The Perry Bible Fellowship

The Perry Bible Fellowship

Nicholas Gurewitch

Gag Strips

R

This is perhaps the most graphically disturbing comic I have ever read. I laugh hard, but in that "Should I be laughing? Seriously, should I? Am I going to hell for reading this?" kinda way. Each strip is stand alone, and there are no main characters. Think The Far Side or Herman.

The humor is sometimes extreme. An example: lad says, "Boy, I'd sell my soul for a puppy." *Pop!* Puppy appears. A couple of panels with a happy lad enjoying a day with his lovely puppy follow. The last panel shows the boy being horribly tortured in Hell. If this does not make you laugh, I would highly suggest that you don't click on the link. If it does, you are a little sick. Don't worry, you are in fine company. The author is popular enough to have published a collection of PDF comics.

The first few strips kinda stumble around silly sex jokes. It doesn't really take off with humor until the artist starts playing with all those ideas we are told as children; magical creatures are real, children are innocent, beauty is pure. The most horrifying and hilarious strips of the comic feel like a children's bedtime story that took a wrong turn somewhere.

While frequently the artist just draws a couple of fleshed-out stick figures, every now and then he pulls off artwork that is impressive. Again, following the theme that childhood innocence is a crock, the artwork looks like something you'd see in a classic children's book. From Dick and Jane to Edward Gory, to the best of the Golden Books series, he can copy all sorts of styles.

I really like this one. I think that says a lot about my personality.

Copper

Copper

Kazu Kibuishi

Fantastic Voyages of the Kid Kind

G

Copper is a visually stunning comic. Brightly colored and beautifully drawn in a cartoony style, Copper follows the adventures of the title character, Copper, and his dog Fred through a dream landscape. In the tradition of Little Nemo, Copper explores a world that he can only reach when he is asleep.

There is very little storyline in this comic, and each page is a minute story of discovery. There is a slight preachy air to the comic, usually along the lines of "enjoy every minute of life," but it doesn't taint the comic as a whole. Fred usually embodies the idea of missing out on the simple joys of life, but he faithfully follows Copper through his mental wildernesses.

My only complaint is that the artist updates far too infrequently. The updates are usually monthly, but it took over a year for the last update to be published. However, the artist has quite a few projects going on, including a number of print versions of Copper episodes, and a print comic called Amulet. If his online comic is any example of his work as a whole, I'll look into his print comics as well. Amulet certainly looks intriguing.