The Great Taste of Deep Fried
A review by Nick Peron
In a world of comics, once you get past all the super-heroes, every other genre is hit or miss. Probably the worst one to try and find something good to read is in the comedy genre. There are a lot of "comedy" comics out there, but here's the big shocker for you: Most of them suck. Some of the god awful trash I've read in my years of a comic reader, are about as funny as broken leg. Go figure that a lot of comedy books out there are not funny at all. To some people, comedy usuaslly equates putting something offensive in their book. Some of the more commen crap that qualifies as "funny" these days in comic books are rednecks, Christian sacrilage, goths, and shit jokes. I'm not denying these things can be funny, but only when written by the right person, and I can tell you that most of these people certainly do not qualify.
In the last few years I stumbled upon the book "The Great Taste of Deep Fried" which is a graphic novel that collects some of the works of Jason Yungbluth. It's a collection of the first few issues of a comic book he published under the same name. People who are trying to write funny comics, and fail fucking horribly, should use Mr. Yungbluth's work to get an idea of what works. To put it lightly, "The Great Taste of Deep Fried" is fucking hillarious. It's a great read, and the only crime is that there is only one graphic novel that's been published. And it's this first graphic novel in which I am going to be reviewing today.
On top of gross out humor, the book combines social commentary, comic book industry satire, and a little dash of Charles Schulz for good measure. The book is a variety of regular characters in recurring strips, and short one off stories as well. The common characters are Bepo and Roadkill, a alcoholic birthday clown and his talking cat, an ongoing story called "A Peanut Scorned" which features the cast of "Peanuts" in a post-apocalyptic future, and Clarissa, a little girl who tries very hard not to get touched by her daddy (One of the more disturbing aspects of his book I admit, but somehow he makes it funny.)
Here are five of my favorite strips that appear in this book, and if that doesn't convince you that this is an awesome book and you should sell your own sperm just to get the money to buy this book, then you are no son of mine.
5.) The "Peanut Scorned" Story:
It's actually an on-going story that carries on through the course of the graphic novel. As I mentioned above, it's a story that follows the characters from Peanuts, all grown up, in a post apocalyptic future. We follow the story of Weapon Brown and his dog as they travel the ruins of a destroyed world searching for his beloved little red haired girl who has been captured by the evil Linus and his cult of the Great Pumpkin. It's like Peanuts meets the Roadwarrior, meets just about every cyborg/mysterious past/gruff big muscled guy with big guns comic book from the 90's. Not to mention enough Peanuts references that have been twisted and distorted into a post-apocalyptic horror (example: a creature called a "Kite-Eater" that's a giant carniverious tree.)
4.) How Beepo Met Roadkill:
This story tells the tale of how Beepo the clown met his animal side kick, Roadkill. It all starts with a birthday party gone horribly wrong, and Beepo running over Roadkill and taking him to the vet and eventually taking him home. Hightlights to this story: Beepo debating on taking a bottle of booze or Prozac to enhance his proformance and each substance pleading it's case to him; Getting birthday boy Andy to do the 52 card pick up; Sruffy the Sock Puppets break down about being kicked out of Sesame Street and turning into a blood sucking sock puppet; and finally the admission by Velma from Scoobie-Doo is screwing Grape Ape.
3.) Pull My Finger:
The pull my finger gag, nobody wants to do pull your finger. This story asks the question: What if someone pulling your finger is a matter of life or death. That's the horror of Mr. Morgan, when getting somebody to pull his finger could mean the life or death of his family! Pick up the graphic novel and find out why!
2.) Henderson Saves Face:
Henderson is one day cut off by Ferguson, and so he decides to get revenge to show Ferguson how much of a jerk he is. Later that day, Ferguson comes home to find Henderson having sex with Ferguson's wife. Upon being discovered, Henderson shoots Mrs. Ferguson in the face, cuts open her belly and plays ping-pong with the dead twin babies inside, all the while asking Mr. Ferguson "Who's the Jerk Now?" in which a sobing Mr. Ferguson replies "Me! Sob!"
1.) Tears of a Clown:
In this story revealing the origins of how Beepo became a clown, we see how a Batman comic featuring the Joker would turn one young man into the one thing he dispised most: Being a clown. Highlights include: Beepo killing hobos for no reason and hacksawing them while listening to Beepo's heart wrenching story; Puberty and masturbation metaphores using clown perifinalia; Torturing children with seltzer bottles! It's all good clean fun.
Bonus This is Awesome Story: Inkblot Confronts the Black Heart of Humanity:
A parody of those Hostess Fuit cake adds featuring somebody who looks suspiciously like Roarsarch from Alan Moore's "Watchmen
In summation, The Great Taste of Deep Fried is an excellent addition to anybodies graphic novel collection that like comedy books that are actually funny. Also if you want to check out Jason Yungbluth's work, he also has a website where he publishes his work online at http://www.whatisdeepfried.com/. You can also find every comic book he's ever published available for order on the site (Including this graphic novel, the individual issues that were featured in it, and numerious other issues that have yet to be collected in a trade.)
