Nuts

Remember how baffling, terrifying, and sad childhood really was? Now you can laugh at it.

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. This is essentially a lost Gahan Wilson graphic novel from the 1970s and '80s.

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.

If you don’t remember what it was like being a child, this book will bring it all back… for good or for ill! This new hardcover edition reprints every single “Nuts” story from the Lampoon (rescuing over two dozen pages from oblivion), with a critical essay about the strip by Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth.