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Nuts Hardcover – October 18, 2011
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- In this thematically and narratively linked series of one-page stories originally published in the National Lampoon's "Funny Pages" section throughout the 1970s, Gahan Wilson eschewed his usual ghouls, vampires, and end-of-the-world scenarios for a wry, pointed look at growing up normal in the real, yet endlessly weird, world. Watch as our stoic, hunting-cap-wearing protagonist (known only as "The kid") copes with illness, strange old relatives, the disappointment of Christmas, life-threatening escapades, death, school, the awfulness of camp, and much more ― all delineated in Wilson's roly-poly, sensual, delicately hatched line. Nuts was (partly) collected in a now long out-of-print volume back in 1979. If you don't remember what it was like being a child, this book will bring it all back... for good or for ill!
- Print length144 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFantagraphics Books
- Publication dateOctober 18, 2011
- Reading age16 years and up
- Dimensions8 x 1 x 8 inches
- ISBN-101606994549
- ISBN-13978-1606994542
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
― Ray Olson, Booklist
"They’re wonderful pieces of comic art..., applying Wilson’s usual sense of the grotesque and macabre to phenomena like summer camp and sick days. And they’re not all bitter either... He mixes the sour and the sweet exceptionally well."
― Noel Murray, The A.V. Club
"The all-time greatest comic strip about what it is to be a child, ever. Insightful, hilarious, poignant and dripping truth from every panel, Nuts is, was and ever will be in my pantheon of most life-altering reads. It showed me that comics could be more than just gag-driven. Beautifully drawn and essential to any library of cartoon books."
― Bob Fingerman
"The kids in Nuts are vain, covetous, not so very bright, and they stagger around, reeling, from one unpleasant surprise to the next…. Weirdly, by giving his kids the vocabularies of adults, he really captures the neuroses of childhood. We begin life as we live it now: Dazed, angry, and bitter at our own fundamental lack of control."
― Paul Constant, The Stranger
"Dense, claustrophobic, intense and trenchantly funny, the self-contained strips ranged from satire to slapstick to agonising irony, linking up over the years to form a fascinating catalogue of growing older in the USA: a fearfully faithful alternate view of childhood and most importantly, of how we adults choose to recall those distant days."
― Win Wiacek, Now Read This!
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Fantagraphics Books (October 18, 2011)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 144 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1606994549
- ISBN-13 : 978-1606994542
- Reading age : 16 years and up
- Item Weight : 1.22 pounds
- Dimensions : 8 x 1 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,060,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #892 in Fantagraphics Comics & Graphic Novels
- #2,916 in Literary Graphic Novels (Books)
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Now, most comic strips dealing with children rely on a gimmick of some sort. Either the kid lives in a dream world, or has an imaginary friend only he can see, or is nothing more than an adult transposed as a kid. The hero in Nuts is none of those. This is a kid who must confront the fear of what monster lurks in the shadows of his room or down in the basement, but who nonetheless has to tell his parents he is going to see a Disney nature film, when all he wants to see is another monster flick. If any of you remember what being a child was, you haven't read Nuts yet. Once you read this book, you will really remember what being a child actually was like. Remember building those airplane models that looked so cool on the outside of their boxes, only to find out that you glued certain parts wrong or forgot others, and it always ended up looking totally different from what you thought it would actually look like? Remember going to summer camp where they had you doing worthless things, and your only thought was of getting back home to read your comic books instead? Remember that first time you saw a girl and you didn't feel the same thing for her as you felt for your other friends? This and countless other situations are just some of what's waiting for you inside this book.
I remember reading Nuts for the first time in the National Lampoon. This strip would always open the Funny Pages section, where all the cartoonists drew their strips. Consisting of various panels arranged in three tiers, with an introduction under the logo in the first panel, we would then follow the kid (we never get to know his real name, as he is the kid in all of us) through a series of mishaps he has to go through. Almost two-thirds of each panel is taken over with dialog, and the bottom third is left so that Mr. Wilson can draw his kids, though we mostly only see their heads, as there is hardly any space left for anything else, and what little space is left, is covered with cross-hatching from Mr. Wilson's pen. So we aren't getting any cutie-pie kid frolicking in the playground or playing baseball with his little friends. No, in this strip we follow the kids thoughts as he has to go through the grueling events every kid has to go through; getting sick, going to school afterwards and not understanding a thing of what the teacher says, suffering through summer camp, visiting your grandparents, picking the groceries for your mom and then noticing that you had put the money in a torn pocket of your jacket, etc. Actually, all the stuff we all had to go through. Yet, through Mr. Wilson's pen strokes, all this produces a warm feeling of déjà-vu that will eventually bring a smile or even laughter to the reader, from the apparent, yet so true, ordeal the kid has to go through.
When I saw this book for the first time, it was in a comic shop way back in the early '80's, and I immediately grabbed it in sheer surprise that someone had actually had the good taste and decided to collect all this strips in a single book. When I was about to pay for it, the vendor at the counter asked me whether I knew who the person that drew this book was. And I pretty much told him all I've been telling you, and ended saying that Nuts was the best book ever written about what being a child really was like. The guy just nodded and leafed through the book... But you can't just leaf through this book! Mr. Wilson doesn't do cute drawings. You've got to read the strips to fully appreciate this book, as the combination of dialog and art has never been so perfectly matched. It's almost like a signature, a signature only one person can do and no one else can imitate.
But you know what? I always felt like I was the only person in the world who knew Gahan Wilson (although I've never met him in person). Whenever we talked about our favorite cartoonists among other fellow cartoonists, I always mentioned Gahan Wilson and was always met with blank stares. So I had to explain what he did, and at the time there were no books on his work and no internet, so I had a hard time trying to explain what his work looked like. Let's just say that without Gahan Wilson there would be no Piraro or Gary Larson. Also, there would be no Nuts...
But you know what? I always felt like a had a secret that no one else knew. That I had a book that collected the entire run of the strip Nuts, and that I was the only person that knew about it. And now it's about time you too get acquainted with the strip Nuts and its author, thanks to Fantagraphics, and become part of the elite of fans of Mr. Gahan Wilson and his strip about the kid (as once read, you'll forever be a fan of this book).
The artwork throughout this book is sharp and clear (maybe because it was scanned from the originals?) and the endpages reproduce the original 3D version of one of the strips, though I wonder if anyone can read them, as they overlap onto another page, making it totally unreadable. Also, the strips that appeared in color in the magazine are reproduced only in black and white. Other than that, this book collects the entire run of the strips, features an appreciation by Gary Groth, and is a hardcover. So what more do you want?
You won't regret buying this book, I promise you.
I still remember the junk I used to buy with cereal boxtops, just like the junk the Kid buys, knowing it would be crap. None the less, I would still buy it hoping that "this time" it would not be worthless.
MY son discovered it when he was in middleschool and read it many times. We still will pull quotes about the Kid in out converstaions, like some kind of code, and we still get a chuckle or smile from each other.
My suggestion, if you like Gahan Wilson, get it. You and you children will love it.
I read this collection at least once a year, as it's just the most hilarious "TRUE" account of what it's like to be a kid.
It's dark and not for very young kids. (I'd give it a PG rating) Adults should read it first, before letting their kids read it, as some of the material is pretty dark, and there's some adult language.
I bought it in hardcover, as I'd like to pass it on to my sons someday, when they're a bit older.
PS: They made an animated cartoon based loosely on this collection, but it was pretty awful.
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2015








