We All Die Alone, continued
“The melding of brows ‘low, middle, and high’ may have been the most important twentieth-century art trend, in which case Newgarden, whose 1983–91 work this plush (literally: stroke the cover), square volume showcases, may be the last great twentieth-century artist. Writer-draftsman Newgarden chose the gag cartoon, regarded as a type of both commercial, industrial art and vernacular comedy, as his principal metier. For Newgarden, gag cartoons’ verbal and ideational content is as and sometimes more important than the visual content, which sets him quite apart from comics-quoting pop artists, than whom a less verbally adept crew is hard to find. One set of Newgarden’s stuff consists of one-panel drawings perched over often-scabrous captions so voluminous that they amount to short stories. Another part of his work is all same-size panel pieces, including the wordless Little Nun series as well as the excruciating Pud + Spud episodes, in which two brothers yammer in square panels so small that one’s eyes give out long before the text does. The tenor of Newgarden’s humor ranges from cruel absurdity to nose-thumbing satire to cool faux-intellectualism (the last, in particular, runs rampant in the Industrial Toilet Paper Wrapper Design Of N.Y.C. series). If one warms to Newgarden at all, he is very, very, very funny. As the concluding gallery of others’ art that inspired him demonstrates, even his taste is hilarious.” – Ray Olson, Booklist (starred ★ review)
“Exploring the detritus of our consumer culture, Newgarden reworks comics cliches to show the lighter side of despair. Back in the ’80s, he created the Garbage Pail Kids, satirizing the lovable cuteness of products manufactured for children. Since then, in a variety of underground publications, he has subverted everyday icons and parodied traditional ‘joke’ merchandise. Most people would merely glance at a trite cartoon showing two big-nosed guys in a bar, a man on a desert island, a clown with a psychiatrist, etc.; Newgarden is fascinated by why those images became the stock in trade for cheap, disposable humor productions. He wonders if laughing at a stupid hillbilly, an alienated drunk or a prisoner on death row lets us repress the pain of our own frustrations. The drawings here work perfectly as quickie cartoons, but they also extend themselves, turning into desperate, hysterical rants. From an ad for the Little Nun’s stigmata gloves and edible rosary to an exhibition of real toilet paper wrappers, Newgarden treats nothing as sacred. In fact, he suspects that we cherish whatever distracts us from our problems. Beautifully produced—the covers are black velvet—this book shows the results of his study aren’t exactly comforting, but they are fascinating and funny as hell.” – Publisher’s Weekly (starred ★ review)
“No cartoonist needs a whole graphic novel when he can say all he needs to with one big panel containing the following: ‘Imagine A Drawing Of Dennis The Menace’ and ‘Imagine A Sentence Of Samuel Beckett’s.’” – The Onion/A.V. Club
“We All Die Alone collects 20 years of Newgarden highlights from underground mags like RAW and alt-weeklies like The New York Press, and showcases an artist as playful as he is experimental. A self-described ‘graphic alchemist,’ junk historian, and connoisseur of big noses, Newgarden repeatedly deconstructs the gag cartoon form, confronting and confounding his audience’s expectations.” – The Village Voice
“In the hands of Mark Newgarden, the gag cartoon is taken to new heights, and new lows.” – The Vancouver Courier
“We All Die Alone showcases a decade of important art that might otherwise have slipped away.” – The Phoenix
“The sumptuously designed, felt-embossed volume from Fantagraphics catches audiences up with the fertile oeuvre of Newgarden, who has been plugging away at his literary and nihilistic underground comics for over two decades.” – The Portland Mercury
“Large noses it seem that mark of Newgarden is already have and keep savage bring together in a kloeke cord. Of everything a beetje eventually continues gnaw the question: why this cord? What is the lying behind philosophy of this expenditure?” – 8 Weekly (Amsterdam)
We All Die Alone is the first collection of work by cartoonist Mark Newgarden. It gathers over twenty years of his comics output, encompassing his tenure at the influential comics anthology RAW as well as his cult-classic syndicated comic, “Newgarden,” and all points in between.
