What're You Lookin' At?! TPB (2004) comic books 2004

1st printing. By Johnny Ryan. The book includes several stories featuring Johnny Ryan's signature creation, Loady McGee (and straight-man Synus O'Gynus), a misanthropic, acne-scarred hustler who finds himself in scams that would make Wimpy proud, and responds to almost everything with an endless stream of wisecracks, puns, and X-rated double-entendres. Loady's ridiculous crackpot schemes serve as perfect comic set-ups, and Ryan's art is crammed with visual gags and existential asides that bring to mind the great Will Elder (MAD Magazine). Needless to say, this is definitely not politically-correct stuff, nor is it for children. Ryan's in-your-face humor spares no prisoners, as these stories indicate: "Hipler," a riotous satire of our 'extreme makeover' era and celebrity culture; "Ku Klux Kuties," which tests just how far the usual doe-eyed visual tropes can be taken and still make you go, Awwww; and Ryan's most infamous strip to-date, "The Gaytriot," which caused a PC-stir when it was included in The Comics Journal's otherwise-sincere and serious "Cartoonists on Patriotism" volume in 2002. Find out why Johnny Ryan is the most acclaimed (and controversial) humor cartoonist to burst onto the comic scene since Peter Bagge (HATE). Softcover, 152 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $16.95.