humor

Hardcover. New York, Quill William Morrow, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Non-paginated. Softcover with paper wrappers. Black and white drawings by Callahan throughout. Tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Ars Edition, 1st US, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial glazed boards. Approximately 5 3/4" x 4 3/4", 18 pages. English version by June Head. Bohatta was a Austrian writer/artist whose titles were republished in the U.S. in small printings. Charming color illustrations. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Bulfinch Press, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Non-paginated. Hardcover with dust jacket. Bright color illustrations by Keith Haring. Clean, tight copy, minor wear to edges. Dust jacket has moderate wear on bottom edge, including small tear.

Hardcover. NY, Hyperion, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 112 pages. There's English, of course, and Hebrew, and let's not forget Yiddish and Ladino. But the language Jews have mastered is saying one thing and meaning another. And after a while, everyone understands the real meaning of the "lie." Esther Cohen has been listening all her life. She's written down what she's heard, and the result is this small book with a big punch: the first ever list of these subtle (sort of), sly (very), and hilarious Jewish "lies." New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast is a master interpreter of lies herself--bringing this particular set to life in her inimitably quirky style. Don't Mind Me is a unique compilation of all-too-familiar phrases guaranteed to make you smile. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, American Heritage Press, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket. Gary Trudeau's first book of Doonesbury cartoons, which originally appeared in the Yale Record and Yale Daily News. Subtitled: The popular cartoon strip featuring B.D., star Quarterback; Megaphone Mark, campus radical; and Michael J. Doonesbury, would-be lover. Written and illustrated by G.B. (Gary) Trudeau; foreword by Erich Segal. Dust jacket with light edge wear, clean copy.

Hardcover. Kansas City, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 320 pages. Everyone who grew up entertained, provoked, and enlightened by Dr. Seuss books will love this big, color-saturated volume covering 70 years of published and private art by the master of smart, loopy fun. Here are examples of Theodor Geisel's clever, now ironic advertising work, including a rambunctious campaign for Flit, an insecticide containing DDT. Geisel's political cartoons and magazine illustrations are animated by his phenomenal gift for line and color, mischievous humor, and humanitarian values. It is thrilling, too, to see the original drawings for Green Eggs and Ham and other Seuss classics. But the big discoveries in this bountiful and redefining volume are his "Midnight Paintings," surreal watercolors, oils, and acrylics featuring tiny figures in a vast, labyrinthine world, and private versions of his expressive characters, especially the Cat, his alternate identity. Geisel's vibrant, trippy, hilarious, and poignant art plays on Hieronymus Bosch, M. C. Escher, and Persian miniatures. Every creature, plant, architectural marvel, object, and landscape is wriggling, leaping, flying, arcing, tilting, and rolling. When he dives into abstraction, he plunges into a deep chromatic sea, while his taxidermic sculptures prove just how real his sweet and goofy invented critters were to him. Spectacular reproductions and excellent, if episodic, commentary map Geisel's exuberant, world-altering artistic journey on what he would call "long wiggled roads" into "weirdish wild space."

Hardcover. Middle Village, NY, Jonathan David Publishers, reprint, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 368 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Extensive b&w illustrations throughout. Gilt titles on spine. Light edge wear to dust jacket, otherwise clean, tight copy. Featuring hundreds of gems that delight the eye as well as the heart, Drawing a Crowd brings together the best of the work of distinguished New York Daily News cartoonist Bill Gallo. Laugh, ponder, even shed a tear as Bill, Basement Bertha, Yuchie, and the rest of the Gallo cast of characters relive the most memorable sports moments of the past forty years and share some little-known things about some very well-known people. Here, you'll experience the magnificence of a Michael Jordan and the reticence of a Sandy Koufax, the fury of a Vince Lombardi and the dignity of an Arthur Ashe, the grace of a Nancy Kerrigan and the majesty of a Sugar Ray Robinson. In Drawing a Crowd, you'll also come to know the personal Gallo: the eleven-year-old who suddenly lost a father; the resilient young man who landed a job as a News copyboy; the Marine who saw comrades fall on the black sands of Iwo Jima; the gentleman's gentleman who has earned the respect and friendship of the greats of our time. Peppered with the artists unique perspective, good-natured wit, and reminiscences on everyone from Ali to Joe D, Sinatra to Stengel, Torre to Trump, Broadway Joe to Johnny U, Drawing a Crowd demonstrates why Bill Gallo, long a New York secret, is truly a national treasure.

