That's A Horrible Thing To Say, Josh Latta!

by Josh Latta

The titular phrase of this cartoon collection is the self-same ejaculation of many denizens of social media who happen to scroll past one of the named artists digitized drawings. Possibly you yourself have seen these graphical hijinx and either recoiled in horror or exclaimed in hilarity.

And now... for the first time ever, six dozen of these precious little monsters/gems have been collected in one place!

That's right, now you can get your grubby little mitts on a good old-fashioned book and allow grandma the same experience you had without signing her up for FaceSnap or whatever stupid website everyone is on now in the future when you're reading this.

78 pages, Paperback

Published January 26, 2016

Reviews

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is with a heavy heart and an irritable bowel that I put down cartoonist Josh Latta’s new collection, THAT’S A HORRIBLE THING TO SAY, JOSH LATTA! It is bad enough that he name-checks himself in the very title of his book, but that he then goes forth to fill it with pages of his fecal smears and life-denying humor is the height of hilarity. He is the master of the gag in gag cartoon, a figure of such universal hatred that he must be doing something right. I laughed out loud throughout and that made me think: do I have a mental disorder? My conditional is terminal and yours can be, too, if you’re unfortunate enough to read this small, disturbing volume.

[Grigori Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the humor I like the most, there is often an overlap of the absurd, the politically incorrect, and the implicitly-if-not-explicitly irreverent (and if you want to read that as a euphemism for "blasphemous," you can go right ahead). This, the debut by cartoonist Josh Latta, is a potent mix of all three. His work has elicited all kinds of laughs from me, ranging anywhere between sinister, raspy-throated chuckles and loud belly laughs that leave me in tears, gasping for breath. A good deal of the irreverent humor I see goes for punchlines that are too obvious (and I'll leave your imagination to provide examples, because if you're reading this, you probably know what I mean). Mr. Latta's humor never fails either to throw in a twist I didn't see coming, or to deliver a darker punchline than usual with an especially sweet or raw edge to it.

By now, it's obvious that I see intelligence in the humor that the comics illustrate. I see that intelligence in the illustration, too. To begin with, the Brimstones are a brilliantly-rendered series (the name gives me nostalgic pleasure, too, because I always preferred the Flintstones to the Jetsons) which feature characters who might best be described as demonic Smurfs. I don't even like the Smurfs, but these characters are utterly adorable. The drawings are often pretty simple, but the detail is there whenever something needs to catch your eye to make the point. Mr. Latta is as much the master of the concept conveyed in the comic as he is the director of your eye, and the result is surprisingly rich.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

They really were horrible, horrible things to say, Josh Latta.

[MKF · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few books that actually had me laughing out loud more than once.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

***Not appropriate for young readers***

Not sure who Josh Latta is but the book was passed onto me.

That's A Horrible Thing To Say, Joshua Latta> is a compilation of comics although the first actual section was dedicated to a reprint of various comments directed to the cartoonist. The remainder of the book, though, focuses on cartoon parodies, Fun Non-Factuals and other spoofs focused on providing shock value via means of subjects that are usually culturally taboo thus meaning the book is full of triggers.

The cartoons are all put on a napkin background and the characters are rather basic. As with the themes in the book, they are meant to be a shock factor and rather mostly inappropriate just as much as their comment.

All in all it wasn't funny and really does make one wonder what makes people do the things they do for fame or probably in his case infamy.

[Sammie Saxon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh Latta’s book is a clever, gritty, and darkly humorous dive into the anxieties of modern life—all wrapped up in cartoon art. I’ve always been a big fan and find myself revisiting the pages of this book.

[Devlin Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh is a delightful scamp and a fine cartoonist! This is not a collection to give to your sainted grandmother, though— unless she’s COOL!

[Hugh Mungus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Josh Latta’s funnybook and I pissed my pants laughing and now I’m pissed I can’t piss anything else!

[Beata · Rating 1 out of 5]

TRASH!