Fred the Clown

By Roger Langridge

Book Overview

by Roger Langridge The signature creation of New Zealand cartoonist Roger Langridge, Fred the Clown is the thinking man's idiot. Fred has an eye for the ladies, as well as several other organs, but the only part of themselves that the ladies are willing to share with him is a carefully placed kneecap Absurd and hilarious.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560976101
• ISBN13: 9781560976103
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.1" x 0.5" x 5.7"

Customer Reviews

Visual hilarity

Once again I picked a book pretty much at random off the shelf of "graphic novels," and once again I was most pleased with my choice. 'Fred the Clown' is a bizarre combination of gutter humor, satire, existenalism and slapstick that - while not gelling as a cohesive whole - does manage to entertain. Langridge is at his most humorous - with one exception - when he keeps things short and sweet; the various faux-advertisements throughout the book are exceeding hysterical in their ineptitude of driving sales. But one of the funniest bits in the book is the faux-history of the strip, which takes several pages to tell. I think what I liked the best about this was the inclusion of works through the 'Fred the Clown eras' that pretty much universally are referred to as less than spectacular works. The strips themselves are largely free of any sort of dialogue and Langridge does a good job of conveying whatever thoughts/emotions/expected actions by way of pantomime or picture thought bubbles. The style reminded me of early Steve Purcell ('Sam & Max') which I consider a good thing. I look forward to a possible companion to this should it ever materialize.

Witty and dark

Disturbingly funny, ritchly textured, and fully capable of making you laugh and cry by turns. This book is a love letter to the whole history of comic images. Within these pages you'll find a funny set of stories, but you'll also see a sly satire of comic artist from the 1890s to today. Each story seems to be done in a different style, by a different fictional artist. Background notes and a false history of Fred the Clown comics give a funny authenticity to these parody styles. Well worth giving it a try. It's very, very funny.

A Comic Tour-de-force!

Without hesitation, I'd easily put Roger Langridge on my short list of the greatest all-around cartoonists alive today. He combines slapstick humor, nimble wordplay, Vaudeville, old-tyme comics and filters it through a modern sensibility (with liberal doses of Monty Python, the Goon Show, and the occasional bit of heartbreak and tragedy thrown in for good measure). This is required reading for everyone who loves comics, everyone who used to love comics but has given up on them, everyone who's been raised by wolves and doesn't understand the concept of comics and pretty much everyone else who doesn't fit into any of the categories above.