I Want You

I Want You #1--2

by Lisa Hanawalt

The filthy, funny early work from the Tuca & Bertie creator, and Bojack Horseman production designer

Before the critically acclaimed animated shows, the bestselling graphic novel Coyote Doggirl, or the humor collections Hot Dog Taste Test and My Dirty Dumb Eyes, cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt was a comic book industry sensation with her Ignatz Award-winning minicomic series I Want You. Hanawalt’s outlandish humor and ingenious formalism are evident in the comics collected here. Her love of anthropomorphism and scatology are on full display, all lovingly and grotesquely drawn by Hanawalt in obsessive, unnerving detail.

The stars here are She-Moose, who we join sex-toy shopping, and He-Horse, who we learn mid-flight suffers from ornithophobia. The true star of I Want You may just be Hanawalt’s hilarious command of the graphic listicle. “Top Causes of Freeway Accidents” is a prescient pre-BoJack display of Hanawalt’s love for all things equine. “Things We Are Sorry We Did Last Night” includes the murder of all Hanawalt's Google doppelgängers. Whether she’s discussing the daily commute or masturbation, she packs each comic in I Want You with punchy cultural observations and sharp-witted reflections on typically taboo subjects. A master humorist and cartoonist, Hanawalt strikes the perfect balance of drawing the gorgeous and the repugnant, the fantastical and the lifelike, the bizarre and the hilarious–creating a deeply human experience that everyone can relate to.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Humor, Fiction, Art, Graphic Novels Comics, Bande Dessinée

120 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2020

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my fourth Lisa Hanawalt book, a collection of her early stuff, and I like it. It's edgy, earthy, sometimes it's lists, sketchbook drawings of animals--especially horses, she loves horses--and made-up animals, dogs with fish heads. Much of this is from her Ignatz-award-winning series by the sane name. Animals wearing hats, she loves animals and hats, so why not both? Sex bugs??! Body humor: gross facts, sex, imperfections. Whatever crosses the line, as usual, but this early stuff is even edgier than her more recent stuff, and no, I don't know her work at all on Tuca & Bertie pr Bojack Horseman. She is funny and interesting and very talented maybe especially in her use of color in the later books, but just in the sheer invention.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked Hanawalt's Coyote Doggirl, but this cartoon collection and the two previous ones of hers I have read are just lost on me with their frantic absurdism and potty humor. I did have an urge to get some colored pencils and have a go at coloring in some of her detailed line work though, but alas, it is a library copy of the book.

[fatma · Rating 2 out of 5]

i love weird books, but this was just too weird to be enjoyable (or, in some cases, comprehensible)

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read I Want You in the way I always seem to read Hanawalt’s work—in one sitting, sinking deeper into her absurdist sense of humor as the book goes on. As I rate this book five stars and notice others reviews I am reminded of when my book club read Hot Dog Taste Test. The entire discussion I knew I had enjoyed the book more than anyone else there but couldn’t quite describe what made me like it so much. A few years, several seasons of Bojack Horseman, the cancellation and revival of Tuca and Bertie and countless episodes of Baby Geniuses later, I can say this is fully my cup of tea. I understand that it’s not for everyone and with the work in I Want You being so much more detailed than in her other collections the slightly off now feels fully grotesque. That being said, I read this in an afternoon and immediately reached for her other books because I wanted more when it was over. Hanawalt’s observations make me giggle as much as they make me feel less alone in my own strange thoughts.

[Jo Red · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had so much fun with this. Anthropomorphic animals, all those hats and the sex shop visit had me laughing out loud. It was just so wonderfully weird. Still not sure what an erotic hat is, though...

[Jessica Haider · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

ODD. Filthy. Funny. Enough said.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Hanawalt's work for a long time, but recently have focused more on her TV shows. It was a pleasure to revisit unadulterated Hanawalt, which is much weirder and grosser than the TV shows which I assume are diluted by other people's input!

