 100 suicides: I pretty much concur, but at the same time it's a bit heavy and dark to take in all at once.
I laughed out loud at the first page of four-panel strip...more
I laughed out loud at the first page of four-panel strip...more
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Read in October, 2008
Misery Loves Comedy is the first three issues of Ivan Brunetti's "Schizo," followed by some supplemental material from years later. If it were not for that supplemental material I'd have given this book two stars instead of three.
"Schizo #1" has some great moments, as does #3, but after a few pages the nihilism becomes redundant and Brunetti starts to look like he's being offensive for its own sake, like an adolescent.
Sometime after issue #3, Brunet...more
"Schizo #1" has some great moments, as does #3, but after a few pages the nihilism becomes redundant and Brunetti starts to look like he's being offensive for its own sake, like an adolescent.
Sometime after issue #3, Brunet...more
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recommends it for:
the anhedonic, serial killers
Maybe it's not fair for me to review this book since I went in with completely irrelevant expectations based on what I've seen of Brunetti in anthologies. The book is a catalogue of how he hates himself and wants to kill all of humanity, with graphic imagery. (To be fair, this is indicated on that jacket.) If he handled the whole thing with a smidge more self-awareness it might even be funny or at least interesting. But honestly, it's boring. Recommended for those who are anhedonic. Still, I'd b...more
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Read in April, 2008
Self-loathing and misanthropy yoked to a common purpose: causing soy milk (and later, beer) to spill out my nose. By far the most hilarious and disturbing book I've read since I put down the Holy Bible.
Despite the title of his comic (Schizo, all four issues of which are collected here), Brunetti is a monument to sanity (even if he did sketch Jesus masturbating with his stigmata).
Despite the title of his comic (Schizo, all four issues of which are collected here), Brunetti is a monument to sanity (even if he did sketch Jesus masturbating with his stigmata).
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The last ten or so strips at the end of the book where he works in color on a smaller scale and avoids esoteric anecdotes (like two pages of him in the tub!) and keeps things simple are the best parts. Otherwise a bunch of rape and suicide jokes. Hey, I didn't do nothing! Why is he yelling at me? My guess is that his comics will soon be some of the best around, once he finds his voice.
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Read in November, 2008
I had to push myself to finish this, and it did get better in some parts. But not enough for me to say that I liked it. I don't want to give praise that is grasping at straws, like I admire the totality of his negative visions!. Because it would be true, but it also really doesn't mean anything. Nothing means anything. We are all worms. I should never have read this.
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Read in May, 2008
Perfect intersection of excellent draftsmanship, crippling depression, and incredible offensiveness. I am not sure if I am an awful person for liking this; reading his older stuff really makes me want to check out issue 4 of Schizo, since he has gotten his shit together since then. Hm hm.
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Brunetti is real dark. Black, black heart. He goes deep into the hate. He can draw like those fellows in the days of yore, in any style, hilarious. He is a perfectionist and you need him in your life, otherwise you are kidding yourself at least part of the time.
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