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Le guide du mauvais père #1
A User's Guide to Neglectful Parenting
An intimate, offbeat look at the joys of parenting
Award-winning graphic memoirist Guy Delisle (Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City) returns with a light-handed celebration of the relationship between child and parent. Whether he's playing practical jokes on his son or trying to trick his daughter into eating sugary cereal, Delisle's comic timing and wry wit are delightfully showcased in these vignettes.
Award-winning graphic memoirist Guy Delisle (Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City) returns with a light-handed celebration of the relationship between child and parent. Whether he's playing practical jokes on his son or trying to trick his daughter into eating sugary cereal, Delisle's comic timing and wry wit are delightfully showcased in these vignettes.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
12 people are currently reading
1172 people want to read
About the author
Guy Delisle
40 books1,825 followersBorn in Quebec, Canada, Guy Delisle studied animation at Sheridan College. Delisle has worked for numerous animation studios around the world, including CinéGroupe in Montreal.
Drawing from his experience at animation studios in China and North Korea, Delisle's graphic novels Shenzen and Pyongyang depict these two countries from a Westerner's perspective. A third graphic novel, Chroniques Birmanes, recounts his time spent in Myanmar with his wife, a Médecins Sans Frontières administrator.
Drawing from his experience at animation studios in China and North Korea, Delisle's graphic novels Shenzen and Pyongyang depict these two countries from a Westerner's perspective. A third graphic novel, Chroniques Birmanes, recounts his time spent in Myanmar with his wife, a Médecins Sans Frontières administrator.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 364 reviews
July 17, 2025
IO, COMUNQUE, PREFERISCO LA MAMMA
Non all’altezza delle sue opere più celebri, prima fra tutte quella che gli ha fatto vincere il festival di Angoulême (Festival International de la Bande Dessinée, che Wikipedia considera secondo in Europa dopo il Lucca Comics, mentre a me invece risulta buon primo).
In questa guida del padre cattivo c’è qualche banalità, e poche scoperte.
Delisle è canadese e insieme ai due figli viaggia il mondo al seguito della moglie che lavora per MSF.
Presumo sia questo il motivo per cui la madre è assente da queste pagine: ça va sans dire che l’assenza determina la preferenza della vignetta qui sotto.
Delisle si astiene da sentimentalismi, e si rappresenta padre fisicamente molto presente, partecipe e compagno, ma politically incorrect, simpaticamente egocentrico, distratto, anche dispettoso, perfino irresponsabile.
Insomma, tutto meno che perfetto.
Come di solito non sono né genitori né figli.
Mi piace che il disegno sia essenziale, con ambienti delineati da pochi tratti e attenzione sui personaggi e il dettaglio clou.
Ma senza dialogo, queste vignette non andrebbero lontane.
La mia preferita è la storiella sui cereali.
Non all’altezza delle sue opere più celebri, prima fra tutte quella che gli ha fatto vincere il festival di Angoulême (Festival International de la Bande Dessinée, che Wikipedia considera secondo in Europa dopo il Lucca Comics, mentre a me invece risulta buon primo).
In questa guida del padre cattivo c’è qualche banalità, e poche scoperte.
Delisle è canadese e insieme ai due figli viaggia il mondo al seguito della moglie che lavora per MSF.
Presumo sia questo il motivo per cui la madre è assente da queste pagine: ça va sans dire che l’assenza determina la preferenza della vignetta qui sotto.
Delisle si astiene da sentimentalismi, e si rappresenta padre fisicamente molto presente, partecipe e compagno, ma politically incorrect, simpaticamente egocentrico, distratto, anche dispettoso, perfino irresponsabile.
Insomma, tutto meno che perfetto.
Come di solito non sono né genitori né figli.
Mi piace che il disegno sia essenziale, con ambienti delineati da pochi tratti e attenzione sui personaggi e il dettaglio clou.
Ma senza dialogo, queste vignette non andrebbero lontane.
La mia preferita è la storiella sui cereali.
July 8, 2013
Guy Delisle takes a break from his usual travelogue comics to produce a highly amusing look at being a dad, specifically his parenting style towards his young son and daughter. The stories range from Delisle’s shortcomings as a dad to his mischievous nature trumping his paternal instincts – all stories which are almost all hilarious.
One of the stories shows Delisle forgetting to put a coin under his son’s pillow when his tooth falls out – for 3 nights in a row! – and having to make up a story about why the mouse (in Delisle’s household, or maybe Canada generally, there’s no tooth fairy but instead there’s a tooth mouse) kept forgetting. Later on he plays a practical joke on his son, using a chainsaw to chop up a dead tree in their backyard and then, to grab his son’s flagging attention, pretends that the chainsaw cut his hand off, leading to his traumatised son running indoors screaming!
