Speed Bump

I noticed that I make an ugly, annoying sound when I wise-laugh, not cracking up, a high-pitched “HA-HA” and then silence. When I do that at 1:00 in the morning, I decided I hate myself. But this book was worth hating myself, it’s been while since I laughed that much. <br />I am ashamed to admit that this is the first time I have seen Coverly’s cartoons. How I’ve never come across them is still a mystery to me. His drawings transcend words, they are alive and hit the bullseye by creating the right effect. The jokes are witty, funny and profound. They are not going to make you roll on the ground laughing but they are clever and requires philosophical, literary, educational and linguistic background for you to fully digest and start laughing. Amazing! I noticed that at times the small footnotes cracked me up much better than the cartoons, way to go Coverly! Loved it, recommend it to all the smarty-pants.<br /><br />(I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.<br /><br />This book is hilarious! I laughed out loud so many times reading this and probably way more than I should have too. This is a fantastic collection of Dave Coverly's work all in one book! He has such a great creative humour and this book is sure to make anyone smile. We all need a dose of laughter in our lives especially in this year of 2020 with covid19 and everything else the year has thrown at us.

You don't quite realize just how long cartoonist Dave Coverly has been at it until you start reading through "Speed Bump: A 25th Anniversary Collection" and begin to realize how many of the single-panel comics hit you with a wave of both hilarity and nostalgia. <br /><br />First appearing as an unnamed panel in 1994, "Speed Bump" was officially christened in 1995 and before long it was appearing in 90 newspapers. By the end of 1995, Coverly left his full-time gig as an editorial cartoonist at Bloomington, Indiana's Herald-Times and devoted himself to "Speed Bump." <br /><br />Coverly was recipient of the National Cartoonists Society's Greeting Card Award in 1997 and picked up their Newspaper Cartoon Panel Award in both 1994 and 2002. "Speed Bump" received their Reuben Award in 2008. <br /><br />"Speed Bump: A 25th Anniversary Collection" is a collection of 300 of the best "Speed Bump" cartoons in a full-color hardcover book being released on June 30th by IDW Publishing. For 25 years now, "Speed Bump" has appeared in over 400 publications including the Detroit Free Press, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Parade Magazine, and in a host of other settings including textbooks, greeting cards, web-based outlets and others. <br /><br />One of the joys of "Speed Bump: A 25th Anniversary Collection" is the dry, laid-back humor that comes to life via Coverly's brief yet often hysterical comments that accompany many of his panels and, of course, the panels themselves that range from awesomely weird to surprisingly poignant to absurdist to silly to ever so slightly naughty. Coverly seldom goes political, but when he does go political it's typically in kinder and gentler ways that will resonate with a universal audience. <br /><br />This 25th anniversary collection is laugh-out loud funny, a vividly realized collection of cartoons with typically simple phrases that will make you laugh, snort, guffaw, and possibly fart. <br /><br />I mean, seriously. You know a book is funny when it's fart-out-loud funny. <br /><br />If you know Coverly's work, "Speed Bump: A 25th Anniversary Collection" is practically a must-have collection. If you don't know Coverly's work, then this is a sublime entry point that will make you want to revisit past collections while watching for his latest work in a newspaper near you. If he's not in a newspaper near you? You'll probably want to move.

Well this is one of those few delightful books I should be showing to any fly-by-nights who have learnt to draw online and made a digital comic of their one-page yucks. I know this is a special anniversary best-of, but the hit rate here is up there with the best, and this is how it is done. I don't think I've come across this creator before but he seems to have been the closest yet at carrying Gary Larson's flame, and while he is a little less hard-hitting and the response isn't quite as great, this book has the enjoyment of one of the Far Side compilations I knew and loved way back when. A worm regretting talking too long, the reality of glass-bottom boat tours, and some right A-holes moving in – the ideas here can be really quite immediate, and really quite strong. There's a philosophical bent, too, and many a dig at mobile phone infatuation. Too often I see four-panel comics books that have a large syndication that don't go anywhere, but these single panel efforts are much more successful. There's very little wrong here.

Haven't laughed this hard in a very long time. This is comedic gold.

I enjoyed this collection of comics. They were very dry and felt very close to home, which ultimately makes a lot of this very satirical. It was a quick and easy read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone that enjoys some dryness and satire in their comedy. I think if you enjoy The Far Side comics you’ll most likely enjoy these too.<br /><br /><i>Received via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are solely my own.</i><br />

Hilarious, but too darned short. (And don't believe the description; there are just 200 cartoons, not 300.)

<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1399322283i/9534702.jpg" alt="More reviews at the Online Eccentric Librarian http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> <p> <i>More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/">http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/</a></i> </p>This 25 year retrospective on cartoonist Dave Coverly's work includes 300 of his best, each presented full page and most in color. Coverly's approach to humor is very similar to Gary Larson's Far Side - offbeat, one-panel gags often playing on words or social trends (from the prevalence of cell phones to how our pets view our modern life). The humor is never mean or incisive and operates on a more gentle and carefree level than Larson ever did, however. In that way, this collection is a nice get-away from the negatives of real life.<br><br>An added perk to this book is that several of the cartoons have a brief commentary from the artist. He touches upon themes of time and place, editorial consideration, the cartoonist process, how some earlier cartoons would never be acceptable today (e.g., a bomb squad sniffer dog after 9/11), and how fans have reacted (or overreacted) to some. The comments are brief - typically 1 or 2 sentences but interesting. <br><br>In all, a nice way to spend an afternoon when you need a pickup or want to smile. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

As anthologies go, this is pretty solid, curating the best of long-time cartoonist Dave Coverly’s Speed Bump strips into a single-volume summation. If you are a fan of Speed Bump, this will be a treasure. If you are not, this is still a fine introduction. But if Speed Bump doesn’t exactly make you chuckle, very little of this will convince you otherwise. And if these cartoons often feel like an illustrated dad joke, then this book will remind you of how strangely self-reinforcing the newspaper comics world can be, especially for those strips that go national and then just hit cruise control for the next 20 or 30 years. But that’s alright - this one was made for the fans. If only so many of the cartoons didn’t have captions explaining them, if you have to explain your joke, it probably doesn’t belong in your Best Of.

Ha! That was fun! This collection will make you want to share every page on Facebook, which is likely where you've seen many, if not all, of these cartoons already. They're the cartoons you cut out of the newspaper to stick on the fridge or on the wall of your cubicle at work. You attached them in emails to friends, before texting happened. I'm betting almost everyone has seen a Speed Bump at some point in their life and had a good laugh because of it. Well, now you can have a bunch of laughs, anytime you like! A perfect book to pick up and flip through when you need a break from the world.<br /><br />#SpeedBumpA25thAnniversaryCollection #NetGalley