Review 13: My Dirty Dumb Eyes by Lisa Hanawalt

After the weight of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (both figuratively and literally – I weighed the book and it came out at approximately the same as 2 African elephants, or, if you’ve not gone metric yet, 1.5 Africanne elephants) I desperately needed something light and fun. Happily, Lisa Hanawalt’s My Dirty Dumb Eyes entered stage left to provide exactly that comic relief.

Hanawalt isn’t exactly a household name, but she’s very well-respected in the publishing industry, and you’d probably recognise her artistic style from the anthropomorphic animal circus of BoJack Horseman, for which she is the production designer. This collection takes that style and combines it with Hanawalt’s own humour – surreal, crude, hilarious.

The artwork varies in style throughout the book, but for me it’s at its best when she’s adopting the style that was also the best thing about BoJack Horseman - an odd combination of semi-realistic, highly detailed animals and cartoony blocks and colours. It’s really beautiful at times, even when she’s drawing a horse-man with baby birds hatching in his eyes and nose.

Let’s be clear, the humour is about as broad as the Norfolk Broads. She can dart from weird bizarro-dream to crude sex jokes and back again in a couple of panels. But if you sit in the centre of a Venn diagram where one circle is surrealist jokes and the other is sex jokes – and I do – then this is the right party for you. Come on in! But wipe your filthy feet on the mat first.

I mean, how can you not love a book with this thrown in without so much as an introduction?

The best parts of the book, for me, were her running commentaries on films she watched. These are mostly straight text, with accompanying images for her interpretations of what’s going on. She turns almost comic anthropologist in these, dissecting the film, the audience and her own reactions with cutting, odd wit.

I’ll leave you with this:

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This is my thirteenth book review of 100 to raise money for Refuge, the domestic abuse charity. If you liked this review, or just want to help out, please donate on the link below!

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