We All Die Alone, continued
“The melding of brows ‘low, middle, and high’ may have been the most important twentieth-century art trend, in which case Newgarden, whose 1983–91 work this plush (literally: stroke the cover), square volume showcases, may be the last great twentieth-century artist. Writer-draftsman Newgarden chose the gag cartoon, regarded as a type of both commercial, industrial art and vernacular comedy, as his principal metier. For Newgarden, gag cartoons’ verbal and ideational content is as and sometimes more important than the visual content, which sets him quite apart from comics-quoting pop artists, than whom a less verbally adept crew is hard to find. One set of Newgarden’s stuff consists of one-panel drawings perched over often-scabrous captions so voluminous that they amount to short stories. Another part of his work is all same-size panel pieces, including the wordless Little Nun series as well as the excruciating Pud + Spud episodes, in which two brothers yammer in square panels so small that one’s eyes give out long before the text does. The tenor of Newgarden’s humor ranges from cruel absurdity to nose-thumbing satire to cool faux-intellectualism (the last, in particular, runs rampant in the Industrial Toilet Paper Wrapper Design Of N.Y.C. series). If one warms to Newgarden at all, he is very, very, very funny. As the concluding gallery of others’ art that inspired him demonstrates, even his taste is hilarious.” – Ray Olson, Booklist (starred ★ review)
“Exploring the detritus of our consumer culture, Newgarden reworks comics cliches to show the lighter side of despair. Back in the ’80s, he created the Garbage Pail Kids, satirizing the lovable cuteness of products manufactured for children. Since then, in a variety of underground publications, he has subverted everyday icons and parodied traditional ‘joke’ merchandise. Most people would merely glance at a trite cartoon showing two big-nosed guys in a bar, a man on a desert island, a clown with a psychiatrist, etc.; Newgarden is fascinated by why those images became the stock in trade for cheap, disposable humor productions. He wonders if laughing at a stupid hillbilly, an alienated drunk or a prisoner on death row lets us repress the pain of our own frustrations. The drawings here work perfectly as quickie cartoons, but they also extend themselves, turning into desperate, hysterical rants. From an ad for the Little Nun’s stigmata gloves and edible rosary to an exhibition of real toilet paper wrappers, Newgarden treats nothing as sacred. In fact, he suspects that we cherish whatever distracts us from our problems. Beautifully produced—the covers are black velvet—this book shows the results of his study aren’t exactly comforting, but they are fascinating and funny as hell.” – Publisher’s Weekly (starred ★ review)
“No cartoonist needs a whole graphic novel when he can say all he needs to with one big panel containing the following: ‘Imagine A Drawing Of Dennis The Menace’ and ‘Imagine A Sentence Of Samuel Beckett’s.’” – The Onion/A.V. Club
“We All Die Alone collects 20 years of Newgarden highlights from underground mags like RAW and alt-weeklies like The New York Press, and showcases an artist as playful as he is experimental. A self-described ‘graphic alchemist,’ junk historian, and connoisseur of big noses, Newgarden repeatedly deconstructs the gag cartoon form, confronting and confounding his audience’s expectations.” – The Village Voice
“In the hands of Mark Newgarden, the gag cartoon is taken to new heights, and new lows.” – The Vancouver Courier
“We All Die Alone showcases a decade of important art that might otherwise have slipped away.” – The Phoenix
“The sumptuously designed, felt-embossed volume from Fantagraphics catches audiences up with the fertile oeuvre of Newgarden, who has been plugging away at his literary and nihilistic underground comics for over two decades.” – The Portland Mercury
“Large noses it seem that mark of Newgarden is already have and keep savage bring together in a kloeke cord. Of everything a beetje eventually continues gnaw the question: why this cord? What is the lying behind philosophy of this expenditure?” – 8 Weekly (Amsterdam)
We All Die Alone is the first collection of work by cartoonist Mark Newgarden. It gathers over twenty years of his comics output, encompassing his tenure at the influential comics anthology RAW as well as his cult-classic syndicated comic, “Newgarden,” and all points in between.