Humor

Hardcover. NY, Taschen, reprint, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Color frontispiece. Black and white fantasy cartoon sketches, many scatological. 11" high X 8" wide, 439 pages. Clean, still in publisher's shrinkwrap. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Taschen, reprint, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Color frontispiece. Black and white fantasy cartoon sketches, many scatological. 11" high X 8" wide, 443 pages. Clean, still in publisher's shrinkwrap. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Taschen, reprint, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Color frontispiece. Black & white illustrations throughout on every page. 11" high X 8" wide, 448 pages. The perfect tribute to the world's favorite dirty old man. It spans the years 1982 to 1989, a period when the artist was comfortably ensconced in rural California, raising his young daughter Sophie, who appears throughout this volume. But Crumb was still Crumb, declaring in one drawing, above a lovingly rendered tree, "As I get older I get more twisted, convoluted, depraved, cynical, embittered, self-centered, jaded, debauched, ruthless, greedy, conceited, set-in-my-ways, long-winded, absent-minded, prejudiced, closed-minded, misanthropic, nervous..." To prove this self-flagellating analysis he fills the pages with his signature perversions (in country settings), scathing social commentary, cruel self-portraits, experimental cubism... and some lovely sylvan landscape. His mastery of the Rapidograph pen is at its zenith here in his 40s, Clean, still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Softcover. NY, Ballantine Books, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Large format softcover, 64 pages of b&w comic art by Crumb. Introduction by Paul Krassner. Some tanning to edges of wrappers. Otherwise clean.

Hardcover. New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 188 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. Black & white illustrations throughout.

Hardcover. London/NY, Bloomsbury, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, decorated orange boards with silver stamping; in clean, crisp dust jacket with just a touch of shelfwear. Cartoonist and British national treasure Ralph Steadman's unique take on a variety of extinct birds. Ralph documents them all in this series of remarkable paintings, featuring unique interpretations of well-known birds such as the Great Auk, Passenger Pigeon and Dodo, along with less familiar members of the feathersome firmament. Text by Ceri Levy. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. NY, Dial, reprint, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 80 pages, b&w illustrations by James Marshall.

Hardcover. New York, Knopf, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 219 pages. Clean, bright copy. "I doubt very much that I'm the only person who's finding it more and more difficult to want to read or write novels," David Shields acknowledges in Reality Hunger, then seeks to understand how the conventional literary novel has become as lifeless a form as the mass market bodice-ripper. Shields provides an ars poetica for writers and other artists who, exhausted by the artificiality of our culture, "obsessed by real events because we experience hardly any," are taking larger and larger pieces of the real world and using them in their work. Reality Hunger is made of 600-odd numbered fragments, many of them quotations from other sources, some from Shields's own books, but none properly sourced--the project being not a treasure hunt or a con but a good-faith presentation of what literature might look like if it caught up to contemporary strategies and devices used in the other arts, and allowed for samples (that is, quotation from art and from the world) to revivify existing forms. Shields challenges the perceived superiority of the imagination and exposes conventional literary pieties as imitation writing, the textual equivalent of artificial flavoring, sleepwalking, and small talk. I can't name a more necessary or a more thrilling book.

Hardcover. US, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 292 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Black and white pictures throughout.

Hardcover. New York, Cupples & Leon, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Publisher's cloth-backed boards illustrated in color, 86 pages of b&w cartoons reprinted from the New York Herald Tribune, most dated 1927. Light use to edges of boards; tight and sound, no markings.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in bright, unclipped dust jacket. 575 pages, b&w illustrations. Stephen Kercher here provides the first comprehensive look at the satiric humor that flourished in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. Focusing on an impressive range of comedy--not just standup comedians of the day but also satirical publications like MAD magazine, improvisational theater groups such as Second City, the motion picture Dr. Strangelove, and TV shows like That Was the Week That Was--Kercher reminds us that the postwar era saw varieties of comic expression that were more challenging and nonconformist than we commonly remember. His history of these comedic luminaries shows that for a sizeable audience of educated, middle-class Americans who shared such liberal views, the period's satire was a crucial mode of cultural dissent. For such individuals, satire was a vehicle through which concerns over the suppression of civil liberties, Cold War foreign policies, blind social conformity, and our heated racial crisis could be productively addressed. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Drawn & Quarterly;, Hardcover in oblong decorated orange cloth covers. color comics/cartoons throughout. Tom Gauld returns with his wittiest and most trenchant collection of literary cartoons to date. Perfectly composed drawings are punctuated with the artist's signature brand of humour, hitting high and low. After all, Gauld is just as comfortable taking jabs at Jane Eyre and Game of Thrones. Some particularly favoured targets include the pretentious procrastinating novelist, the commercial mercenary of the dispassionate editor, the willful obscurantism of the vainglorious poet. Quake in the presence of the stack of bedside books as it grows taller! Gnash your teeth at the ever-moving deadline that the writer never meets! Quail before the critic's incisive dissection of the manuscript! And most importantly, seethe with envy at the paragon of creative productivity!

