Big Honkin' Zits, 6: A Zits Treasury

I evaluate funnies by the drawings, and, of course, is it funny or not? With that said, here we go.In some ways, I think this comic is influenced by Calvin and Hobbes, one of the most memorable and classic strips. This comic strip is drowned in sarcasm and irony. The drawings have a sort of sketchy quality about them, something that makes them loose and very cool-looking. They have shading and scribbly detail, but are still very clear and easy to understand.It has more than 4 characters, allowing the cartoonist to come up with many interesting character traits. Exploring these personalities is very fun to read. A boy and a girl never seen not hugging each other, a mom, a dad, a big brother, and a boy with a guitar are just some of the characters. I think this strip has about the right amount of characters. This book is my first encounter with the comic and it is very appealing. I won't tell you to buy it, because I'm not a salesperson. I'm merely telling you why I like it.

In Big Honkin Zits (hey, it's named after ME when I was 16..or 26) you can clearly see WHY this strip by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman is one of the fastest growing and most popular strips EVER.The best way to explain it is: it's on the same quality level as Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes at it's funniest, most irony-laced and visually comedic BEST. Once again we have Jeremy...the self-absorbed 15-year-old who is constantly (in his view) humiliated by his parents' mere existance (except when he lowers the posture and briefly show he really cares). The strip shows things from the adult point of view but ALSO does a good job of pointing out how a teen might view the parents (his parents ARE dorky).There are several reasons why this strip is such great COMEDY, and holds up so well in a treasury form such as this. The artists use a story-line of sorts (akin to the story-line Watterson would use where a given daily strip would stand alone but is part of a group with a theme). The shorter strips work as well as the longer ones. As in Calvin & Hobbes we often see things from the teen or parental view in the form of a fantasy (his father dressed like a clown; Jeremy with huge ears after his girlfriend mentions his ears are big).It's a strip that shows character evolution: his girlfriend finally gets her braces off; he goes to his first real rock concert; sneaks into his first teen porn film etc.But above all it's the world-class visual comedy, character facial expressions and actual irony-heavy comedy that makes this strip among the best EVER. Since there are tons of strips I'll share one that is my favorite. Jeremy's mother reads an article that says "the average teenage boy thinks about sex once every eight minutes." They look at each other and each says "Wow." She thinks: "That much?" He thinks: "That's all?"You're going to want to read Big Honkin' Zits again and again and each time you're going to laugh as much as the first time. SUPERB selection of a SUPERB strip that happily continues to quickly grow in circulation, artistically and comedically.

Jeremy returns in his second treasury, combining strips from the books "Don't Roll Your Eyes at Me, Young Man!" and "Are We an Us?" Not much has changed since the first treasury. He still wishes his parents would get off his back, he still doesn't understand women, and he still dreams of making it big in music. But whether he's trying to decide what to do about the upcoming Gingivitis concert, win back Sara from a sophomore, support a friend's mom who has cancer, or sneak over to his girlfriend's babysitting job, he's sure to find the humor in any situation.Unfortunately, I don't get the strip in my local paper, so I have to wait for these books to enjoy it. But I can certainly see why it has become such a popular strip. Everyone can appreciate the humor in the storylines, which poke fun at everyone equally. The visual gages are some of the best in the papers today and make for some of the best strips in the book as well. And it's easy to like these characters because they really do have good hearts just beneath the surface. My only complaint with this book is that the strips don't appear to be in order. It makes for a little confusion when a character is first introduced after we've already met him or her, but over all, it really is minor.This is a wonderful collection that should win new fans and satisfy the old. Buy it today and enjoy the laughs.

Funny, often unexpectedly so, and a good depiction of teenagers from an adult point of view. (I don't know if teenagers would find it funny, but their parents and siblings will.)