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one for subtlety, Hanawalt gives us a lot of naughty here with anthropomorphic animals engaging in lots of inappropriate stuff. Some pretty funny work in here but not for the feint of heart.

[Nacie]

Read this in a park lying on a mound of grass with little flowers after eating some of the best dim sum of my life. That already made the experience. It was fun to see beginning work of the bojack and tuca/bertie designer // creator. The style and animal humans and crass humor and sex bugs were hers from the start. Not always funny but definitely of someone specific’s mind. Makes me wonder who else has these pieces they’re starting now that will become something huge someday. Some people are consistent like that.

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Tuca and Bertie so I enjoyed seeing the precursor to that art. It was raunchy and wild with an art style that is at once beautiful and creepy! I enjoyed flipping through it but I did find a couple comic strips that just didn't hit home with me. I would definitely recommend to anyone wanted q quick and weird read!

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wish I could get into Hanawalt's comics the same way I got into Bojack Horseman. I think the draw for me is having everything be a part of the larger story, so even though I liked some parts of this, it was too disconnected for me.

[Avolyn Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like weird but this was a little too weird and for seemingly little reason and cheap payoffs. Maybe I just didn't get it. No laugh out loud. A couple smirks. The drawings are something to behold though, pure talent.

[Jordan Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. Emotionally rich. V horny. Lisa is a genius.

[Savannah Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

it is horny, it is weird, it is very lisa hanawalt

[Alyson Podesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

pregaming season 2 of tuca and bertie

[Sarah Guldenbrein · Rating 5 out of 5]

So unhinged. Checked it out from the library with no expectations and oh my god. What a trip. I kept thinking that she's like R. Crumb for millennial women. Into it.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ouvrage pour le moins surprenant, la créativité de Lisa est impressionnante! J'ai quand même pris plaisir à le lire mais sans plus, je recommanderais quelques passages!

[Jemmie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Is it still considered an anxiety disorder if I'm having a good time?"
Lovely illustrated reflections featuring anthropomorphic animals on being young, horny, gross, and mentally disordered

[Sam Bourgault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weird, sexual and funny. Can’t wait to read more of Lisa Hanawalt.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gross (and at times horrific) but in a good way. Makes me want to rewatch Bojack but I’m not sure I’m ready.

[Rick Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filthy and hilarious, just like me!

[vos]

De thema's en kunststijl waren niet helemaal aan mij besteed helaas maar slee

[Bianca Alagon · Rating 5 out of 5]

talented artist horse girl makes dick and titty jokes. for those bojack horseman enthusiasts

[Maeve Elder · Rating 5 out of 5]

please, Lisa, be my friend

[Kirsten Cutts · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was… not for me

[J. Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Bitch, you’re a fucking wild card” is now the affirmation I’ll give to everyone I love.

[elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like her other books: absurd, filthy, and hilarious.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

HUGE FOR WEIRD WOMEN OUT THERE

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

OMG, Lisa Hanawalt is amazingly absurd. Like, laugh out loud while also saying "This is so bizarre!" Girl is crazy. Crude, but funny.

[Jack Lyell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lisa Hanawalt's stories are not "on crack". Lisa Hanawalt's stories are your horniest dreams you had when you were pubescent, ill as hell, and on so much grape-flavored Benadryl that you felt your brain was melting out of your burning skull. I mean, assuming that "you" in this hypothetical is also a raging furry with a killer wit. Which hey, no comment.

I feel like this collection is damaged for me for the same reason I want "I want you"-- I know and love the work of Lisa Hanawalt. I've seen her do sex bugs in Tuca and Bertie, I've seen He-Horse come back around, and the more developed versions of these ideas have more appeal to me-- she is raw here, and often rawly comical (things we did last night can do me, last night, or in a future night, this is an ongoing proposal) but the lack of restraint doesn't build up the same ethos which makes her future stories so compelling. As is, maybe just a tad too juvenile or too far for me. But if anyone is, again, pubescent, ill as hell, a furry, horny, on Benadryl, burning alive... I found this great collection for you.