A career-spanning compendium from one of comics' great satirists. A comprehensive collection of premier caricaturist and satirist Drew Friedman's best comic strips, illustrations and mug shots, dealing with all the familiar Friedman themes the world has come to love: show-biz has-beens, ugly old white men, nefarious politicians, debauched celebrities, the ubiquitous Lord Of Eltingville, etc. Most of the work is from the 1990s, and shows Friedman's gradual phasing out of his famous (and amazing) black-and-white "stipple" look to his current (and equally amazing) "lush watercolor" style. In addition to the works written by Friedman, Fun includes many collaborations with his longtime partner K.Bidus, as well as Harvey Pekar ("American Splendor"), Mark Newgarden ("We All Die Alone"), and Bruce Handy, among others. The work presented in this anthology originally appeared in a wide variety of publications, e.g.: "National Lampoon, Spy, Details, RAW, Blab!, The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly," and Howard Stern's best-selling book "Private Parts," Also included is artwork from the notorious Topps Bubble Gum Card series "Toxic High," as well as art from the card sets "Beauties and Cuties" and "Ed Wood Players," Comic strip highlights include "Everybody's Buddy" ("RAW"), which examines the legendarily combustible temper of drummer Buddy Rich; "Where's Johnny?" ("Entertainment Weekly"), a journey into what would have become of Johnny Carson's career had he never hosted the "Tonight Show"; "Hey, Academy!" ("New York Observer"), a demand from Friedman that Jerry Lewis be awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Motion Picture Academy; "The 10 Least Powerful People in Hollywood"("Details"); "Howard Stern & Al Sharpton run for political office in NY" ("The New Yorker"); and "Kasablanca" ("Esquire"), which imagines "Casablanca" as directed by Oliver Stone.
The book is topped off with a detailed, career-spanning biographical introduction by Ben Schwartz and a foreword by Daniel Clowes.