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Mean
Cruel has never been so cute and funny as in the hands of the "Yikes" gang.
Steven Weissman's "Yikes" comics and characters are some of the most adorable and idiosyncratic cartoon creations in print today--beloved by the masses and the cognoscenti alike. Over the last decade, readers have been delighted by such strange and hilariously cruel books as "Don't Call Me Stupid, Champs, White Flower Day," and "Chewing Gum In Church," Like Huckleberry Finn, Mickey Mouse, and Hannibal Lecter before them, his characters--Li'l Bloody, the Pullapart Boy, Kid Medusa, X-Ray Spence, and "Sweet" Chubby Cheeks (just to name a few)--have affixed themselves in our collective cultural imagination. Indeed, it's hard to recall a time when they weren't a part of our lives, hustling about "Milltown," perfectly drawn and perfectly awful. The cast seemed to appear fully formed by the end of the 1990s, and ready for their "close up."
Every success story has its humble--or arrogant and mean-spirited--beginnings, and now Fantagraphics Books is tickled pink to present "Mean," collecting Weissman's early, self-published, unpublished, and otherwise rare "Yikes" comics. Enjoy your favorite characters' awkward, embarrassing first appearances; watch them stumble from their early, crude glory into their mature sadistic and masochistic selves. Li'l Bloody and the Pullapart Boy steal candy, X-Ray Spence answers his fan mail, and Kid Medusa falls in love (twice ). Early critical attention, while overwhelmingly positive, often questioned what Weissman "was on" when he came up with these odd tales of young friendship. Read "Mean" and guess for yourself.
Steven Weissman's "Yikes" comics and characters are some of the most adorable and idiosyncratic cartoon creations in print today--beloved by the masses and the cognoscenti alike. Over the last decade, readers have been delighted by such strange and hilariously cruel books as "Don't Call Me Stupid, Champs, White Flower Day," and "Chewing Gum In Church," Like Huckleberry Finn, Mickey Mouse, and Hannibal Lecter before them, his characters--Li'l Bloody, the Pullapart Boy, Kid Medusa, X-Ray Spence, and "Sweet" Chubby Cheeks (just to name a few)--have affixed themselves in our collective cultural imagination. Indeed, it's hard to recall a time when they weren't a part of our lives, hustling about "Milltown," perfectly drawn and perfectly awful. The cast seemed to appear fully formed by the end of the 1990s, and ready for their "close up."
Every success story has its humble--or arrogant and mean-spirited--beginnings, and now Fantagraphics Books is tickled pink to present "Mean," collecting Weissman's early, self-published, unpublished, and otherwise rare "Yikes" comics. Enjoy your favorite characters' awkward, embarrassing first appearances; watch them stumble from their early, crude glory into their mature sadistic and masochistic selves. Li'l Bloody and the Pullapart Boy steal candy, X-Ray Spence answers his fan mail, and Kid Medusa falls in love (twice ). Early critical attention, while overwhelmingly positive, often questioned what Weissman "was on" when he came up with these odd tales of young friendship. Read "Mean" and guess for yourself.
120 pages, Paperback
First published September 17, 2007
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Steven Weissman
33 books6 followersSteven Knight Weissman (born June 4, 1968, in California) is an alternative cartoonist.
Weissman was the recipient of the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best New Talent in 1998 and he is best known for his offbeat and bizarre explorations of childhood friendships. He is the author of a number of books, including Barack Hussein Obama (2012), Butter and Blood (2015) and the series of graphic novels Yikes! (1999-2008). His work has been published by Fantagraphics, Retrofit Comics, Nickelodeon, Vice, Mad Magazine and more.
Weissman lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and son.
Weissman was the recipient of the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best New Talent in 1998 and he is best known for his offbeat and bizarre explorations of childhood friendships. He is the author of a number of books, including Barack Hussein Obama (2012), Butter and Blood (2015) and the series of graphic novels Yikes! (1999-2008). His work has been published by Fantagraphics, Retrofit Comics, Nickelodeon, Vice, Mad Magazine and more.
Weissman lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 16, 2017
Lame. I didn't get it at all.
August 2, 2011
Ehhh...I really wanted to like this collection of Yikes! comics, but they are overall pretty bland and unfunny. How did you go so wrong!?! It's about child monsters! Also, some of the print was really tiny and hard to read. Dislike.
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July 4, 2015i don't know how many times i have checked this book out from the library.
there are so many enjoyable vignettes in this volume!
weissman's work is probably like cilantro: either delicious or like soap in the mouth.
for me i think this book would be good with tacos or queso!
there are so many enjoyable vignettes in this volume!
weissman's work is probably like cilantro: either delicious or like soap in the mouth.
for me i think this book would be good with tacos or queso!
July 6, 2011
This is great stuff. There's some classic Yikes! in here. This has a lot of the stuff that made me really love Weissman, and generally, this stuff is way way better than his newest work.
My only real complaints about this collection would be that the selection process seems a bit random, so some stuff is left out that I personally would have included, and that the order the stories appear in the book is even more random, so older and newer stuff intermingle in a kind of weird way. It's a bit jarring when the art style changes abruptly between 2 stories, and you lose the sense of development and progression you'd get if the work appeared chronologically.
I'm not sure how I missed this when it came out, but it's a must have - I thought I had a pretty exhaustively complete Yikes! collection, and there's a TON of stuff in here I've never seen before. For me this is a must-have.
My only real complaints about this collection would be that the selection process seems a bit random, so some stuff is left out that I personally would have included, and that the order the stories appear in the book is even more random, so older and newer stuff intermingle in a kind of weird way. It's a bit jarring when the art style changes abruptly between 2 stories, and you lose the sense of development and progression you'd get if the work appeared chronologically.
I'm not sure how I missed this when it came out, but it's a must have - I thought I had a pretty exhaustively complete Yikes! collection, and there's a TON of stuff in here I've never seen before. For me this is a must-have.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews