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Ryan, Johnny – Angry Youth Comix #5

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Angry Youth Comix #5

OK, before I get started on this one, there was a debate recently on the Comic’s Journal message board about how Johnny Ryan’s comics were terrible, that he crossed all kinds of lines and that was terrible. It wasn’t quite as moral as all that, as people said that they didn’t mind lines being crossed, the comics just weren’t that funny. Well… no. Listen, Fantagraphics mostly puts out books that are for the discriminating comics reader, or the more intelligent reader. These types of people aren’t going to think something that is kind of offensive is funny, or “American Pie” offensive, like sticking your dick in a pie. These people need things that break all kinds of boundaries, or maybe things that are just funny, and I think Johnny delivers pretty consistently. I’m going off on this tangent because everybody knows how I feel about the guy, so obviously I liked this issue too. It’s a bit different from the usual, as there’s a long story in the middle about a guy who’s trying to get velvet pants in 1976. He uses the styles of more than a few of the underground guys, I’m not going to embarrass myself trying to name them all. Other than that, a monkey shaved and disguised as Loady McGee fucks a hole in a vat of boiling hot liquid dildo, saving the day, and I can’t imagine what else you would need to know to check this out.

Ryan, Johnny – Angry Youth Comix #4

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Angry Youth Comix #4

I am Johnny Ryan’s personal hype machine! Honestly, it’s just reminding you that he’s putting out quality work on a consistent basis, and to point out the fact that there are TWO collections of his Angry Youth mini comics coming out in 2003, so get on the ball! Included in here is a story about a Halloween party, one about “Comic Book Skool” (and I know I have gone on before about people doing stuff that too self-referential to the genre, but I have to take it all back after reading this), Hipler and one called “Fuck and Shit”. How can you not love this guy? If you don’t have any issues of this yet, well, why not start here? Then go back and get the other ones. Maybe I’m too biased to be writing a review for this so I’ll stop now. And check out his website!

Ryan, Johnny – Angry Youth Comix #3

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Angry Youth Comix #3

Didn’t I already establish the fact that I’m not going to analyze humor comics? So why, you might ask, am I bothering to post anything at all then? Mostly to remind you that there’s a new Angry Youth Comix out, and that is a special thing indeed. I didn’t laugh quite as much at this one as I did at the other two, but I didn’t laugh that much at the first couple until I read them a couple of times or related parts of the books to friends and remembered how funny it really was. If that makes any sense at all, there you go. Oh, fine, here’s his website again. The only comic people who might have a better website are Ivan Brunetti and Tom Hart, but they’re better for different reasons.

Ryan, Johnny – Angry Youth Comix #2

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Angry Youth Comix #2

OK, a show of hands. Who doesn’t know about Johnny Ryan yet? I figured as much. I only learned about him when he put out his first Fantagraphics book, so I’m still kind of discovering how funny he is. Before I forget, he has one of the best websites out there. All kinds of samples and enough to convince anybody who’s not quite sure about this guy that he’s one of the funniest people out there. Honestly, there’s no way in hell that I’m going to try and review this book. Here’s a list of people who make me laugh every time I read their books: Evan Dorkin, Sam Henderson, Ivan Brunetti, Archer Prewitt and Jef Czekaj. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few people, but the point is that the list of people who are genuinely funny out there is not very long, and it’s always great to add somebody to that list. Johnny Ryan made it there with #1 and cemented his place on it with this one. In this issue, Loady McGee goes on a blind date and there are several one panel strips. That’s it, that’s all you get from me. I’ll sit here and analyze some other comics until the cows come home, trying to figure out what the author was getting at. Not with humor comics. Analyzing these can sterilize them pretty quickly, and I’m not about to do that to something like this. I’ll say again that there are all kinds of samples on his website and that I think this is the funniest new person I’ve seen since the first time I saw Sam Henderson, and if you know me at all you know that that’s saying a hell of a lot. Go to the Fantagraphics website and order these two comics. If you don’t think they’re funny, let me know why and I’ll buy $5 of stuff for you from their website. Although why you’d want me to buy stuff for you from Fantagraphics after it’s obvious that we have drastically different tastes is beyond me…