Chewing Gum in Church

Yikes!

by Steven Weissman

Cruel was never so cute, or so funny, in this all-ages gem.

Chewing Gum In Church is the new "Yikes" book by Steven Weissman, starring "Sweet" Chubby Cheeks, Kid Medusa, the Pullapart Boy, Elzie Crisler, Dead Boy, X-Ray Spence and, of course, Li'l Bloody. This cast, having survived enough adventures to fill three mass-market paperbacks (see below), now "settles" into a daily routine of cruelty, failure, jealousy, bitterness, gluttony, sloth, violence, arrogance, and stupidity. But especially stupidity.

Having written short stories ( Don't Call Me Stupid ), long stories ( Champs ) and every kind of story in between ( White Flower Day ) for his famous "Yikes" characters, Weissman has recently stripped his creation down to a classic, four-panel strip structure.

This is Weissman's first full-color book, which is hard to imagine for an artist so renowned for his color sense. His artwork has never been more beautiful and assured, and his writing has never been as sharp or funny.

Chewing Gum In Church , the fourth book in the "Yikes" series, is simultaneously more dense and accessible than any previous volume. First time "Yikes" readers will be delighted by Weissman's "cuter than cute" drawingsdrawings that treat each other so terribly. Longtime fans, on the other hand, will certainly find this book to be tremendous addition to their library of Li'l Bloody and the Pullapart Boy's adventures.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Steven Knight Weissman (born June 4, 1968, in California) is an alternative cartoonist.
Weissman was the recipient of the Harvey Kurtzman Award for Best New Talent in 1998 and he is best known for his offbeat and bizarre explorations of childhood friendships. He is the author of a number of books, including Barack Hussein Obama (2012), Butter and Blood (2015) and the series of graphic novels Yikes! (1999-2008). His work has been published by Fantagraphics, Retrofit Comics, Nickelodeon, Vice, Mad Magazine and more.
Weissman lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and son.

Reviews

[Dave Riley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Forced. An acquired taste. But some good pages in the interludes told.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Weissman's art and visual experimentations, but as a gag comic it's just not funny enough. Heavily Peanuts inspired but with an odd use of monster archetypes for the children. It never made sense to me why they were monsters. Anyway, there were some funny bits, but overall it was a underwhelming. I remember trying to read Weissman's much talked about Barack Hussein Obama when it was released (when I was in high school lol) and I felt similarly. Was that a joke? Huh? The visuals in both this and that are very strong. I hate to feel like the writing is so aloof.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty off-the-wall with a few laugh-out-loud moments

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ever watch a comedian that just toed the line of bombing hard and being kind of funny? This is the comic version of that.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

.... weird. Like a slight variation on Charlie Brown that I didn't quite understand?

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the creepy/monster theme of this comic, but the jokes just weren't that funny.