| Garfield: Tons of Fun – His 29th Book A common theme can be detected in the funnier strips of this volume. Around this point in Garfield’s history, the strip was emerging from a long slump of unfunnyness. The humor of the first few years of novelty had worn off, and several boring years followed. This book is situated in a time period in which the strip was again becoming entertaining by redefining itself with a new kind of funny. While the majority of the strips blend in with the rest of the comics page as mundane and rather unappealing, several break away from the crowd in various ways. The first method is the physical gag. At this point in his career, Jim Davis still had enough original ideas of the physical outrageous, bizarre, and comical to craft strips solely around a funny picture in the last frame. Much more rare are the strips that manage to simply craft a clever joke, often combined with a humorous image, to appeal on multiple levels. While this is technically the ideal of what a comic strip should be, this is not the niche for Garfield – at least not in this edition. Where the best comics in this volume shine through are in Davis’ Far Side-esque usage of the truly bizarre. Though he doesn’t display the mastery of Gary Larson, Davis has repeatedly crafted strips throughout this volume that take a normal concept and turn it into something completely twisted – be it a squirrel-maiming cat, vomiting mice, or a pitcher of cream with horns and an udder. This bending of the normal is often combined with an “off screen” technique in which we are presented with part of the joke and left to imagine what is happening on our own. This generally serves the strip well, by letting us create a mental image that is quite likely funnier (and more appealing to our individual imaginations) than something crafted by a cartoonist. While I feel that Garfield, now in its 27th year of printing is due to retire, at this point in his career, Jim Davis was still enough in touch with his comedic side to make a satisfactory product. 1/11/95 – Amusing, primarily due to the novelty of a spider being killed by a box of cough drops. 1/8 1/12/95 – By this time the spider killer trend in Garfield was already a bit cliché, however, the ominous laughter of a spider that has been crushed by a newspaper is simply bizarre enough to make me laugh. 2/8 1/15/95 – Low level, physical humor. Not the best physical humor the strip offers, but it’s a goofy enough image to be entertaining. 1/8 1/19/95 – Memorably amusing. It isn’t laugh out loud funny, but it’s the right level of bizarre to spring into mind for absolutely no reason one day and make you chuckle to yourself at work. 4/8 1/26/95 – A good physical gag. A Loony Tunes-esque “sproing!!!” noise comes to mind as you imagine Garfield’s eyes suddenly popping out to enormous size. 2/8 1/28/95 – This one is really solidified by the well-rendered dog struggling for the bone. However, the real humor comes from Garfield’s devilish torture of this poor mutt. A cunning combination of both physical and intellectual humor yields a 5/8 1/29/95 – A slow buildup, but a suitably entertaining punch line simply because of its oddness. Piranhas in the toilet being considered blasé are suitably eyebrow raising to make me smile. 3/8 |
| Okay, here's how this works. I went through all of Garfield: Tons of Fun - His 29th Book. In addition to writing a general review of the book, I picked out only the strips that were entertaining in some way. The lame ones were ignored. I then gave a review and score to each: 1 or 2: These comics are usually simple phsyical jokes. They are amusing, but not funny. This is the most basic level of comics that are at least worth reading. 3 or 4: Usually somewhat more sophisticated humor than just funny drawings. These usually don't make you laugh out loud, but should make you smile wide or chuckle under your breath. This is where the funny begins. 5 or 6: If you find one, you're lucky. These must engage the reader in such a way to generate a truly satisfying belly laugh. They can often be simple jokes, but generally construct a situation to frame and enhance the comedy. 7: One of the best comic strips you will ever see. Either outright hilarious or for some reason a master work in the field. 8: Comic perfection. These exceedingly rare strips offer not only superior content, but artistic style as well. To me, they make the argument that comic strips don't have to be just entertainment - they can be art as well. These will probably only come from Calvin and Hobbes or Bloom County (if i ever get that far). If you have the book, or some other archive, read along and find the best examples. Otherwise...encourage me to rate your favorite comic strip collection. |