Lucky Cow [Paperback]

Mark Pett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005

Sacred cows make the best hamburger." --Mark Twain

Virtually every American, regardless of social status, eats fast food. Cartoonist Mark Pett's Lucky Cow strip embodies the spirit of America's love-hate affair with fast-food joints and the traits they have in common:

* High turnover: Two Lucky Cow employees argue over who has seniority; the one who was hired at 9:30 that morning eventually wins.

* Uniformity: A Lucky Cow employee boasts that a customer can visit any of the restaurant's franchises and they are all the same--right down to the lackluster customer service.

* Cleanliness (or lack of it): People's shoes adhere to the sticky floors, and an employee's skin absorbs so much of the restaurant's grease that water rolls right off it.

* Food quality: The response to a customer's query about the Lucky Cluck Chicken Nuggets being organic is met with, "Well, they're made from organs."

To help ensure that Lucky Cow would feel authentic, cartoonist Mark Pett worked at McDonald's for a month, experiencing fast-food "culture" for himself and interviewing his coworkers about their lives in the business. So it really is "funny because it's true.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cartoonist Mark Pett's varied and worldly experiences include teaching English and "skewering Czech political figures" as an editorial cartoonist in Prague; teaching sixth grade in rural Mississippi (a stint that later inspired his Mr. Lowe strip); and working as a freelance cartoonist. In 2003, high school art students in Indianola, Miss., worked with Mark to turn a Lucky Cow strip into the World's Largest Comic Strip (as certified by Guinness). Mark now lives in the Mississippi Delta with his wife and their dogs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0740750070
• ISBN-13: 978-0740750076
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cartoonist Mark Pett's varied and worldly experiences include teaching English and "skewering Czech political figures" as an editorial cartoonist in Prague; teaching sixth grade in rural Mississippi (a stint that later inspired his Mr. Lowe strip); and working as a freelance cartoonist. In 2003, high school art students in Indianola, Miss., worked with Mark to turn a Lucky Cow strip into the World's Largest Comic Strip (as certified by Guinness). Mark now lives in the Mississippi Delta with his wife and their dogs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, funny, funny!, April 19, 2005

By 

Marc Rehula "mrehula" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lucky Cow (Paperback)

Easily my favorite comic right now. I think it ranks with the Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, but Lucky Cow is rooted in the real world. (The Far Side sucessfully created an alternate universe, and, as insightful as C & H was about childhood, remember Hobbes was a stuffed animal).

These people are all real! You meet them on the street, on the bus, and of course at McD and Burger King. Except they SAY the things we THINK! I mean, THEY think. It's not like I can relate to these people, right? My work ethic is better than Clare's. I never exhibit the misplaced enthusiasm of her father. And I'm definitely not at all like Neil! Definitely! At least, I don't have any zits . . .

The weekday comics tell stories that actually build through the week. The weekend comics are brilliant satire, often concentrating on making fun of our consumer society. In fact, the Saturday comics that are mock ads are among my favorites. Highly, highly recommended.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cute, but not very original, December 4, 2006

By 

Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lucky Cow (Paperback)

"Lucky Cow" is set in your average American homogenous fast-food restaurant and focuses on Clare, daughter of the franchise owner. Clare hates her job and does her best to avoid work, complain and provide substandard customer service. Unfortunately, Mark Pett's attempts to skewer the fast-food industry grow stale fairly quickly, and the humor just isn't sustained through an entire collection.

This is not a strip I'd want to see in my local newspaper, and I can't work up any enthusiasm to read another collection of these jokes.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles editor

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite current comics, February 10, 2007

By 

Anton Karidian (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lucky Cow (Paperback)

Lucky Cow is one of my favorite current comic strips. The humor is great in poking fun at fast-food restaurants, which generally I'm not too fond of. Claire is a good example of the apathetic employee that is dragged in off the street to work, not just in restaurants, but in many businesses across America. Add to that the emphasis on meat, raunch fries, and other high-fat foods, along with a lack of fruits and vegetables, it's easy to see how fast-food places are fun targets for humor. Although to be fair, Lucky Cow does exaggerate for humor's sake. One of the strengths of this strip is that it is a lot more consistent than many comic strips in maintaining good quality day after day. A lot of other comic strips often have klunkers, and days that make me think "What the heck does that mean?" but with Lucky Cow I seldom am disappointed. I'm looking forward to reading the second collection!