What Were You in a Previous Life? [Paperback]

Adam Green (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1993

This long out of print cartoon collection (The re-printing of the authors' first self-published book "Crazy Straws and Broken Hearts") has been rescued Indiana Jones-style by the author from a grungy warehouse in the wilds of Southern California. This 8' x 8' perfect bound tome can now be yours since you where technologically savvy enough to locate it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Adam Green is one of the funniest and most cynical artists I have ever encountered. His world of abstract, angular people is a paranoid, psychotic, grim place, but funnier than heck.

His take on relationships (about 1/3 of the cartoons) is one of impending doom and unrequited obsession. In other words, pretty true to life. (I'm kidding. Sort of.) -- "Blender of Love" August 1997

Cartoons kin to Matt Groening's "Life in Hell" strip, but less detailed, more blank ("Yet Another Cartoon That Fails to Address Class Struggle"), with pretty much three stock characters: office-worker male, office-worker female, plus cat as living non sequitur. You have to be there. -- Greil Marcus, "Artforum" November 1993

Green uses geometric, generic figures to tell quick, sharp gags trimmed of all extraneous detail. "You know, now that I'm old enough, I just don't want to drive the 'Starsky and Hutch' car..." "What about the 'A-Team' van?" "Nope!"

This book goes fast, but offers a higher laugh-to-page ratio than any other collection of gags I've seen as late; a "Family Circus" for the alternative press. Buy a copy and help establish a rare, funny gag cartoonist. -- "The Comics Journal" October 1993

In Adam Green's strange cartoon world, people are square-headed, round-eyed figures. Always, their C-shaped mouths are open, like a half-hole on the outside edge of a slice of Swiss cheese.

What comes out of those Swiss cheese mouths can be as weird as the pictures look.

Green's cartoons are decidedly language driven. It is what he writes in word balloons or in his captions and preambles that turns a reader's mouth up in mirth, or down in disgust.

While many pages are funny, some are not-unless you're a reader who laughs at puppies torn in half. The book is not for the squeamish.

There is a touch of grotesque, a hint of erotic, sometimes a lot of mystery, and often, an uncertain smirkiness, in most Green cartoons.

Few readers, will like every page. But the funny ones are funny, even when the humor is subtle. -- "The Toledo Blade" December 1993

The material in this collection can get pretty bleak. Green focuses on psychopaths, suicidal depression, violent death, romantic rejection, and revenge fantasies. The angular, stylized visuals and sardonic tone work to keep the reader at a distance. Green's characters, with their triangular faces and round blank eyes, aren't intended to seem real or evoke much sympathy. The focus here is on ideas and on an attitude, not on emotions or actual relationships.

Some of the material can also get pretty obscure, and plenty of readers will find nothing particularly hilarious about suicide or mutilated puppies. But if you keep turning the pages, you'll soon get to a cartoon whose angry cleverness will make you shout with laughter. In Green's cartoon world nobody gets close to anybody else, everything falls apart, and nothing connects; but the unsentimental observer can get in a few good laughs before the world blows up. -- Roz Warren, "Light" Winter 1993

From the Author

I would like to thank everyone who has written regarding this book either electronically or via snail mail.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr; 1 edition (October 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560250682
• ISBN-13: 978-1560250685
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 7.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,070,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars in a previous I was in hysterics at an art opening, May 18, 2002

By 

"hirofantv" (tomorrow) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Were You in a Previous Life? (Paperback)

This is a book of very morbid hilarity. It also exudes an amount of contrarianism. Do it. Buy it. Let yourself laugh.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Was Wrong!, July 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: What Were You in a Previous Life? (Paperback)

In my earlier review (below) I stated that Adam Green's book "What were you in a previous life?" was no longer available...apparently it IS available now. I bow before the publishing gods...THANK YOU for bringing this book back! Now that it IS available, I suggest that everyone buy one or two copies. If you already have it, they make great gifts! If you have any doubts about just HOW funny this book is, read the reviews. You won't be disappointed...unless you're completely humorless and dead inside.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very dark, Very funny, June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: What Were You in a Previous Life? (Paperback)

As a number of the other reviews noted, this collection is not for everyone. But, if jokes about torn puppies, monitoring your friends for hints of suicide, and dog vomit are your cup o' tea, then this book is for you.

One of the funniest books I've ever read.