I Love You, I Hate You, I'm Hungry: A Collection of Cartoons

by Bruce Eric Kaplan

• Distinctive humor from a well-known Bruce Eric Kaplan is one of the most popular cartoonists at The New Yorker . Known for his observational sense of humor and distinctive design, Kaplan’s work plays on modern foibles, juxtaposing droll, slice-of-life dialogue with slightly surreal situations. .

• Just in time for Valentine’s This latest collection from Kaplan employs his trademark incisive wit on the volatile passions and comic banalities that plague relationships of all kinds. As Kaplan notes in the Introduction, “everything we do, we do for one of three because we love someone, because we hate someone, or because we’re hungry.” No one can argue with that, or anything else in this wickedly funny new collection..

Genres: Humor, Graphic Novels, Cartoon, Comics, Adult

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Bruce Eric Kaplan, known as BEK, is an American cartoonist whose single-panel cartoons frequently appear in The New Yorker. His cartoons are known for their signature simplistic style and often dark humor. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and has worked on Six Feet Under and on Seinfeld (funnily enough, one of his most well-known episodes is one where Elaine becomes increasingly frustrated over what she takes to be an utterly nonsensical cartoon in The New Yorker). He graduated from Wesleyan University where he studied with Professor Jeanine Basinger.

Kaplan joined the crew of Six Feet Under during the first season in 2001 as a supervising producer. He scripted two episodes of the first season – "The Foot" and "The New Person". He was promoted to co-executive producer for the second season in 2002 and wrote a further two episodes – "The Invisible Woman" and "The Secret". He remained a co-executive producer for the third season in 2003 and wrote a further episode entitled "The Trap". He was promoted to executive producer for the fourth season in 2004 and wrote another episode "The Dare". He served as executive producer during the fifth and final season and wrote his last episode "The Silence". Kaplan wrote seven episodes in total for the series.

He has authored and illustrated six adult titles for Simon & Schuster: the cult classic The Cat That Changed My Life; the collections, I Love You, I Hate You, I'm Hungry, No One You Know and This is a Bad Time; and Every Person on the Planet and Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, both featuring the wonderfully neurotic Brooklyn couple, Edmund & Rosemary. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau]

When you think about it...this kind of covers what drives what we do on any given day. If you need a good laugh after a hard day at work this book is for you.

[Kate]

"Let's go somewhere fun and not really experience it."

"Everyone needs nice things to get sick of."

[foundfoundfound]

"new yorker" readers, if they're honest, will tell you the bek toon is the first thing they look for in the magazine. in the world of toons there is no one better. it's all in the dialogue.

[Jennifer]

I thought I'd try a comic book for something different. I don't even remember how this was recommended to me. Maybe from one of the graphic novels I'd read awhile back.

Anyway, I wasn't at all familiar with this artist, his comics, his sense of humor. I have to say this wasn't for me. Most of the comics I just don't get. I understand them, but they really aren't all that funny to me. I'd rather stick with Gary Larson's The Far Side, or Calvin and Hobbes.

[Bant]

I Love You, I Hate You, I’m Hungry is a collection of cartoons from New Yorker cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan. Most of the cartoons involve relationships. There’s wordplay and absurdity, but mostly there are just simple line drawings stating those things we only think about.

These drawings, all single-paned, mostly with single-line “jokes,” remind me of popular sites like Postsecret, F*** My Life, My Life is Average, and of the Bunny Suicide books. They revel in saying the things we keep bottled inside. Sometimes it's cruel. Mostly it's hilarious, honest, and timely. They work on many levels. There is a lot of sadness in their truth, but isn't that what makes them so damn funny? Takes aim at our superficiality and our over-rationalizing oversensitivity. They are about how we distance ourselves, whether by corporate structure or social media. They were always surprising, laugh-out loud funny, and the number of them means that at least a few if not all of them will connect with readers.

[Debi]

This book is wry. There are some pages that did make me laugh audibly, but there were more that drew an "I hear that."

Both my husband and I enjoyed the book.

To be honest, it takes fewer than 10 minutes to read so it's a great way to pad my reading goal a bit.

[Tom Romig]

Just what the world needs now! For example:

http://imgc-cn.artprintimages.com/ima...

[Jackie]

Light(in a dark humor kind of way) and funny and now filled with little post-it strips for some of the cartoons I've just got to photocopy and put up on the wall!

[Liz White]

one of my favorite New Yorker cartoonists. Turns out he has a lot of cartoon books out, many if not most of which are at the Seattle Public Library. yay!

[Melinda]

I love the last comic on the back of the book: We thought it was a rough patch, but it turned out to be our life.

[(Mellifluous Grant)]

Quirky fun read. Very honest and worth it for a giggle or two.

[Jane]

A collection of cartoons by Kaplan, whose work frequently appears in The New Yorker. Absolutely loved reading these! Sample: couple is walking down hallway approaching apartment door and woman says to the man, “She already had someone taking care of dessert. We’ll be bringing forced gaiety.”

[Sukhmani's Reading Corner]

Very cute!

[Jaydin Faz]

I gave this book a 3 out of 5 star rating because i felt that this book not a amazing book. The them of the book is that sometimes you need something or someone. Two examples of this is in his author's not and cartoons, The first example is when he is talking about the meaning of his book and he tells us what he means by I'm hungry, he tells us it is about attention or something we need emotionally or physically. The second example is in the cartoon when the lady is saying how she missed someone. I believed the author is saying that you need thing to survive life. One element that symbolizes this book is people saying that they're hungry after they just ate. This book is a small thing that shows us that there is more to life then what we can see.

[Art]

These single panel cartoons are edgy. There are several that I read and thought, "Well, I would never have said that out loud, but I have darn sure thought it before." Unsurprisingly sarcasm abounds in this collection. It was not the best collection I've ever read, but it was an amusing way to kill an hour or so.

[Briana]

A collection of cartoons...good for a chuckle.

The author's biography made me laugh out loud:
"Bruce Eric Kaplan is somewhere in Los Angeles having problems with whatever his reality is at this moment."

[Tattered Cover Book Store]

Jackie says:

Light(in a dark humor kind of way) and funny and now filled with little post-it strips for some of the cartoons I've just got to photocopy and put up on the wall!

[Cody]

I've always wondered what it is that motivates us as humans. Now I know; love, hate, and hunger. Personally I think it's hunger 95% of the time and the other 5% is our need to poop.

Funny stuff!

[Bill Gordon]

Brilliantly witty collection of cartoons. You'll recognize Kaplan's work if you glance at the New Yorker now and then.

[Jeimy]

It's a good collection with a handful of funny cartoons.