cover image Fuc- --u, --s--le: A Comic Strip Collection

Fuc- --u, --s--le: A Comic Strip Collection

Johnny Ryan, Fantagraphics, $11.99 trade paper (104p) ISBN 978-1-60699-415-3

Ryan is in top form with his latest collection of Blecky Yuckerella strips, where every page brings a new round of vulgar, revolting, and offensive humor. Fans will welcome this installment of his no-holds-barred attack on polite sensibilities, while those who don't know his work will either embrace it or throw the book to the ground and run. Either way, Ryan's profane point of view, which entered the comics world with Angry Youth Comix in the mid-'90s, makes an impression. The Blecky Yuckerella strips here are brilliantly rude, their humor somehow sharp in spite of all the potty-mouthed fantasies. After all, it's hard not to laugh—or at least snort—when Blecky proudly displays her "9-11 commemorative edition box cutter" or when a discussion of the show 24 leads to a disgusting new definition of the word "cliffhanger." Ryan's signature goofy old-school comic strip style mixed with the crudest of imagery works every time. (Feb.)