Customer Reviews

Der Struwwelmaakies

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You know that point in feeling despair when you've had enough of crying and you want to laugh again but everything seems cheesy to you? This book is not the cure, but part of the prescription for angst. It is so awful, so sick, so beautifully drawn, so unexplainable to your friends...just like your life is, sometimes. Tony Millionaire in his brighter moments (i.e. "Glass Doorknob") is the thing to read when you're a little down. Tony Millionaire in Der Struwwelmaakies is the one to read when you are deep in the hole. I laughed out loud so much my landlord actually came to ask what was so funny. (He didn't get it.) I bought the whole series and keep in by my bedstand in case of emergencies. I make sock monkeys, and I have seen his influence.

While I love some of Millionaire's other books, notably the Sock Monkey books (see The Collected Works of Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey, or Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey: Uncle Gabby), Der Struwwelmaakies was a huge disappointment. The best thing about the book is the cover art. Inside, the illustrations are largely uninspired--definitely not Millionaire's best work. What's far worse, however, is the tone of the "humor" that dominates the comics. Mostly the "jokes" are crude, crass, juvenile, unfunny cracks based on bodily functions and misogyny. While I understand that Millionaire may have been after a certain effect in an attempt to push the envelope (especially given the social-outcast or rebel tradition of the Struwwelpeter from which this book's title is adapted), the problem is that these comics are just not funny. Nor are they insightful, interesting, or thought-provoking in any other way. It's a shame Millionaire wasted the brilliant Struwwelpeter-inspired cover on this collection of trash.

If I had to chose one word to describe the book, it would be "immature." It reads like a collection of sketches drawn by a troubled 13-year-old. And I do mean troubled--if my kid drew these, I'd seek counseling for him. (I say "him" because misogyny is a common theme in these comics.)

Bottom line: a huge disappointment for fans of Millionaire's other, less crass (and more interesting) works.