Books
Mark Newgarden is the author of several books of, and about, humor.
How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels
with Paul Karasik
Fantagraphics Books, 2017
The Eisner Awards Winner: Best Comics-Related Book, 2018
“It’s a masterpiece.” – Robert Crumb
“As one of the members of the first graduating class of ‘How to Read Nancy,’ I can insure that anyone who wants to understand the mechanics of comics should snap up this thorough (and thoroughly entertaining) extended autopsy of [Ernie] Bushmiller’s genius. I learned more about reading pictures from it than I did from seven years of art school.” – Chris Ware
“How to Read Nancy details the agony involved in making comic strips. It is also a very funny book.” – Ben Katchor
More information about this book can be found here.
This book can be purchased here.
We All Die Alone
A collection of cartoons and jokes, edited by Dan Nadel
Fantagraphics Books, 2006
“I’m a fan of Mark Newgarden.” – Matt Groening
“I’ve been waiting for a book of Mark Newgarden’s stuff most of my adult life. Somehow, he managed to retool the basic external elements of cartooning—big noses, panel gags, punch lines—into a sophisticated inner language of uncomfortably familiar self-mocking existential despair. Most everybody knows that ‘funny’ is really ‘misery,’ but his stuff gets as close to misery as it can without quite ever touching off the chain reaction that'll make you want to cut your head off—all the while staying hilarious. We ‘youngsters’ should be paying him reparations for stealing from him for all these years.” – Chris Ware
“Newgarden could well be the forgotten genius of pop culture’s last quarter century.” – Tom Spurgeon, Res Magazine
More information about this book can be found here.
This book can be purchased here.
Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item
with Picturebox Inc.
Harry N. Abrams, 2004
AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers: Award, 2005
“A very smart book about dumb products.” – xrayspex.blogspot.com
“There is absolutely no good reason for Cheap Laffs to exist. It serves no pedagogical purpose, tells no vital story, and has nothing to say about the state of the world today. I read it from cover to cover.” – Toronto National Post
“There’s a truly outstanding introduction that tells the colorful, fascinating story of the gag, stories of intense rivalries between immigrant entrepreneurs of the last century, squabbles over who invented rubber puke, and the early regulation of sneezing powder. These were deeply weird people, but charming, and Newgarden’s capsule history of gagdom is like a window into a better world.” – Corey Doctorow, Boing Boing
More information about this book can be found here.
This book can be purchased here.
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