The Legal Lampoon: A Biased, Unfair, and completely accurate law review from Non Sequitur [Paperback]

Wiley Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2002

When he launched Non Sequitur a decade ago, Wiley Miller knew he didn't want a running joke. So he took the name of his strip from the Latin phrase for "it does Not follow" and created a comic that features no central character or theme, no setting or time frame, just a Twilight Zone of cartoon moments. Day after day, Non Dequitur hilariously jabs at the feats and foibles of life, skewering everyone from doctors to politicians. Wiley's irreverent, satirical wit, combined with his superbly crafted illustrations, confirms once and for all that the universe is one big joke at humanity's expense. In Wiley's world, no one is a better target than lawyers. That's why The Legal Lampoon, a collection of the cream of Non Sequitur's legal cartoon crop, will be one of the Wiley's most popular books. Consider the poor panhandler standing next to a signboard that reads, "Stood on principle. Won my lawsuit. Went bankrupt." Or the Master Of Spin, responding to his client's lost appeal to the parole board: "Congratulations! You've been held over by popular demand..." Or a fund-raiser who can't get any donations until she edits her sign to read: "Donations to spay and neuter stray pets and lawyers." Throughout the pages of The Legal Lampoon, lawyers get a royal roasting. It's a hilarious collection that will appeal to everyone who both reviles and respects lawyers. Yes, it's true: Many lawyers let Wiley know how much they appreciate his attorney humor. It's a book made in legal heaven.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Wiley began his career as a political cartoonist in 1976, and his incisive drawings have won him several honors, including the presitious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 1991. Realizing there was more to life than politics, he left the big city and editorial cartooning in 1992 for Iowa City, Iowa, to devote his full warped attention to Non Sequitur. Non Sequitur is the only cartoon to win Reuben Awards in both the comic strip and comic panel categories and the only one to win a Reuben in its first year of syndication. Wiley now lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., with his wife and two daughters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (August 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740726730
• ISBN-13: 978-0740726736
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,245,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I began my career in art illustrating educational films. But my interest was always in print and cartooning, so in 1977 I moved from film in Southern California to work as a staff artist and editorial cartoonist for the Greensboro Daily News and the Greensboro Record (they were the morning and evening papers at the time and have since merged into one). In 1979 I moved on to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Ca.), as doing the staff art for one paper instead of two gave me more time to do editorial cartoons. My editorial cartoons then went into syndication with Copley News Service in 1980. Unfortunately, I was laid off in the recession of 1981, which, fortunately, led me to create my first comic strip, "Fenton", which was syndicated by Field Syndicate. It had moderate success, but my love was still with editorial cartooning. When the position came open at the San Francisco Examiner in 1984, I went for it and somehow got it. I enjoyed a good run there until the recession of 1991 hit in the wake of the Gulf War. Learning from my previous experience with recessions and the lack of job security for anyone in art, I decided to make my way out before the ax fell and created Non Sequitur, which went into syndication with the Washington Post Writers Group in 1992. It was met with immediate success, but it's growth with a small syndicate was limited. When I reached that limit, I moved over to Universal Press Syndicate in 2000, where the strip now appears in 800 papers world wide.Now, of course, I taken a new turn in my career, taking a story I did in the Sunday editions in 2005 called "Ordinary Basil" and made it into my first children's book with Blue Sky Press (a Scholastic imprint). The second book in the series, "Attack of the Volcano Monkeys", came out a year later, with a third book now in the works.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Necessary Preconditions, July 6, 2003

By 

WFK "alt historian" (Wolfsberg, Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Legal Lampoon: A Biased, Unfair, and completely accurate law review from Non Sequitur (Paperback)

You will like this book if you
a) appreciate the humor and superb drawing-style of Wiley
b) really, really hate lawyers
c) you are a kind of lawyer yourself.

If all of the above applies, I can guarantee that you will love this book. I do.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, January 26, 2006

By 

beonewithall - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Legal Lampoon: A Biased, Unfair, and completely accurate law review from Non Sequitur (Paperback)

What can I say; as a lawyer in training, its good to get the perspective of how I am going to be viewed in society. My personal favorite strip from the book involves Ernie the Sociopath, but you will have to buy it to figure out what he does. This book is hilarious, and is perfect if you have regular dealings with those in the law profession. I would not recommend giving this as a gift to an attorney; after all, we know how sensitive they are.
Overall, Wiley is one of the best comic strip artists today. The art is crisp and clear, and more importantly, the strips are not dominated by dialogue. Many of the strips in this collection involve a small caption and then just art. As I am currently in law school, I feel I have the privilege to paraphrase his introduction, which is to the effect that so long as we have ambitionless kids, whose only desire is to make money, our law schools will always be full. This sentiment is expressed clearly throughout this collection, and will leave anyone rolling on the floor in laughter at the "legalities" attorney's are there to protect.

4.0 out of 5 stars This gets you where you live!, April 23, 2010

By 

David Woodward "Texasnole" (Pensacola, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Legal Lampoon: A Biased, Unfair, and completely accurate law review from Non Sequitur (Paperback)

As a lawyer, I detest lawyer jokes--unless I tell them!

The Legal Lampoon includes the jokes I would like to have told first, in cartoon form. As with the book, I look forward to each day a lawyer strip appears from Non Sequitur.

If you like lawyers, and particularly if you don't, you will like these!