Shary Flenniken

Transgressive humor from the pages of National Lampoon (and a few other sources) dating from the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s. Drawn in a style that echoes classic comic strip art from the 1930s, Flenniken's little waifs of only thirteen -- Bonnie McFarland and her friend Pepsi -- are raging feminists and sex positive explorers of their adolescence. (Trots is Bonnie's dog, who usually contributes little beyond a pithy and thematic last-panel punchline.)

Designed to be shocking, these strips of show more one to four pages succeed in a most unsettling way, with lots of adult language, nudity, and sexual situations. The author states she omitted some strips that did not age well, and seeing what she let through, I can only wonder what the hell could have possibly been in those.

The execution may not be for everyone, but there are still some very good points made and some funny jokes spun. show less

As far as I can tell, this is a self-published collection of sketches and cartoons by Shary Flenniken, one of my favorite contributors to National Lampoon and the creator of "Trots and Bonnie", a wonderful strip that I wish she had done a lot more of. This book does contain several Trots and Bonnie cartoons that I think are unpublished elsewhere. Anyway, they're new to me. The rest is a mixed bag of random sketches, cartoons and observations.

A collection of comic graphic stories with Seattle as the common locus, edited by my favorite counter-culture cartoonist of the 1960's and 1970's, Shary Flenniken. It's a mixed bag, but most of the stories are a hoot, and a couple illustrated by Shary Flenniken. Other than she and S. Gross, the contributors were unknown to me. I did get a lot of Seattle flavor and info (are Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee really buried there?)

Shary Flenniken was the creator of my favorite regular comic strip from the old "National Lampoon" magazine, "Trots and Bonnie". This is a collection of cartoons about California's water crisis of 1977, and while somewhat dated, they are dead on and will probably be applicable again some day. In the meantime, enjoy.