One of my favourites is at bedtime his daughter asking him to reassure her that baby snatchers aren’t real, which of course he does. And then he goes on about a newspaper story he read earlier where a monkey in Malaysia stole a baby and leapt out of the apartment window, says goodnight and walks off, leaving his daughter completely wide awake and scared. Or when his daughter brings him a drawing she made and Delisle ends up critiquing the hell out of it, telling her she’ll never win an Eisner (the comics industry Oscars) and ending with Delisle ranting about hack artists in the comics industry.
It might seem like he’s a cruel dad but you get a strong feeling from the book that he deeply loves his kids and that he just likes playing around with them for his own amusement – and our own of course. His abilities as an animator make the stories paced perfectly so that they read fluidly and while it seems like I’ve spoken a lot about the content, believe there’s a lot more here and reading it from Delisle rather than myself is a very different experience. I love his travelogues - and if you’re new to Guy Delisle check out his book on North Korea, “Pyongyang”, or last year’s “Jerusalem”, for excellent reads – but “A User’s Guide to Neglectful Parenting” shows Delisle’s talents easily transfer to the domestic stage creating a funny, quite brilliant book that all comics readers will enjoy, parents or not.
One of the stories shows Delisle forgetting to put a coin under his son’s pillow when his tooth falls out – for 3 nights in a row! – and having to make up a story about why the mouse (in Delisle’s household, or maybe Canada generally, there’s no tooth fairy but instead there’s a tooth mouse) kept forgetting. Later on he plays a practical joke on his son, using a chainsaw to chop up a dead tree in their backyard and then, to grab his son’s flagging attention, pretends that the chainsaw cut his hand off, leading to his traumatised son running indoors screaming!
One of my favourites is at bedtime his daughter asking him to reassure her that baby snatchers aren’t real, which of course he does. And then he goes on about a newspaper story he read earlier where a monkey in Malaysia stole a baby and leapt out of the apartment window, says goodnight and walks off, leaving his daughter completely wide awake and scared. Or when his daughter brings him a drawing she made and Delisle ends up critiquing the hell out of it, telling her she’ll never win an Eisner (the comics industry Oscars) and ending with Delisle ranting about hack artists in the comics industry.
It might seem like he’s a cruel dad but you get a strong feeling from the book that he deeply loves his kids and that he just likes playing around with them for his own amusement – and our own of course. His abilities as an animator make the stories paced perfectly so that they read fluidly and while it seems like I’ve spoken a lot about the content, believe there’s a lot more here and reading it from Delisle rather than myself is a very different experience. I love his travelogues - and if you’re new to Guy Delisle check out his book on North Korea, “Pyongyang”, or last year’s “Jerusalem”, for excellent reads – but “A User’s Guide to Neglectful Parenting” shows Delisle’s talents easily transfer to the domestic stage creating a funny, quite brilliant book that all comics readers will enjoy, parents or not.
December 19, 2017
Feels a little short and sketchy. It has it`s moments of fun, but nothing really deep here.
February 3, 2024
Alcune scenette divertenti ma nulla di più. Mi aspettavo di meglio.
July 25, 2013
My favorite Delisle book so far! He is a great and simple artist, very clean lines, very attractive and accomplished sense of style, always. Meticulous, inviting, and the tone of his voice in his narratives always annoys me, irritates me, even offends me... but here he is hilarious in his self-deprecating tales of failed or neglectful parenting that most parents (and kids, and former kids) can relate to. I really, really liked it. Reminded me of Jeffrey Brown's parenting books such as the Darth Vader or even the cat books that involve kids... only this is even more focused on parenting mistakes, though it is no less endearing, in my opinion... and for me, he needed some endearing humor to make me go back to read his work... Strongly recommend, esp to parents, and maybe especially to fathers....
August 16, 2021
Sirve para desconectar por un rato, ya que toma situaciones cotidianas y encuentra el lado divertido de ellas, no soy madre aún, pero si me causaron gracia muchas escenas.
October 20, 2017
Something different from his usual travel tales, this book focuses on Guy Delisle's experiences in parenting. Most of the stories were mediocre. Some not even funny at all. But rather disturbing. Such as scaring his little girl about a tree sprouting from her stomach. And a bedtime story about a monkey breaking into the house, killing the baby.
What a douche!
What a douche!
June 30, 2021
I love Delisle's works like Hostage and his travelogues and I wish I could say the same for this. You can skip this one and read his other graphic novels.
Still love his artwork though.
Still love his artwork though.
January 8, 2017
El cómic está muy bien. Tiene chistes muy buenos. Y el formato libro es muy cómodo. Como gran pega es que se hace corto, se lee en una sentada y te quedas con ganas de más y pensando si han merecido la pena los 12€ que vale en España. Pero al terminar lo primero que pensé es si había más libros y que los quería leer así que muy recomendable.
