Sublime. If you wanted to make lots of money, and if such an index fund actually existed, I would invest in the patent that manufactures Sublime t-shirts. To a lesser extent, it would also include Nirvana and the Rolling Stones, but by the grace of the ska gods, they seem to be the most prevalent. You can walk into any middle or high school across America on any given day and see at least a dozen Sublime t-shirts. For a band whose posthumous career has exceeded their actual record-producing years by about 10:1, their ability to stay in the teen mainstream eye is stunning. I tried teaching sublime as an adjective to describe humor the other day to a class and the lesson took off like a lead balloon. Are You Gonna Eat That? is sublime, minimalist comic art at its best. It’s a compendium from The Essential Collection of They Can Talk Comics by Jimmy Craig and is just on this side of voodoo from capturing the soul of animals.
Great art is about capturing the essence of the eyes or those very subtle, sublime expressions that make a meme that can endure for years. It’s the emotion that Awkward Look Monkey Puppet has when its eyes shift forward as it it’s not seeing the train wreck that’s happening to the side. I imagine that one of the world’s most challenging jobs is creating a traditional comic strip that attempts to capture that magic. This is the irony that The Far Side so perfectly encapsulated in its one to four panels. Rhymes With Orange also does a great job in capturing the absurdity, and sublime humor by thinking just a bit differently; and for us, They Can Talk joins that group also.
It’s a simple premise that is fiendishly challenging. Artist Jimmy Craig simply asks What if all of the animals around us could talk? They don’t take on any other human traits, they still walk on all fours, slither across the floor or fly from place to place, but they can talk. The animals might have a quick wit, be droll, happy, angry, mentally slow or suspicious, but they each have their own personality.
A great example of Craig’s style is one page that has four panels. The first panel has two common house flies that are beside a box of juice that’s spilled some of its contents. From a distance we see one of them comment that “this stuff is amazing”. Then, from behind the juice box, they hear something say “psst”. The next panel has the same two flies, shown closer up this time; which allows you to see their eyes, looking towards the voice that was commenting on their diet. The final panel shows a mosquito peering from around the back of the box asking the two, “have you ever tried blood”?
Some of the pages don’t have a written punch line at all, but rather, rely on the subtle eye movements that make up classic memes. A cat asks a dog if it’s tiring being positive all of the time, to which the dog asks the cat if it’s exhausting being negative all of the time. The third panel is wordless and simply has the cat squinting its eyes while it thinks about the statement. The fourth panel has the cat, in the same position, but now has eyes wide open, as if they’re surprised or have just realized something.
Are You Gonna Eat That? is dry, observational humor at its best. When the book arrived at our house I knew nothing about it, but was drawn in by the illustrated dog with an every-so-subtle human expression on its face. I then spent ten minutes in the living room, laughing out loud as I perused the pages trying to get a feel for the book. After a couple of pages, I called our eleven-year-old to read one of the pages. He said he liked it, and found it funny, but couldn’t explain what was funny about it. Our son was lying to us about the first part of his statement. He didn’t really like it, he just didn’t understand why I found it so funny. However, don’t tell a sixth-grader that they don’t understand anything, lest you have hours to sacrifice with a semi-professional negotiator who dabbles with a master in Timewasting from Too Much Time University.
Some people may not get the humor in Are You Gonna Eat That?. Unlike our younger brethren who want to like it, but might not have the life experiences or knowledge base to get the humor in it, they just won’t like it. My wife liked the book and understood all of the jokes, but didn’t share the ferocity in how loudly I laughed. Jimmy Craig’s cartoons have been all over the internet for a while, we’re admittedly late to the party on this one. If you like your comic humor a little dry, observational and with a healthy dose of Steven Wright, then this will be your jam.
Are You Gonna Eat That?, The Essential Collection of They Can Talk Comics is by Jimmy Craig and is available on Ulysses Press.
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