December 2019 BotM - Comics for a Strange World: A Book of Poorly Drawn Lines

[Mike, Host & Producer of IRCB!]

What did you think of Comics for a Strange World: A Book of Poorly Drawn Lines? Any other comics like this that you would recommend?

[Adam]

--Ok to air--
I follow a fair amount of web-comics like this (humor comics?) on Webtoon, Instagram and their websites. "Poorly Drawn Lines" by Reza Farazmand has been one of my favorites for a while and I was really glad they were being printed. (fwiw a second book just came out Poorlier Drawn Lines)

The art, as advertised, is very simple (or poor by the author's own admission) and that's one of the things I love about it. (also, I would make the argument that Reza's art has gotten better/cleaner as he's continued to make this comic, proving that practice really does make perfect. or at least better) There are a lot of animals having very human problems/conversations. It's a lot of dry and deadpan humor. Something about a very round bear and a turtle that's just a collection of circles makes roommate disagreements funnier.

I'm not sorry I did this to you all. I'm drunk with the power of my suggestion being voted book of the month! NOW READ MY SUGGESTED READINGS IF YOU ENJOYED THIS!!!

http://www.poorlydrawnlines.com/
Herding Cats
Bluechair
Buni: Happiness Is a State of Mind
Safely Endangered Comics
False Knees: An Illustrated Guide to Animal Behavior
Books of Adam: The Blunder Years

[Zedsdead]

There are plenty of examples of "poor" art combining with excellent humor. Dilbert, South Park, xkcd spring to mind. Something about minimalism can make funny things even funnier sometimes.

[Ed]

OK to Air.

Since this is basically a series of unconnected jokes, I can't find much to say about it. I did enjoy what I read, but just have nothing to say.

I'd find it easier to talk about something with an ongoing story. There are plenty of web comics like that.

I read one of the other nominated books: Woman World, and liked it. Thanks for that nomination. It is also a series of short jokes, but they are loosely connected as a story.

I'd already read and loved O Human Star, Quantum Vibe, Girl Genius, Digger, and more....

[Ed]

Zedsdead wrote: "... minimalism can make funny things even funnier sometimes."

True. Also Cyanide and Happiness.

[Nancy]

This collected book of comic strips from the Poorly Drawn Lines website was the December pick for the I Read Comics Books bookclub. It was amusing, with minimalist drawings with typically four to five panels. However, the simple drawings don't necessarily mean simple ideas, as many of the strips were very clever with sly humor. Two animals showed up over and over again, a large green bear and a bluebird that looked suspiciously like the Pigeon from Mo Willem's children's books, that were funnier than if a human character said the same thing. My favorite strips were the baby that plagiarized, the shapes club, asteroid plans, planets talking about life ("it's when a bunch of tiny organisms do sex on you") and the longer astronauts in a cave story. The author Reza Farazmand now joins Sarah Andersen's Sarah's Scribbles and Nick Seluk's Heart and Brain comics that I follow on Twitter for their insightful jokes.

[Lenny]

Ok to air

I'm not sure where I land on this. I appreciate Farazmand's minimalist art, that didn't bother me at all. It's a great style for webcomics, and would probably have made a good newspaper strip comic back in the day too.

Farazmand seems to mostly focus on humanity at large and most especially our current state of technology, with animals as a funny proxy. They're topics that will likely be understood and appreciated by everyone, as opposed to other themes like gender, politics and other current-event humor.

The humor itself was amusing, especially the animals pretending to be humans, and having recurring characters made a nice pattern even if there wasn't an overarching narrative. Overall, I chuckled a few times, but I didn't laugh out loud like Woman World (thanks Ed, that was my rec! and Dhaliwal’s new Cyclops instagram series is delightful) or Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant. I got the jokes, it just wasn't a style of humor that resonated as much with me.

But also, I think humor in comics is a really, really hard thing to accomplish, regardless of what *kind* of humor is right for you. You're essentially creating comedic timing in the space between panels, and the joke has to have both visual and written strength for it to land. I've seen it a lot, and seen it done well a lot, and I really respect those folks who are able to somehow make it work, because I have no idea how they do it. So I appreciate that this book *does* land for people even if it wasn't my cup of tea.

I guess it's a true three star rating for me. Not bad, but not great either.