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BOOK REVIEW! I THINK HE'S CRAZY!, THE COMICS OF B.K. TAYLOR (Fantagraphics, 2020)

Back in the ol' newsstand reading days I used to love glomming the various B.K. Taylor comics that popped up in the pre-pious issues of NATIONAL LAMPOON. Sometimes whilst reading these sarcastic stabs at domestic living (esp. at a time in life when the soon-to-rot  style of gutwrench was first and foremost in my life) I imagined these these particular comics to be the ultimo in bad taste har-de-har-hars that one could dare come up with, especially in a world where watching those NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC hula girl specials was an especially sneekerino thing to do.  Nowadays with alla the extreme grossness that I've experienced in this life since I can't say that I find these as amusing as I did during my rather cloistered teenbo days. But then again, what is?

Still I can get somewhat of a charge outta a few of them "Appletons" comics which once had me rolling on the department store floor in utter convulsions of gagdom to the point where this grizzled old lady cashier personally kicked me out into the street. Yet another spoof of the old mid-twentieth century nuclear family which is continually held in deep contempt by most of you enlightened types, these comics might deliver a few of the good natured pokes at suburban slob existence that even a lover of such ethos can enjoy, but after awhile Pop Appleton's ruination of his kids' various endeavors can get about as rote as Foxy Grandpa besting his practical joking grandkids week after week to the point for once you'd like to see them brats finally get the best of ol Foxy. Still sometimes I gotta love the way this perverto Ozzie Nelson wrecks things for the younger set with such a beautifully destructive aplomb because well, like he's the last of a long line of the clean cut white guys twith suit and ties who seem to have developed into a monster I just can't reckon with no mo'..

As for "Timberland Tales" well, I can't see any red-blooded Canadian reading these backwoods spoofs of the Saskatchewan way of life without chucking this book into the cast iron stove in utter indignation. However I get the idea that a few of the more, er, anti-authoritan people up there would chuckle at the antics of the Mark Trail lookalike not to mention the prudish but wowzer school marm who gets to show off her ample butt in a shower scene, not to mention the half-breed kid with the overactive gland as well as the "slightly brain damaged" mountie which should appeal to you Canadian readers who have had run ins with the law during certain stages of larval growth. Yer choice, eh?

The rest is---well--- rather disposable what with the Uncle Kunta satire of Joel Chandler Harris getting the best of his white kid pals not punching hard enough to make this as disturbingly brilliant as it coulda been.  For real LAMPOON laughs stick with the comical funnies one. A foreword by the extremely irritating tee-vee star Tim Allen should be a good enough tipoff.