The author reveals the truth about life, love, work, sex, stress, and more with another episode in the foibles of the "Life in Hell" gang, Binky, Bongo, Akbar, and Jeff
Matthew Abram Groening is an American cartoonist, television producer and writer from Portland, Oregon.
Groening is best known as the creator of The Simpsons. He is also the creator of Futurama and the author of the weekly comic strip Life in Hell. Groening distributed Life in Hell in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked.
He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. The cartoon is still carried in 250 weekly newspapers.
There was life before The Simpsons. Anyone who can make a career out of making people laugh is a role model in my book. I'm a fan of both The Simpsons and Futurama, but Life in Hell remains Groening's crowning achievement in my eyes. I found this in a box of junk while cleaning a while back, so i sat down and read the whole thing through. I forgot how much i loved this strip. I know it's not the mose well-received comic strip, but, who the f*** cares? I love it.
Oops. When I was making out my list of beloved comics, I overlooked Groening entirely. Of course, these days I think of him more as the TV guy than the comic writer. Regardless, Life In Hell was a prominent part of my college years and just beyond.
3.5 stars. "Life in Hell" is Simpsons creator Groening's non-Bart artwork. This one's a lot of fun. I was also pleased to see Groening shares my antipathy for stupid media buzzwords.
I recently found this in a box that's been stashed in the attic for 20 years. I'd forgotten how great Groening's Life in Hell was. (I'm hoping I can find the rest of my Life in Hell books in the forgotten recesses of my attic...)
The book starts off with Bongo (the one-eared rabbit) tied up in a chair in a cell while a pair of eyes at the door states, "How can we consider letting you out when you haven't realized how much you deserve being in there?" If you don't see the humor in that, you're probably not going to enjoy the rest of the book.
This is not The Simpsons, although there are bits of that cartoon scattered throughout. If you're Gen-X, this book will feel very familiar to you; a good portion of it focuses on Desert Storm AKA the first Iraq War.
(More of a 3.5) These comics range from cynical, observant, and witty to kind of lazy in parts. The repeated drawing ones especially. The Iraq war strips are dated but still bitterly on point. I could do without the Akbar and Jeff ones but they’re not all bad, just meh compared to the best Binky ones.