Hardcover. Montgomery AL, Elliot & Clark Publishing, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 164 pages, b&w cartoons throughout. Chronicles the nation's highs and lows in an extensive collection of cartoons that span the entire history of American political cartooning. The authors note that not all cartoonists have worn white hats many have perpetuated demeaning ethnic stereotypes, slandered honest politicians, and oversimplified complex issues. Nonetheless, most cartoonists pride themselves on attacking honestly, if ruthlessly. This collection humorously recounts some direct hits, recalling the discomfort of the cartoon's targets and the delight of their readers. Spine label otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Liveright, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 272 pages. Who could have imagined that in 1972, when Aline Kominsky, a Long Island escapee and bodaciously talented artist, broke her foot one rainy fall day, it would result in the most unique collaboration in comics history? Laid up in her house, she was persuaded by R. Crumb, her nerdy, neurotic boyfriend, to pass the time drawing together a "two-man" comic. The result is a jaw-dropping yet tender account, not only of the joys and challenges of a legendary marriage but also of the obstacles faced by struggling female artists. In Drawn Together, our foremost male-female cartooning couple recall their success at shocking America with Weirdo Magazine, the life-altering birth of their precocious daughter Sophie, and their astonishing move to the safe haven of France. With an irresistible introduction and a striking four-color section, Drawn Together becomes a graphic cause-celebre and a must-have for any comics devotee.

Hardcover. London, Knockabout Comics, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 264 pages. Hardcover, no dust jacket issued. Extensive b&w and color illustrations by the two Crumbs. Illustrated paste downs and end papers. Includes appendix of portraits. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. From its first issue in April, 1970, the National Lampoon blazed like a comet, defining comedy as we know it today. To create Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, former Lampoon illustrator Rick Meyerowitz selected the funniest material from the magazine and sought out the survivors of its first electrifying decade to gather their most revealing and outrageous stories. The result is a mind-boggling tour through the early days of an institution whose alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture: Animal House, Caddyshack, Saturday Night Live, Ghostbusters, SCTV, Spinal Tap, In Living Color, Ren & Stimpy, The Simpsons--even Sesame Street counts a few Lampooners among its ranks. 320 pages, mostly color.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 320 pages. From its first issue in April, 1970, the National Lampoon blazed like a comet, defining comedy as we know it today. To create Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, former Lampoon illustrator Rick Meyerowitz selected the funniest material from the magazine and sought out the survivors of its first electrifying decade to gather their most revealing and outrageous stories. The result is a mind-boggling tour through the early days of an institution whose alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture: Animal House, Caddyshack, Saturday Night Live, Ghostbusters, SCTV, Spinal Tap, In Living Color, Ren & Stimpy, The Simpsons--even Sesame Street counts a few Lampooners among its ranks. Long before there was The Onion and Comedy Central news shows, there was the National Lampoon, setting the bar in comedy impossibly high!

