Comicbook - The Penned Guin: What Next?
Now that the latest Penned Guin book by Alan Henderson is crowdfunding through Kickstarter, Susan Omand brightened her day by reading What Next?...
I always enjoy a daily chortle at the Penned Guins’ social media offerings* and it’s been an absolute joy to watch the evolution of their silly humour over the years as all the compilation books came out. So I was excited to find out that another book of collected comic strips is on the way. The title, “What Next?”, I must admit though, did have me wondering, had there been any big changes? Maybe a new format or gasp “alternative” humour? [NOOOOO! – Ed] Was this going to be an all-new collection, but also all different and strange?
Thankfully no. All looks as it should do and I felt a certain level of comfort set in as I opened the familiarly-styled book. This sameness is definitely a good thing for me, though, and the very first strip on the title page itself had me proper LOLing as the kids say [no, they don’t – Ed]. And the fun just went on from there. The book has 100 pages, most with two three-panel strips on, and there’s not a dud among them. You can expect puns, groans and dad jokes galore, with wordplay aplenty, top-notch topical references (and some not so topical – The Carpenters joke got another LOL from me) and the superb visual humour that I’ve come to expect from these monochrome masters of mayhem. All I can say is thank goodness for airbags indeed. [You will get this joke once you read the book – Ed]. There are also some very subtle touches in the artwork, like in the maths joke, and one particularly cleverly constructed joke that, when you spot it, will definitely give you an extra smile. Well played, Mr Henderson!
So, yes, it’s more of the same and that’s exactly the reason you should throw your money at this book. If you're already a fan, you'll know that what you’re going to get are loads of easy-to-read pages of hysterically funny panels from the instantly recognisable wee characters that we’ve come to know and love over the years. And if you’re new to the Penned Guins? I’d say this book gives you a perfect jumping in point and is guaranteed to brighten up even the darkest of days. And goodness knows, we all need a laugh just now.
So here’s the one from the title page that made me LOL so much [but you're weird like that - Ed] …
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