Screwball Cartoonists are pretty much a lost breed in 2019, with a few exceptions. This genre of cartoons with outlandish funny drawings flourished in the early to mid-1900s in daily and colour comic strips.

According to author Paul C. Tumey, only today’s MAD magazine would be considered to be last bastion of Screwball style in print.

So, Screwball Cartoonists Who Made Funnies Funny is a special hardcover from IDW. Inside this 230 page book are detailed profiles of fifteen of the best-loved screwball artists. Names like George Herriman, Milt Gross, E.C. Segar, Rube Goldberg, and many many others.

Each artist creator is the subject of a lengthy, well-illustrated section. Page after page of delightful drawings, madcap exaggerated humour. Carefully rendered caricatures of beautifully exaggerated human (and animal) antics. All nicely restored from their original black and white or colour printings.

In addition to featuring lots and LOTS of great comic strips, this book includes many fascinating photographs of the creators, a detailed index, and several articles that describe the times when Screwball comics were all the rage.

Carefully researched and lovingly assembled, this hardcover tribute to Screwball comic strips is a true labour of love, to be treasured!

IDW, Screwball Cartoonists Who Made Funnies Funny. Hardcover, $59.99 for 232 pages of content.

By Alan Spinney

After a career of graphic design, art direction and copywriting, I still have a passion for words and pictures. I love it when a comic book comes together; the story is tight, and the drawings lead me forward. Art with words... the toughest storytelling technique to get right. Was this comic book worth your money? Let's see!!

One thought on “Comic Review: Screwball Cartoonists Who Made Funnies Funny HC (IDW Publishing)”
  1. Thanks for the nice review! I’m quite gratified you like my book! A couple of small corrections. The book is actually 302 pages long (not 230 as the review states). And I don’t actually think (or ever state) that MAD is the last bastion of screwball humor in print. I have no opinion of how screwball the modern MAD might be since I haven’t read an issue in years. Perhaps the reviewer has taken an unintended meaning from the book’s statement that the MAD comics of 1952-54 (not in the Screwball! book, which focuses on the comic that came BEFORE MAD) represent a highwater mark of screwball comics. But screwball comics do not end there! In the book’s intro, I mention a few modern examples of screwball comics such as Bill Griffith’s Zippy the Pinhead and Kaz’s Underworld.

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