In a world where there are so many actual assholes, where the news constantly seems to be life or death stuff, where all decent folks are rallying together, implicitly or explicitly, Tom has chosen his lane: autobiographical comics asshole. It’s nuanced, it’s hilarious, and it’s almost certainly not who he is in real life. But in an age where subtlety has passed us by, I love the fact that he’s sticking with it. There are a few stories in this comic, all roughly related to his overall theme. First up is a piece about him having a dinner with his parents, unable to stop and have a conversation with them while being obsessed with the lack of “likes” his picture of said dinner is getting. There’s a hilarious bit where he tries to defend his work at a convention when an unfortunate medical condition springs up: Tom’s thought bubbles over his head are visible to the outside world. That condition powers a couple more short strips, with a trip to a doctor about his condition and the “cure” that he comes up with. Then there’s the heart of the book, the part where I stop talking about the actual contents of the stories because it’s such a delight that I don’t want to give anything away: Tom gets three wishes from a magical talking cat. How he gets the wishes, what he does with the wishes (remember, comic Tom is a full blown asshole), and the way the strip ends, all those delights I’m leaving to you to discover, gentle reader. If you’re able to stop taking everything so seriously for a few minutes, to avoid the temptation of turning everything into an outrage, I can’t recommend this book enough. There are sadly few comic artists around these days that are capable of making me literally laugh out loud, and Tom is one of them. Never change, you (hypothetical) jerk you! $6
