Michael Kupperman’s Tales Designed to Thrizzle comics are
some of the most insane, laugh-out-loud hilarious things I have ever
read. The New York-based cartoonist was recently praised by Conan
O’Brien for having “one of the best comedy brains on the planet” in an
Entertainment Weekly list of the talk-show host’s favourite
things.
Kupperman is not only a comedic genius, he’s an incredible artist,
and his talents are perfectly merged on the pages of his comics.
Kupperman draws heavily from the golden and silver ages of comics, and
on vintage advertising aesthetics, to create an ink-and-paper variety
show that includes characters such as the action team of Twain and
Einstein, Hercules the Public Domain Super Hero, the surreal detective
duo Snake N’ Bacon, and Manister (the man who can transform himself
into a banister). Each issue is also full of advertisements for
products like Sex Blimps and an involuntary penis removal service.
Tales Designed to Thrizzle: Volume 1 is a hardcover
collection of the first four issues of the comic. Unlike the two-tone
colouring of the originals, this book is in full colour, which provides
added incentive for those who own the original issues to add this to
their library.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.