Bill Schorr

First of two collections of the relatively short-lived (ca. 1983-1986) comic strip featuring a wise-cracking frog masquerading as a fairy-tale prince. The premise is somewhat limited, as there are many jokes on the same theme, although now and again a fresh joke does emerge. Schorr, who was also an editorial cartoonist, occasionally put commentary in as well (going after Reagan, naturally). You can, ultimately, see why the strip didn't last very long, in spite of the fact that the draughtsmanship is rather good.… (more)

Tucker Grizzwell's Worst Week Ever by Bill Schorr and Ralph Smith was borne from a comic strip and is (supposedly) aimed at children. However, I found it to be so full of word play and puns that I think it would be better suited to an adult audience. In my opinion, it was a little too densely packed with jokes to the point of being somewhat annoying and obnoxious. This wasn't marketed as a collection of comic strips but it was lacking in a coherent plot beyond the bare bones 'lesson learned' tale of a cub realizing that adults may not necessarily have all of the answers to the world's questions.

Apologies for the shortness of this review but some books don't lend themselves to a lengthy analysis especially when they're so middle of the road like this one. 2/10… (more)

We spend seven days with Tucker, and it really is the worst week ever...for the reader...as we are subjected to a painful mix of juvenile humor and dad jokes. As one character prophetically says early on (talking about a different subject): "It's tedious, meaningless boredom. It's day after day of endless, pointless drudgery."

When I started reading, I'd forgotten that there was a comic strip called The Grizzwells that has been around since the '80s because, well, I'd put it out of my mind since it wasn't very good. Though this is ostensibly a graphic novel, it basically recycles the same gags that have been in the comic strip for thirty years, setting up a punchline every fourth or third panel. The jokes often having nothing to do with the main storyline, which is about a young male bear dreading a weekend trip with his dad.

Probably my biggest problem with this book is that a majority of the jokes depend on all the characters being incredibly stupid and saying stupid, clueless things that the creators apparently think are funny. And don't get me started on the crazy mythos where all the characters are wild animals when interacting with humans (talked about but never seen), yet somehow have their own society with modern technology and school buildings and stores that are, what, invisible to humans? In another dimension? Abandoned by humans? Shunned by humans? Maddening!
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