Teen Humor

[Gothos]

I'd like to see what modern pros would do with the genre of teen comedy.

Granted that most of what used to appear commercially was silly junk: it was still interesting to see the different artistic talents that were used to render the silliness. Today the only art-style that most people associate with this genre is the Archie house style that came out of Montana, deCarlo, Lucey and Thoth knows who else. But I've seen a lot of interesting styles in the commercial comics of yesteryear.

The last well-known pro to dabble in teencom was probably Trina Robbins. What would a George Perez teencom look like? Or even better, one from John Byrne? (At this point I think he's well and truly Byrned out on superheroes.)

The genre should perhaps not be underestimated, given that a substantial number of the thriving manga-books are clearly appealing to a modern young audience. A lot of the teen-humor manga-books are genre-crossovers, using fantasy of one kind or another, but not all of them.

[T GUy]

The last well-known pro to dabble in teencom was probably Trina Robbins.

Or Gene Colan.

[MDG]

In many ways Love & Rockets is probably the closest thing to teen humor to appear in the past 20 years--the Maggie & Hopey stories, anyway.

The thing about "teen humor" books, though, is that, at least by the 60s, they were being written for pre-teens (at least that's the way it seemed to me). I think it was more a way for younger kids to look into the "teen world" before they got there.

MDG

[Mike Kuypers]

The last well-known pro to dabble in teencom was probably Trina Robbins. What would a George Perez teencom look like? Or even better, one from John Byrne?

A lot of teenagers with really bad haircuts? :)

If Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman did a ZITS comic book I'd buy it.

[dan bailey]

john byrne guested on funky winkerbean for several weeks some time ago. not that that's exactly a "teen humor" strip anymore, really.

[Metamorpho]

I'd like to see a teen humor strip written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Alex Ross. :D

[Brad Curran]

Blue Monday may be too modern (or crude) for your tastes, but for my money, it's an excellent teen comedy with a little bit of drama on the side. It helps if you can at least tolerate Chynna Clugston-Major's love of mod culture and some real gross out comedy, but I've found both volumes that I've read to be hilarious with some real heart to them. And yeah, there's always the early Maggie and Hopey stories. And if you're really pushing it, there are segments of Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man and Brian Vaugan's Runaways which are damn good comedy with teens. Okay, this is all too modern, but it's my frame of reference. And we were doing so well not mentioning Archie, I wanted to keep that going.



Crap!

[Brad Curran]

I'd like to see a teen humor strip written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Alex Ross. :D

Change the artist to Phil Bond or Frank Quitely and I'd buy six copies of every issue. Although Ross's style would be extremely amusing on a teen comedy, especially filtered through Morrison's esoteric sensibilities. I'd buy 4 copies of that.

[Reptisaurus!]

I'd like to see what modern pros would do with the genre of teen comedy.

Granted that most of what used to appear commercially was silly junk:

Well, sometimes, but 29 year old me STILL thinks "Leave it to Binky" approaches hillarious usually once every issue. (At least through the late sixties early seventies revival.)

So much better than Archie, with stronger characters and a heartfelt love of sight gags.

(Sadly, the Grand Comic Database doesn't list the writer or artist for this monumental classic.)

[Gothos]

Blue Monday may be too modern (or crude) for your tastes, but for my money, it's an excellent teen comedy with a little bit of drama on the side. It helps if you can at least tolerate Chynna Clugston-Major's love of mod culture and some real gross out comedy, but I've found both volumes that I've read to be hilarious with some real heart to them. And yeah, there's always the early Maggie and Hopey stories. And if you're really pushing it, there are segments of Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man and Brian Vaugan's Runaways which are damn good comedy with teens. Okay, this is all too modern, but it's my frame of reference. And we were doing so well not mentioning Archie, I wanted to keep that going.



Crap!

No disagreement on BLUE MONDAY: Clugston-Major is one of the few pros out there who can do believable young-person dialogue AND come up with an amazing variety of verbal and physical gags. BM gets my highest recommendation.

I should qualify my "silly junk" phrase in that I meant it affectionately. It is fun to just sit around and browse through the adventures of characters who really never change, just like Chabon said in KAVALIER AND KLAY (using ARCHIE as his example, no less).

I started collecting older humor books in the 90s because (a) they were cheap, and (b) they were often good time-wasters. I like a lot of the Atlas stuff-- GE0RGIE, MARGIE, WILLIE-- and a number of oddball teen books whose artists I could never peg, with names like GINGER and DEXTER. (I do recall that Dave Berg did one called MEET MERTON.)

What teen book did Gene Colan do?

Does anyone agree with my thought that the market for teen comics is still out there (as evinced by the manga readers), and that American artists might someday take advantage of it?

[Agentum]

I have some comics called Barry ween something, that is typical teen humor i think, doesn't make me smile that much, or maybe it's some kind of amercan humor i don't get.

[T GUy]

Gothos, What teen book did Gene Colan do?

Some issues of Jughead's Time Police back in the 1990s (IIRR)... and possibly some standard-issue Juggie stories as well.

[DocL]

In many ways Love & Rockets is probably the closest thing to teen humor to appear in the past 20 years--the Maggie & Hopey stories, anyway.

The thing about "teen humor" books, though, is that, at least by the 60s, they were being written for pre-teens (at least that's the way it seemed to me). I think it was more a way for younger kids to look into the "teen world" before they got there.

MDG


That was always my perception of them in the 60's.

[telle]

Are we ruling out manga artists? Many have made fortunes on teen comedy.

[Brad Curran]

Are we ruling out manga artists? Many have made fortunes on teen comedy.

I'm ruling them out because the only teen-centric manga I've read is Battle Royale, and that ain't comedy. But there are certainly a lot of examples there. This may be the wrong board to expect any of them, unless Cei-U's a closet Takahashi fan or something.