The most acclaimed (and controversial) humor cartoonist to burst on the comics scene since Peter Bagge, Johnny Ryan mixes social satire with an absurdist sense of humor to come up with some of the most notoriously hilarious comics in the last five years, in the pages of his ongoing comic book series, Angry Youth Comix.
It's almost impossible to explain what makes something funny, but whatever it is, fans and critics agree that Ryan has it in spades. The book includes several stories featuring Ryan's signature creation, Loady McGee (and straight-man Synus O'Gynus), a misanthropic, acne-scarred hustler who finds himself in scams that would make Wimpy proud, and responds to almost everything with an endless stream of wisecracks, puns, and X-rated double entendres. Loady's ridiculous crackpot schemes—opening a brothel staffed by mutant lizards, get-rich-quick inventions like the "Pussy Hunter 6000," founding a comic book school, and selling used toilet paper passed-off as new, just to name a few—serve as perfect comic set-ups, and Ryan's art is crammed with visual gags and existential asides that brings to mind the great Will Elder (MAD magazine).
Needless to say, this is not politically-correct stuff, nor is it for children. Ryan's in-your-face humor spares no prisoners, as these stories indicate: "Hipler," a riotous satire of our "extreme makeover" era and celebrity culture; "Islamic Terrorist Spring Break," in which Ryan seemed to be single-handedly trying to counterbalance all of the self-censorship going on in the early post-9/11 media; and "Ku Klux Kuties," which tests just how far the usual doe-eyed visual tropes can be taken and still make you go, "Aww." The book also includes Ryan's most infamous strip to-date, "The Gaytriot," which caused a PC-stir when it was included in The Comics Journal's otherwise-sincere and serious "Cartoonists on Patriotism" volume in 2002.
The collection also features such absurdist classics as "Weight-Lifting Gophers," "The Deaf Chef," "Dolemite's Masters of the Universe," "1976," and a selection of single-panel gag cartoons titled "Johnny Ryan's 'Pukin's' and 'Spit-Ups.'" Find out why Ryan's work has been cited as a favorite of such luminaries as the late Edward Gorey, Simpsons producers George Meyer and Dana Gould, and cartoonists like Joe Sacco, Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge, Coop, Gary Panter and many others. 152 pages including 16 pages in color.