Customer Reviews

The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Adam Koford has created a cartoon universe that is at once a clear and beautiful homage to the best of early and mid-century American cartoonery (Herriman, Kelly, Sterrett) and Internet meme-ry come to life. The drawings are sublime, the characters are lovable and memorable, and the jokes are drawn from within the ongoing and fascinating public exploration of creating shared meaning from new technologies. Ridiculously current within a context that is readily recognizable to any lover of vintage comics, Adam can make a joke in one panel about Ted Stevens's "series of tubes," and in another do an homage to the creator of Popeye.

John Hodgman's introduction is delightful as well. I learned of the 700 Hoboes project from reading Hodgman's blog, and found that, as the collection of hobo depictions grew, I was consistently drawn to certain images, all of them in different styles, and - as I was stunned to realize - all of them done by the same artist. As stunned as everyone else watching this phenomenon, I saw Adam complete a drawing for each of the 700 - no, 800 - hoboes, and then saw more at his flickr site and his blog. When Adam debuted his Laugh-Out-Loud Cats, I was thrilled from the first panel, as were many, many others. Boing Boing and Neatorama linked to them, and Cute Overload too - not too many instances of the extremely hip meeting the extremely cute in the world of comics!

Having purchased some original artwork and joined the Pip fan club, I've been honored to support Adam in his work with my few measly bucks, and now I am ecstatic to hold my copy of this lovely book. Have I mentioned that I think you should buy one too? (Or more than one - it makes a great gift!)

Adam Koford is a great illustrator and a comic genius. If you laugh at internet memes such as the "LOLCats", you cannot help but love this book. The comics are wonderfully drawn, and the humor is just...well, it's great. I actually did laugh out loud while reading this book.

This book is highly enjoyable. The humor is many levels deep on quite a few of them. Meshing a classic idiom (cartoon hobo cats) with the "post-2005ish LOL cat speak" this well can't have been easy. I think that a lot of these jokes would be enjoyable just at their face value: Two silly cats getting into trouble, stealing fish and the like. But if you hang around the internet as much as I do, there are one maybe two more levels of incredibly clever humor going on here.

This is a very timely work. I just wonder how well it will age. There is certainly a lot to "get" and therefor a lot to NOT "get" if you don't know the lingo. If you blog, tweet, code and/or enjoy sharing internet memes like I do, you'll get the jokes and appreciate the clever double entendres. 20 years from now, I wonder if we'll remember what all this silliness means. Who knows. At that time, this could be a rare time capsule, in print, of an entire era and subculture which has been otherwise forgotten by a fast-changing zeitgeist.

People throw around LOL rather loosely, but I was actually producing audible chortles over the course of reading this book. There's a special kind of comic genius at work here. The strip presents itself in the manner of the old-timey comic greats (the canonical reference points are like hidden jokes inside the jokes) and then the dialog offers up gems from the modern-day interwebs which are somehow funnier now than they ever where before. Also: hobos!

I love this book. As someone who grew up reading comics (Krazy Kat, et al) and as someone who works in the design/web industry now, it's like two books in one--maybe three. But, as some of the comments reveal, if you have no point of reference--either comic history or internet memes--the book could become one giant WTF?

For the rest of you, buy this book immediately!

I bought Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out online at Amazon.com, tho this doesn't seem to be verifiable.
Funny, & worth the low price!

Adam's Laugh Out Loud Cats is an internet sensation. They are funny & clever and wonderfully drawn. I have followed Adam's work for several years and I own many of his works. This book is a must have for any fans of Adam Koford, Hobos, Cats, Hobo Cats, Stogiez & Mole Men.

There's something magical about Adam Koford when he sits down to draw his hobo-cats. For fans of classic comics like Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, and Garfield, you'll know instantly what I mean. Despite being a play on modern themes, there is a timeless comfort that comes from watching these two wanderers in their daily adventures. After reading this book, I better understand why this series stands out in a sea of competition. Adam Koford simply loves what he does, and that affection carries through to every last detail of the craft.

This is a fantastic book, one I would recommend for anyone with a stormy afternoon to pass or even just a couple quick smiles before drifting off to sleep. A must-own for anyone and everyone.

This a really fun collection of one panel cartoons featuring two hepcat cats who speak a 21st century version of hobo patois. The cartoons have a freshness and accessibility that enhance their overall comical nature. Many of the jokes are dependent on the viewer understanding the colloquialisms of the internet, so if you are not a devotee of internet culture you may miss a lot of the fun. But for those of us cool cats in the know this is a delightful collection.

The only reason I own this book because I got it in the Neatorama grab bag sale. Had I actually been given a choice, there is no way I would have willingly bought this.

Nearly every single gag in the book is a movie quote, a internet reference, or a video game reference, the key word being reference. They're not even all jokes, they're just bad one liners from other things. I guess the fact that they're misspelled and out of cannon makes them instantly hilarious. Flipping through this book, I honestly can't find any jokes that aren't from something else.

Take one of the quotes from the back cover of the book: "Koford [the author] takes phrases and jokes that have worn out their welcome and turns them into classic Americana" (The Onion A.V Club) After all, if having a hobo cat say it doesn't make it Americana, what does?

So, if you want a book of "phrases and jokes that have worn out their welcome" then this is the book for you.

The book is not funny at all. Didn't even manage to squeeze out a smile while reading it. Total disappointment.
Now I wonder if I should give it away as a present to other cat lovers (like myself). But considering how they'd react to the implications of my sense of humor being as such, it's better to drop the idea.