Softcover. London, Tate Publishing, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 248 pages, color and b&w illustrations. This book examines the work of Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia, three pioneering figures in the history of modernism. It explores the points of convergence and the parallels in their development throughout their careers. Central to this is their response to photography and film, and to the challenges posed to fine art by the development of mass production. Duchamp's paintings of 1911-12 were influenced by the representation of movement in photography, while Picabia's were shaped in part by the belief that the advent of the camera spelled the end of traditional painting. Man Ray used photography first to record his own art works and those of others, but soon saw in it a means of creating images of a status and inventiveness traditionally restricted to fine art. And, as this fully illustrated book shows, humor and eroticism were themes common to the work of all three artists.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 268 pages. The question of what it takes "to be a man" comes under scrutiny in this sharp, often playful, cultural critique of the German duel--the deadliest type of one-on-one combat in fin-de-siecle Europe. At a time when dueling was generally restricted to swords or had been abolished altogether in other nations, the custom of fighting to the death with pistols flourished among Germany's upper-class males, who took perverse comfort in defying their country's weakly enforced laws. From initial provocation to final death agony, Kevin McAleer describes with ironic humor the complex protocol of the German duel, inviting his reader into the disturbing mindset of its practitioners and the society that valued this socially important but ultimately absurd pastime. Clean copy.

Hardcover. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 246 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Beautiful copy in a dust jacket, Like new. "Mucking up the pages of the New Yorker , the New York Times , Rolling Stone , Forbes , the Atlantic Monthly , Blab , and more, Gary Baseman has populated the finest publications with his inimitable brand of illustration. Now Dumb Luck , presents the first complete collection of his work, spanning more than ten years. According to Baseman himself, his art inhabits "that muddy spot where the line between genius and stupidity has been smudged beyond recognition."

San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 246 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Beautiful copy in a dust jacket, Like new. "Mucking up the pages of the New Yorker , the New York Times , Rolling Stone , Forbes , the Atlantic Monthly , Blab , and more, Gary Baseman has populated the finest publications with his inimitable brand of illustration. Now Dumb Luck , presents the first complete collection of his work, spanning more than ten years. According to Baseman himself, his art inhabits "that muddy spot where the line between genius and stupidity has been smudged beyond recognition."

Hardcover. NY, Schwartz & Wade, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY ZELINSKY on title page. Dust Devil received four starred reviews and was named a New York Times Notable Children's Book of the Year and an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Winner. Children will be captivated by the beauty and exaggerated humor of Paul Zelinsky's American primitive-style paintings and the wit and energy of Anne Isaacs's unparalleled storytelling. Here is an original folktale starring an extraordinary gal who is as feisty as she is funny and as courageous as she is kind.

Hardcover. NY, Schwartz & Wade, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY ZELINSKY on title page. Dust Devil received four starred reviews and was named a New York Times Notable Children's Book of the Year and an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Winner. Children will be captivated by the beauty and exaggerated humor of Paul Zelinsky's American primitive-style paintings and the wit and energy of Anne Isaacs's unparalleled storytelling. Here is an original folktale starring an extraordinary gal who is as feisty as she is funny and as courageous as she is kind.

Hardcover. NY, Atheneum, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. "A tour de force of black humor, Easeful Death pits a "dead" man against his double-dealing, back-stabbing family and fans in an offbeat, ironic game of subterfuge." Clean copy.

Hardcover. West Plains MO, Russ Cochran, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Two folio-size volumes in a slipcase. Covers reproduced in color, stories in b&w. Numbers 1-12. Notes and comments Edited by John Benson and Written by John Benson, Bill Mason and Bhob Stewart.

Softcover. New York, Dell, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Mass market paperback, Dell #2254, 128 pages. B&w cartoon drawings throughout by the Berenstains. Clean.

Hardcover. NY, R.H. Russell, 1st, 1899, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. Large, oblong folio, b&w cartoons by Gibson, light soil to covers, otherwise VG.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Anderson House, 1st, 1945, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth with blue lettering, unpaginated (about 100 pages). B&w cartoons throughout. SIGNED WITH A COLOR ILLUSTRATION BY CHESNEY on the inside cover. Clean, square copy. Lacks dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1st US, 1940, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, light green cloth stamped in dark green. In a worn, chipped dust jacket. Small ownership sticker on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.