The Complete Collection of The Tragedy Series: Secret Lobster Claws and Other Misfortunes

by Benjamin Dewey

Welcome and good tidings, ladies, gentlemen, and all manner of upstanding, sentient beasts.

The book you hold in your hands (pinchers, tentacles, paws, etc.), is a guide to avoiding the more common pitfalls that appear after parting ways with lady luck. You need not be duped by a collection of rats in an elaborate costume, dressed as a handsome suitor, or experience the embarrassment so many have already endured after bringing their ordinarily well-behaved, large sea mammal to an art gallery only to see cultural treasures defiled by inadvertent clumsiness arising from a frame better built for the confines of Poseidon's realm. More than five hundred unfortunate results of the manifold paths our life may offer have been helpfully diagramed for you along with positive affirmations of this veil's wonders and much more!

Alexander the Great once remarked that "upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all" and his words may be taken as injunction to obtain this volume for your very own to ensure the continued security of our very civilization.

Benjamin Dewey's The Tragedy Series is an addictive collection of funny-sad comics based on the popular Tumblr blog.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Humor, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Art

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2015

Reviews

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

easy five stars. if i ever get caught up on my reviews (hahahahha) you will learn why.

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these are really good! Not all of course -- it's very hard to come up with a brilliant new one-panel time after time. They range from bizarro, like the titular secret lobster claws, to fairly sad, to quite funny.



There are also some that would make fun story prompts. This one reminded a bit of The House on the Borderland.

[Daniel Cooksey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like no other comic I've ever read. If Gorey lived in a steampunk Victorian England and had created Larson's the Far Side but had illustrated it with all the panache of Frank Frazetta, he might have produced something like this. Loved every weird page of it.

[Kate Atherton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tragedy plus time equals comedy. This book is a gallery of well drawn sepia tragedies from the Victorian era written and illustrated by Ben Dewey (with the occasional 'sadness reprieve'). The characters are expressive and time period specific but with a wit and meme-able quality that mocks old news stories and oddities of the time. Some highlights include a pterodactyl interrupting a pastoral painter again and again, a symphony dedicated to an all seeing eye who cannot hear it and many more. The book highlights mythical creatures, peculiar looking animals and Victorian era situational comedy (such as two soul mates missing meeting each other because they were both on the street reading the same tome) with great success. A perfect coffee table book/conversation starter OR a game in which you make your own expanding upon this idea! I was not crazy about the story at the end (which ties many of the 'characters' who made appearances earlier together) but the tragedies themselves are timeless and hilarious.

[April Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5: Brilliant content, minor formatting issues*

This series is wonderfully whimsically snarky with a touch of witty nonsense. It is a light hearted read that just makes you smile no mater how your day is going. The illustrations are simply amazing and the fun game he added was great. I can't tell you how many hours I spent trying to decipher the clues.

I had a few issues with formatting. The text at the beginning was too small. It took some effort to read. The printing process wasn't at the quality I was expecting, creating lines in the illustrations. Also the margins were off making the comic's bleed a bit into the binding making it heard to see. I would have loved to see these beautiful creations in a way that let them truly shine.

But the content is so amazing. This is a book I will forever have on my shelf and I am now officially addicted to the tumblr.

See full review: http://youtu.be/qzhxHW55ikU


*I received this book as an advance reading copy for review.

[K A Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband spotted this book, and knew right away that it was for ME. He was right. My whimsical (and dark) sense of humor is shared by Benjamin Dewey, and the hilarity is on display between the covers of "The Tragedy Series". I open this delightful book whenever I feel like a melancholy laugh (frequently).

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and quirky--I love the Victorian art, which reminds me of Charles Dana Gibson's Gibson Girl comics, but with a slightly darker tone. Both bizarre and punny, with plays on popular idioms, references to classic mythology, and outrageous ideas that come out of nowhere, it's a highly entertaining collection.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired, bizarre, delightful, and sometimes rather poignant -- if you mixed The Far Side with The Addams Family and blended it with Victorian England. Positively charming.

[Mindy Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

a collection of cartoons depicting odd, fanciful, unfortunate situations. this was refreshingly strange, funny and absurd. 5/5.

[Honesty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute, delightful steampunky romp. Some of the tragedies truly are a little sad, but most will leave you in stitches.
4.5 stars

[Ethan West · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was OK. I had never heard of this until I saw a friend post one of the comics that was pretty funny. Overall they were just OK to me. The drawings were good and some made the comics funny.

Side note, I didn't even attempt the puzzle challenge thing so if anyone has the answer to that let me know. Not so I can claim the prize but so that I can know what the answer is. Unless it's a crummy commercial like in "A Christmas Story". If it says something like, "Be sure to subscribe to my Tumblr" that would both be hilarious and disappointing.

[Elevetha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some true gems in this comic collection, but with far too many duds scattered throughout to really deserve more than a middling rating.

Some of the concepts were really just bizarre. I didn't mind so much the bizarre, if I also found the comic to be amusing, but when the comic wasn't funny and also made no sense, it was disappointing and confusing. Not the best combo.

Still! Definitely worth the read, I got some good laughs out of it.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Complete Collection of The Tragedy Series by Benjamin Dewey is a must read for steampunk inspired bizarre humor fans. Each tragedy panel is beautifully illustrated (many as Victorian nightmare scenarios), and the author's clever play on idioms, clichés, and general turns of phrase is sword sharp clever. Pure enjoyment in a macabre wrap.

[Mallori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I followed this series online and have saved so many of the comic panel images on my laptop that cycle through on my desktop background. I love having them all in one hardbound book. Such a whimsical and ridiculous and delightfully dry sense of humor.

[Raymond Nakamura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelous jumble of non sequitors with delightful Victorian style characters

[Adrienne Cianfarini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit or miss with the jokes

[Mars G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and beautifully illustrated. Not really what I was looking for, but my brother was a big fan, especially of the illustrations. Enjoyable!

[Maritza Valle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect little levity literature.

[Danse macabre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations and very entertaining. Also love that there were puzzles included.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was clever and funny and not unlike a Victorian FarSide. It's one of the few books that I wished I owned instead of borrowed from the library.There were 400ish of them so it did get a bit monotonous after awhile I think that's more because of how speedily I read it than anything to do with the book. So delightful, would definitely recommend to a variety of people.

[Chuck Knudsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of simple, one panel tragedies that are clever in either wording, drawing, or both. It was pretty entertaining, though I think I actually would have enjoyed it better if it were a shorter book.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly brilliant and hilarious, provided your humor runs to the Edward Gorey-influenced. Loved the art and the picture tag lines. The final tale is a rollicking tale of steampunk surrealism. Highly recommended!

[Michelle]

Brilliant. subversively funny.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

His laughter became increasingly tinged with sadness as each page brought him closer to the end of the book.

[Kim Freimoeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious collection... :)

[Robin Herrera]

Accept no substitutions! The Tragedy Series is full of hilarity and, of course, tragedy. A beautiful thing.

[Christiane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so much fun! The drawings and the characters in them look like they're from the Victorian era, but bad luck is, after all, timeless. I really enjoyed this!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haha this guy we are of like minds. So weird and absurd a collection a real steampunky delight

[Katie Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true Comic Tragedy

Hilarious and tragic all at once, with gorgeous illustrations that are inclusive of people of all colours in very fancy 19th century apparel.

[Annika Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love it i love it i love it