Whack Your Porcupine, and Other Drawings

by B. Kliban

A collection of whacky cartoons, some in narrative sequence and some in broken series, poke and pummel convention, cliches, and contentions of the day

Genres: Humor, Comics, Cartoon, Art, Nonfiction, Comic Strips, Comix

250 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1977

About the author

Bernard "Hap" Kliban was a popular American cartoonist. He became an instant cartoon sensation after the publication of his groundbreaking book Cat in 1975. Some forty years after their initial appearance, Kliban’s quirky, colorful cat illustrations are adored icons and cherished friends of fans worldwide. One of the top cartoonists of the 20th century, Kliban contributed work to national magazines for over 30 years.

Reviews

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently the inventor of single panel gags as we know them. Two-thirds idiotic or sleazy puns, a three-tenths jokes I just don’t understand fifty years on, and a residue of pure genius, wordless and timeless. Obviously not PC, but in a very innocent way which it would take devotion to the bit to feel attacked by. The Turk sequence is moving, sordid, confusing, great, a different artist.

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[Dominick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book looms large in my personal mythology. I first read it as a teen, probably, and it was mind-expanding. Kliban is the first absurdist cartoonist I read, and still arguably the best (not that that's a huge field). His strips are bizarre, disorienting, alienating, disturbing, strange, often impenetrable, and usually hilarious--sometimes because they are impenetrable. They capture the absurdity of life with a wry and unsentimental eye. I hadn't realized until rereading it what an influence Kliban must have been on Gary Larson--another of the great absurdist cartoonists. Kliban is especially fond of attacking the rational impulse, as reflected in his many cartoons offering absurd pseudo-scientific charts and figures, but often the governing spirit is simply whimsy or wordplay--Kliban is especially fond of puns and wordplay, leading to various hilarious strips ("Chewing Guam," "Brethren and Cistern," etc)--or sheer transgressiveness; though nothing here is pornographic by any stretch, Kliban clearly had a fearless wit and did not hesitate to explore sex and the body. Unsurprisingly from that perspective, perhaps, he did a lot of cartoons for Playboy, but there's generally nothing sexy or salacious about a Kliban cartoon, even when it is about sex (or smut). Anyway, highly recommended to anyone who likes edgy, thought-provoking absurd cartoons.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

B Kliban was a genius of cartoon art. Aside from practically single-handedly inventing the absurdist cat cartoon genre, his other books from the late 70s all advanced the cause of avant-garde cartooning, and are all stil well worth seeking out today.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is even filthier than his others, which is why it owns. Dirty and sexual humor are great guilty pleasures of mine and have been since I was a teenager, so if you're like me, go out and read this book.

[Silas · Rating 2 out of 5]

My wife found this book at a charity shop, and decided it looked interesting enough to buy for around a dollar. I enjoyed reading several vintage cartoon books from when I was a child, and my dad had some library surplus books lying around. We didn't really know what to expect from having flipped through it, but apparently missed the thread of risqué drawings, which form roughly a third of the book. Almost all of the comics are a single page, and most are a single panel. There is an exception of weird, somewhat channeled drawings in a series about a Turkish character that don't properly have a narrative, but do feature the same character as a focus for around a dozen pages. Many of the books are simple puns based on common phrases or classic advertising, many of which I only recognize as a reader of old comics, since this book is older than I am by a few years. Some others are more non-sequitur things designed to make you wonder what is happening. Many of them are kind of basic and not all that interesting, but occasionally one will be quite amusing. Those are not all that common. Much of it is based on the author's desire to draw titillating images, or grotesque caricatures, and the art, although a tad unrefined is often quite good. I don't think there was really any sort of editing on this book, and a bit more would have improved it, but as an early progenitor of the format, it is an interesting document.

[Aaron Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw this on the counter at a bar and started leafing through with no knowledge of the author. It took a minute to realize just how strange this point of view was but once it kicked in I was hooked. I've always been a fan of the more absurdist/abstract Far Side and this is ALL that, like Gary Larson went "I love these Kliban pieces and I bet if I just copied him and dialed back the strange I could make a fortune."

[John Reis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this as part of a boxed set for Christmas when I was a kid. I found it hilarious. It very likely helped form my sense of humor.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

WEIRD book. Very odd. Half of it didn't even make sense. It was a quick read, but it was a complete waste of my time.

[Todd N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this and the Cat book at a used book store in Menlo Park. Actually my son found them, and was cracking up reading through them. The cartoons in the two books are sort of a proto-Far Side, so I can see why he liked them so much.

I didn't realize how much adult material there was in the book until we got home and I read it. This book may quietly disappear for a few years until he's old enough to read it. I hate to be a Puritan about it, but since reading it he's been rather fond of saying, "Grandma's titty," from one of the silly rhyming cartoons.

[David Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whack Your Porcupine and Other Drawings by B. Kliban (Workman Publishing Co. 1977)(741.5073). Before Gary Larsen dreamed up the comic "The Far Side", the standard for comic strip lunacy was set by B. Kliban. This is one of his best collections, and it is laugh-out-loud funny! My rating: 7.5/10, finished 1977.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh well, at the risk of being like everybody else in the world (since I'm sure EVERYONE will agree w/ me), this is a very, very funny bk. I hope that some day I'm standing around at a cocktail party, drinking Mai Tais, & that B. Kliban appears & we start talking about sports or motor mechanics.

[Lisa Macklem · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Gary Larsen wrote for playboy... Some of these were hilarious, many just not my cup of tea, and some just made me shrug - a product of their times or maybe that playboy sensibility. Beautifully drawn.

[Deke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired mayhem. This kind of irreverent, unexpected humor is more common now than when this book was published, and yet this collection of wild wacky and witty drawings still rises above.