If you’re in the mood for page after page of laughs, here’s your chance. Pick up Speed Bump, A 25th Anniversary Collection, from IDW.
For those of us unfamiliar with Speed Bump, it’s a single panel cartoon published in newspapers. Black and white line drawings, mostly, interspersed with some in colour. All are single panel, that is, one panel with a situation and caption. Hand-drawn, hand-lettered. Old school, with new laughs.
Artist Dave Coverly has obviously been busy. And we are richer for it, with page after page of good jokes, one-liners, silly situations, and explorations of puns, and outrageous concepts. The drawings are not complicated or overly detailed, which helps us get the joke: the focus is on communication, not technical rendering. Great fun!
Colour cartoons are in mostly chronological order, with early works interspersed, and watercolour drawings from greeting card gags too. Some appeared in Parade, some in New Yorker.
Collection editor is Justin Eisinger, with collection design by Richard Sheinaus for Gotham Design. Foreword by Nick Galifianakis.
IDW Speed Bump, A 25th Anniversary Collection. $19.99 for 212 pages.
Newsdesk