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st US, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 80 pages, Hardcover with dust jacket. B&w cartoon illustrations by Quentin Blake. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Jonathan Cape, 8th pr., 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Pictorial glossy boards, 61 pages illustrated in color by Quentin Blake. Who but Roald Dahl could think up such mouthwatering and deliciously disgusting foods as Lickable Wallpaper, Stink Bugs Eggs, and Eatable Pillows? Now there,s a practical guide to making these and other delicacies featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Dahl's other books, with easy, step-by-step recipes that range from the delectable to the truly revolting. Quentin Blake's illustrations combine with full-color photographs of the luscious results to perfectly capture Roald Dahl's wicked sense of fun.

Hardcover. New York , Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 32 pages illustrated in color by David Shannon. SIGNED BY SCIESZKA. From the minds of Scieszka and Shannon comes a tale of a quixotic robot determined to conquer the earth. The only problem is that the earth he lands on is a suburban kitchen and he is three inches tall. Robot Zot, the fearless and unstoppable warrior, leaves a trail of destruction as he encounters blenders, toasters, and televisions. But when he discovers the princess...a pink cell phone...his mission takes a new course. Robot Zot must learn how to be a hero - in the name of true love.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday/Dolphin, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 191 pages. Collects articles, interviews, photos on The- Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time-Players: Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray and some of the guests: Candice Bergen, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, Lily Tomlin, more. Photos by Edie Baskin. Filled with bios and photos in color and b & w of the early days of Saturday Night Live. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Norton, 1st US, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover, 142 pages. Humoroue instructions for the man living on his own. Cartoons by Quenin Blake. Book is clean, very good, dust jacket is worn, chipped.

Hardcover. NY, George H. Doran Company, 1sr, 1914, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, brown cloth boards with gilt titles and a mounted paper label on the front board. Illustrated by John T. McCutcheon. A humorous vintage travel guide to the American West. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Franklin Center PA, Franklin Library, 1st thus, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, Limited edition. Brown leather with elaborately decorative 22Kt gold gilt embossed to the front and rear covers and to the spine, gilt embossed titles, rules and decorations to the nicely hubbed spine, sewn head and tail bands, all page edges fine gilt, satin moire end-papers, and bound-in silk ribbon marker. A collection of thirty-five of the best stories by Lardner. 569 pages. 2-color illustrations by Gerry Gersten.Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York , Simon and Schuster, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 190 pages, b&w cartoon contraptions by the master. Bright, clean copy in unclipped dust jacket. A collection of Rube Goldberg's wackiest inventions features more than two thousand "schematics" from the immensely popular comic for everything from suicide machines to a pick-pocket device designed for politicians.

Hardcover. New York, Morrow Junior Books, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Non-paginated. Hardcover. Illustrated by Diane Stanley. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Chicago, Indiana Society of Chicago, 1st, 1940, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, illustrated wrappers with red plastic comb binding. 40 full-page b&w cartoons by various artists, all honoring McCutcheon at the 29th Annual Dinner of The Indiana Society on Dec. 14, 1940: Fontaine Fox, Webster, Fitzpatrick, Milton Caniff, Shoemaker, Chester Gould, many others. Cover by Paul Plaschke. Bright, clean copy. Scarce.

Hardcover. Paris, Denoel, reprint, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 123 pages of b&w cartoons by Sempe, originally published in 1964. Green cloth covers with fading to spine. previous owner's signature on front fly leaf. Otherwise clean, very good. French language but most of his cartoons are wordless.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1st, 1939, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 64 pages. Pictorial boards with black cloth spine. Full color and black & white illustrations by Marguerite Kirmse. Faint foxing along hinges on preliminary pages. Rubbing along cover edges and spine, upper right corners with shallow bump. Clean, unmarked text.