A big brick of a book filled with hundreds of funny drawings by Jay Howell. Contains reprints of his popular zines and books, including Punks Git Cut," The Dark Wave, Let Me Tell You Where/Where Not To Stick It, Dogs and Dog Information, Pages from Books Vol. 1, Wicked Wendy, Wild Wolf and Other Fun Drawings, and more."
"This is a pony ridin a horse fightin some snakes."
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Do the kids need it tuff? Is Satan not cuttin it? Remember your band? No one else does. If you love it when things are full blast, check out the zine anthology Punks Git Cut by Bob’s Burgers character designer Jay Howell. Say Perhaps to Drugs, learn New Relevant Butt Styles, and steer clear of the maggot mobile on this trip through Howell’s inimitably creative mind.
I’d been meaning to read this self described “brick” of a book, a compilation of the zines and doodles of artist Jay Howell for awhile. His zines are zany and full of a manic creative energy that is super fun to read, even as it starts with long, meandering sentences punctuated by crudely drawn talking heads, but as he began to sketch more figures, I was like, heeeeey, that mustached guy grinding on a birthday cake looks really familiar! I had not been aware that Jay Howell designed the characters for Bob’s Burgers! Cool! I particularly liked his colorful paintings sketched out on vintage paperback title pages. It’s all a little bit prurient, a little bit light, but the enthusiasm of all the dogs, and skateboards, and burritos, and beer, and evil wizards is pretty endearing, and the zines are all around super fun.
Without knowing it, I was drawn to this because of the author's signature style, which also appears in Bob's Burgers (which I've only seen two episodes of, but love staring at). This is advertised as a compedium of zines, and it's cool to see someone's work evolve from a teenager who really can't draw or write to an older person with more... ideas; still, the best parts for me were the drawings made on dime-store novel title pages that appear at the end; no text, no story.
Love this overview book of his zine. Def goes through several phases; raw, wordy brain dumps, slightly more disciplined brush work, artsier concepts and development of the figures he’s become known for: then the creative pinnacle of stories, standalone illustrations and those on book title pages. About half the book features the latter stage and it’s impressive how seemingly fast he improved. I also appreciate the early stuff too. PGC/TCC RULZ OK!