October 18, 2018
Guy Delisle represents for that bit of bad dad in all of us fathers. Hilariously awful parenting is going on here.
Sort of reminds me of Calvin's dad:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/maritsapatri...
Sort of reminds me of Calvin's dad:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/maritsapatri...
September 18, 2018
Nicht so gut wie die Reise-Bücher, eher flach, aber immer noch nett und gut gezeichnet.
July 20, 2019
I didn't LOL during reading it, but they are little sketches of daily life situations that are funny! The art is well known and it is an entertaining 10 min "read"!
October 26, 2014
I've read two graphic novels by Guy Delisle: Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Burma Chronicles. They were both pretty impressive. This one was a big disappointment. The book is very short, with just two simple drawings per page. Although I do like Delisle's signature artwork, the humor falls flat with me. I'd go as far as saying some of it is boarder-line offensive (telling your daughter a bedtime story about a baby that falls to its death outside its bedroom window? just not funny). Unlike his other graphic novels, Guy Delisle does not come across as a very likable guy in this one. And I like him even less when I turn the book over and see the price tag of $12.95 for something that would better be suited for a handful of short blog posts (I took it out of the lib. If you must read it, I suggest you do the same). Someone wrote a one-line review that sums this book up perfectly: "Not as funny or poignant as it thinks it is". I agree.
February 14, 2022
(2020) Hehe, maybe 3,5 *.
I find this guy funny and I like the way he draws. ;)
I also find it amusing how some people here are complaining about the stories in the book. It is called The guide of the bad father, not of the good father! (or to neglectful parenting, if you go by the ”official” English title, so what exactly do the readers really expect, I wonder, when picking up a book with such a title, è?!). :)
My first Guy Delisle on paper (I know him from his internet site). Yay!
(2021) I liked it even better this time, so I changed the rating from 4 to 5*. Maybe it is a 4,5* now.
Favourite story: the one with the cereals from Canada. :))
(2022) 4,5*
I find this guy funny and I like the way he draws. ;)
I also find it amusing how some people here are complaining about the stories in the book. It is called The guide of the bad father, not of the good father! (or to neglectful parenting, if you go by the ”official” English title, so what exactly do the readers really expect, I wonder, when picking up a book with such a title, è?!). :)
My first Guy Delisle on paper (I know him from his internet site). Yay!
(2021) I liked it even better this time, so I changed the rating from 4 to 5*. Maybe it is a 4,5* now.
Favourite story: the one with the cereals from Canada. :))
(2022) 4,5*
November 23, 2013
Not as funny or poignant as it thinks it is.
March 23, 2017
Divertido, bastante diferente al otro libro que leí de él, Pyongyang. Quizás la gran pega es que es muy corto.
March 19, 2018
Davvero uno spasso questo libro di Delisle. Si legge con poco tempo ma si ride assai... In fondo essere un cattivo papà non è sempre un male. Irriverente come al solito, circondato dai suoi figli. Il cattivo papà è un uomo messo alle strette dalla logica stringente dei pargoli.
August 28, 2022
I've read and enjoyed other comics by the author, so picked this one up at my local library. Plus, it's got a great title. This slim volume has a handful of comics with sketchy illustrations, and even sketchier scenarios. There was a moment of two that I smiled, but overall a forgettable read for me.
April 7, 2021
Es muy divertido. Es lo primero que leo de Guy Delisle y esta serie de 4 comics tiene pinta de mantener el nivel, asi que anotada para completarla. Espero que sigan igual de bien que en el primer comic
April 14, 2017
I found this while looking in my library's online catalog for a different book by the author (Hostage). This was so different from the book I was looking for that I requested it. It took me about 15-20 minutes to read. It's a short collection of comics about a dad's interactions with his son and daughter (the mother is never seen...). They were amusing, nothing completely unbelievable, which leads me to believe these scenarios might have actually happened. I loved the ones about the Easter bunny and tooth fairy, and the one where the daughter gives her father a drawing and the father proceeds to lecture her about how difficult it is to become an artist. It will be interesting to contrast this with the more journalistic graphic novel I was actually searching for.
January 3, 2023
In "Neglectful Parenting," I empathize with the author / cartoonist, Guy Delisle, when (as just one example) he attempts to help answer his young son's question: "Dad, what's penetration?" It turns out, after an auto-pilot driven, extemporaneous and excruciating explication from dad including overly detailed description (involving the usual nouns, like "penis," "vagina" and all the other body parts and functions that seem relevant) . . . that . . . well . . . the little boy simply wanted to know what his video game meant by "penetration of the castle fortress" . . . Ooooops, nevermind.
If you like the wry, observational humor of the travelogues written by Guy Delisle, then you'll love this book. His subtle wit, when applied to travel destinations like Burma, North Korea, Jerusalem, and Mainland China, is even better when it is used to highlight the ordinary, yet amusing, vignettes from everyday life with kids.
A dad's work is a daily high wire act with no safety net.
If you like the wry, observational humor of the travelogues written by Guy Delisle, then you'll love this book. His subtle wit, when applied to travel destinations like Burma, North Korea, Jerusalem, and Mainland China, is even better when it is used to highlight the ordinary, yet amusing, vignettes from everyday life with kids.
A dad's work is a daily high wire act with no safety net.
January 28, 2014
Breezy and light-weight collection of short anecdotes about parenting. Amusing enough that I read a few of them out loud to friends. Not particularly recommended if you take your parenting very seriously. ;)
June 20, 2016
J'ai juste trouvé ça vraiment insignifiant. Mais je pense aussi que je n'ai jamais trop été dans son public cible...
August 26, 2016
Not bad; occasionally really funny and to the point, but this is read in just five minutes and then you can forget about it. That's not very longlasting entertainment or value for money.
December 31, 2017
Mi ci sono ritrovato, soprattutto nella storia del dentino.
September 22, 2021
Any parent will enjoy Delisle’s charming illustrations and his take on parents and kids through the eye of humor.
December 19, 2020
Very light reading and entertaining
March 23, 2025
Reread - still pretty good. Chuckled out loud a couple times. Definitely relatable.
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A cartoonist father recounts funny little stories with his kids. There is no wife featured in the comics, though the boy mentions a mom once. The book as a whole is made up of half a dozen or more stories, ranging from practical jokes from the father (the chainsaw one was one of my favorite), the hypocrisy of parenting, or just fooling your kids in various ways. I think I have encountered nearly all of them in some way or another in my own parenting of my kids, so the stories are even better when you can relate. They are pretty funny. The dialogue is sparse, and generally it's two panels per page (the books are small), so the pages turn very fast. I did find it pretty funny, with a few laugh out loud moments. Definitely recommend to parents.
The artwork is okay, kind of light sketches, like a simple comic strip sans color. It gets the message across okay at least. I have 2 more of these from Christmas, so I look forward to reading through them.
-------
A cartoonist father recounts funny little stories with his kids. There is no wife featured in the comics, though the boy mentions a mom once. The book as a whole is made up of half a dozen or more stories, ranging from practical jokes from the father (the chainsaw one was one of my favorite), the hypocrisy of parenting, or just fooling your kids in various ways. I think I have encountered nearly all of them in some way or another in my own parenting of my kids, so the stories are even better when you can relate. They are pretty funny. The dialogue is sparse, and generally it's two panels per page (the books are small), so the pages turn very fast. I did find it pretty funny, with a few laugh out loud moments. Definitely recommend to parents.
The artwork is okay, kind of light sketches, like a simple comic strip sans color. It gets the message across okay at least. I have 2 more of these from Christmas, so I look forward to reading through them.
May 18, 2013
Vraisemblablement inspiré des Chroniques d'une Mère Indigne de Caroline Allard, Delisle avait commencé sur son blogue une série de petites histoires mettant en scène ses enfants et son “moi” romancé (du moins on l'espère!) dans des scènettes où son jugement de père lui faisait (supposément) défaut. Le livre compile ces histoires et en rajoute plusieurs autres.
Ce qui est extraordinaire avec Guy Delisle c'est que malgré qu'il utilise un style extrêmement simple, ses illustrations sont tellement expressives que cela lui permet de rendre des idées parfois assez complexes avec un minimum de traits.
Bref, Le Guide du Mauvais Père offre un humour léger et se lit très rapidement. C'est une lecture agréable que je recommande vivement.
Lisez le reste mon commentaire sur : http://clodjee.blogspot.ca/2013/05/le...
Ce qui est extraordinaire avec Guy Delisle c'est que malgré qu'il utilise un style extrêmement simple, ses illustrations sont tellement expressives que cela lui permet de rendre des idées parfois assez complexes avec un minimum de traits.
Bref, Le Guide du Mauvais Père offre un humour léger et se lit très rapidement. C'est une lecture agréable que je recommande vivement.
Lisez le reste mon commentaire sur : http://clodjee.blogspot.ca/2013/05/le...
February 11, 2020
A quick humorous blurb on parenting. Forgetting the money from the tooth fairy, bad dad pranks (chainsaw anyone?), fruit trees growing in the belly. Everyone will recognize at least a couple incidents that I’m sure they lived through (the sad swearing under the kitchen sink particularly resonated with me).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 364 reviews