Monday BLAST

​                                                We Need a Laugh,
                                                             Right?
 
            Back in the mid-1970’s I was married --- teaching  and living in Rye Brook, New York (although my mailing address was “Port Chester, NY”).  My wife and I had a dog and, somehow, had “adopted” four stray cats (who proceeded to procreate and deliver 3 more kittens).  I bring this up because I am not, and haven’t ever really been, a “cat person.”  Kathy was --- hence the seven (7) cats in our house.  In 1975, while strolling through a bookstore (maybe a Waldenbooks or Borders?) I noticed a cartoon book entitled: Cat by an artist named “BKliban.”  It was a bizarre collection of “cat” cartoons, very weird and edgy so, of course, I bought it, making it a coffee table staple of our home.  Over the next couple of years “BKliban” produced two more books ---Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head (1976)and Whack Your Porcupine (1977) -- which I also bought, adding to our coffee table collection.

            Two nights ago, as we were sheltering-in-place, the Lovely Carol Marie came downstairs and plopped Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head in front of me.  “Thought this might give you a laugh,” she said --- and, indeed, it did.  In fact, it brought back a flood of memories about just how much I love  edgy,  off-the-wall cartoonists.  Gary Larson, another favorite of mine (Who doesn’t love The Far Side?) cited BKliban as one of his influences.  Starting in graduate school, at Colgate (1972-73),  Steve Jones (can it really be that we’ve been close friends for almost half-a-century?) and I used to look forward to our National Lampoon subscription’s monthly arrival --- particularly loving the bizarre and, sometimes, perverse cartoons, as well as its topical  satire.
​
            All that is an introduction to where the BLAST is heading this week.  Starting with BKliban (who, I discovered, was actually born right here in Norwalk, Connecticut on New Year’s Day in 1935), the BLAST will feature ten to twelve cartoons each day, hoping to elicit some laughs and make our “social distancing” a bit more fun.  One of the things I love about Kliban’s work is the way he creates puns with cartoons --- playing with language but expressing it visually.  There is definitely a “weirdness factor” in his work --- and an irreverence.   For those younger readers, this may provide some insight into a segment of U.S. popular culture in the 1970s.  For my (and Steve’s, and Del’s, and Mr. Pete’s and Pando’s) former students, this may  explain a lot!  So, without further ado, BKliban.   (Stay home and stay safe!)