Pickles [Paperback]

Brian Crane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 1999

A selection of more than 150 of the best daily strips from Brian Crane's hugely popular cartoon Pickles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (October 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563525100
• ISBN-13: 978-1563525100
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 7.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Humor > General

More About the Author

Brian Crane was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, but grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. He fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming a cartoonist with Pickles in 1990. He gains insight and inspiration for his strip from his wife, their seven children, and his very large extended family. In 2002 Brian received the National Cartoonists Society's award for Best Comic Strip.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious comic strip, but the collection is incomplete, January 18, 2001

By 

Michael Rawdon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pickles (Paperback)

I discovered Pickles in the San Jose Mercury News when I moved to California. It focuses on Earl and Opal, a senior couple who celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary during the strip, supported by their dog Roscoe, their curmudgeonly cat Muffin, their divorced daughter Sylvia, their grandson Nelson, and Earl's partner-in-procrastination Clyde. The strip centers around Earl and Opal dealing with the little things in life that they have to contend with as a retired couple, and a lot of the humor comes from various characters trying to one-up each other, with. What really makes the strip work is Crane's ability to write and pace dialogue, and the combination of meaning and inscrutability he imparts to his characters' expressions.

Crane's no Bill Watterson, but his clean linework and attention to body language and detail, along with the verbal jousting, recalls Calvin and Hobbes' sense of whimsy. Even though the strip often treads the expected ground of sight, hearing and memory loss, it all seems fresh and newly-silly here. The strip is best characterized as "playful", and this book made me laugh out loud several times.

The big flaw in the book is that it (as well as its sequel, Pickles, Too) is not complete. It's a sampling of strips from 1994 to 1998, mixed more-or-less randomly, and sometimes a strip which is part of a longer sequence is presented out of context, or a storyline ends abruptly after only two or three strips. Pickles is good enough that it deserves complete reprinting, and it's unfortunate that the publisher chose this scattershot method of presenting Crane's work. Hopefully someday this error will be rectified.

But until that day, this is still a fine collection to add to your bookshelf.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better, March 6, 2003

By 

Susan J. Evans (Palm Harbor, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pickles (Paperback)

I really enjoy reading Pickles every day. That makes it a bit discouraging to buy this book and be disappointed. I hoped that by buying the collections, I would be able to catch up on strips that I had missed since I travel for work. Unfortunately, the publishers have chosen only a small fraction of the available strips - and the strips seem to be out of context/continuity. Some of the funniest strips have been those that take several days or a week to unfold and they aren't here. No Sunday strips at all!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A collection of Pickles comic strips!, November 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Pickles (Paperback)

Pickles is one of the most under-rated comic strips in newspapers today! It's a strip that is consistently funny, day after day. The gentle, but dry wit of its creator, Brian Crane, is nicely represented in this collection. The book's introduction by Charles Schulz will warm your heart! This is great book for Pickles fans, young and old.