Four anarchically-funny books to get you into graphic novels

We put our heads together for some great graphic novel and comic recommendations. These are a mixture of books that we both found inspiring when we were growing up and also some great current books and recent discoveries!

Raymond Briggs’ Fungus the Bogeyman manages to be funny, touching, melancholic, sensitive and downright disgusting at the same time! Briggs’ beautiful illustrations create a hilarious, damp and grotty world – partly a surreal and funny field guide to the Bogeyman’s world and partly essaying Fungus’ existential crisis which is handled with humour and pathos.

Gary Nothfield’s brilliantly cantankerous Derek the Sheep must contend with the fact that sheep-life is no picnic, especially with all the other pesky farm animals continually causing Derek to get his wool in a twist! These books are exuberant and funny and Northfield’s art is expressive and anarchic – a joy to read. The second instalment, Derek the Sheep: First Sheep in Space, was published in 2018 and is superb! 

Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes is all about the hilarious imaginary adventures of 6‑year-old Calvin and his toy tiger friend, Hobbes. Originally drawn as newspaper strips, these comics pack a lot of laughs into a very small space, and the illustrations of Calvin’s wild imagination are expressive and full of energy. 

While it’s hard to pick a favourite book in the series, Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons deserves a special mention for Calvin’s hilarious battle against an army of mutant snow men!

Jamie Smart’s Looshkin is an absolute tour de force of colourful, exuberant, inventive randomness! Looshkin’s epithet as ​‘the maddest cat in the world’ is hilariously apt as anything that can go wrong in Looshkin’s world will go wrong – from bringing home a shark and insisting it’s an otter to opening a portal to hell, Looshkin leaves a trail of destruction wherever he goes. Smart’s art style is immediate and expressive, and the books leave the reader breathless with the sheer inventiveness and rapid-fire gags throughout!