Comic book series : Fun never stops

The Fun Never Stops is a comprehensive collection of premier caricaturist Drew Friedman's best comic strips, illustrations, and mug shots dealing with all the familiar Friedman themes the world has come to love: showbiz has-beens, ugly old white men, nefarious politicians, debauched celebrities, the ubiquitous Lord of Eltingville, etc. Most of the work is from the 1990s, and show Friedman's gradual phasing out of his famous (and amazing) black-and-white stipple look to his current (and equally amazing) lush watercolor style. In addition to the works written by Friedman, Fun includes many collaborations with his longtime partner K. Bidus, as well as Harvey Pekar (American Splendor), Mark Newgarden (We All Die Alone), and Bruce Handy, among others. Also included is artwork from the notorious Topps Bubble Gum Card series Toxic High, as well as art from the card sets Beauties and Cuties and Ed Wood Players. Comic strip highlights include "Everybody's Buddy" (RAW), which examines the legendarily combustible temper of drummer Buddy Rich; "Where's Johnny?" (Entertainment Weekly), a journey into what would have become of Johnny Carson's career had he never hosted the "Tonight Show"; "Hey, Academy!" (NY Observer), a demand from Friedman that Jerry Lewis be awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Motion Picture Academy; "The 10 Least Powerful People in Hollywood" (Details); "Howard Stern & Al Sharpton run for political office in NY" (The New Yorker); and "Kasablanca" (Esquire), which imagines Casablanca as directed by Oliver Stone. The book is topped off with a detailed, career-spanning biographical introduction by Ben Schwartz and a foreword by Daniel Clowes.

"Friedman's liver-spots-'n'-wrinkles style of cartoon realism is completely mesmerizing — open up this book and you won't be able to stop looking at his utterly original take on celebrity, which is equal parts scholarship, satire, contempt, and love... Friedman keeps the artistry and laugh quotient remarkably high." – Entertainment Weekly

"Wickedly funny... a delirious roundup of American entertainment and politics at the end of the 20th century." – The Onion A.V. Club

"Reading a hundred-plus pages of Friedman comics is like watching an episode of Hollywood Squares that devolves into a phantasmagoric orgy." – PLAYBACK:stl

"This collection of 1990s and later work demonstrates that, though he has abandoned the stippling of his classic 1980s stuff, Friedman remains the finest, most excruciatingly mordant, somehow most humane caricaturist going." – Booklist, "Top 10 Graphic Novels: 2008"