Nuts

In this thematically and narratively linked series of one-page stories originally published in the National Lampoon’s “Funny Pages” section throughout the 1970s, the master of the macabre 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, disappointment, 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. This new hardcover edition reprints every single “Nuts” story from the Lampoon (rescuing over two dozen pages from oblivion) and reinstitutes the color in the “Christmas” and “Halloween” episodes, and for that matter the 3-D in the 3-D episode (“I wish to God I’d never seen all this space.”)

If you don’t remember what it was like being a child, this book will bring it all back… for good or for ill! Black-and-white comics with "Christmas" and "Halloween" strips in full-color.

"Gahan Wilson’s Nuts is the best, most clear-eyed explanation of and memoir about childhood I’ve ever read. Small, cramped, perfect drawings that show children as they are — explorers without a map or a book of instructions in the land of mad giants." —Neil Gaiman