Review: Safely Endangered Comics – Chris McCoy
Safely Endangered Comicsby Chris McCoy
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: April 9, 2019
Genres: Graphic Novel, Humor
Pages: 144
Source: NetGalley
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
My rating:
Created by UK-based artist Chris McCoy, Safely Endangered's brilliantly hilarious comics have an unexpected, twisted punch line with an adorable illustration. From relying far too heavily on Facebook to the struggles of sibling rivalry, Safely Endangered covers a vast range of ridiculously funny situations with humans, animals and even video game characters.
I’m a sucker for collected web comic collections, so when I saw a new one out, I had to give it a try. On the whole, if you’re a fan of the medium, I think this would definitely be worth your time. It’s a fun mix of snarky and cute!
Like most web comics, it has a deceptively simple, cutesy style. Most things are simple shapes with small added details, like squiggles for hair or fur. I loved the color choices – people are variously yellow, purple or blue. All the text was easy to read.
While there are some comics that are kid-friendly, most involve some form of dark humor. Frankly, I found a lot of them hilarious, though like most collections, there were a few duds for me. Most of the comics are 3-5 panels on a single page, with very few comics that refer back to previous comics as a gag. There’s a lot of variety in the jokes, though a good deal of them deal with pop culture. There’s lots of video game jokes, from Pokemon to Super Mario, as well as perennial nerd favorites Star Wars and Harry Potter.
My one critique is that it’s literally just a bunch of comics thrown together in no particular order I could discern. There’s no attempt to arrange them by category and no real editorial content. That cuts down on the re-readability of the book a lot for me, as it feels like there’s not much to really discern it from just reading the comics on the internet.
Overall, I enjoyed the collection, and I’ll definitely be looking up more of Mr. McCoy’s work, but I think I would try to borrow this from the library over purchasing it, unless you’re a huge fan.
