despicable and miserable
Created by: Samuel Continent
Publisher: Pow Pow Publishing
Before being adapted into a film in 2025, despicable and miserable Publisher Pow Pow Press is releasing a new edition this fall…so this feels like a great book to revisit as the Halloween season officially begins. Now, there are some caveats to this. This is definitely a book for mature readers and contains some sexual jokes and language that may be offensive to some. That said, it’s also a smart and absurd black comedy, if you’re looking for that kind of thing, like I’ve generally been looking for.
This book is the work of a cartoonist Samuel Continent Headquartered in Montreal. The book was first published in 2015 after receiving significant support on Kickstarter, but has not yet been released through the US direct market. In terms of emotion and humor, it is related to Simon Hanselman Work. That said, it’s still its own thing.
There isn’t much plot to tell in it despicable and miserable, This is good. What happened is not the point. A car dealership owner is trying to get into the used bookstore market and sees it as the future; or a demon is trying to seduce his penis out of its polyester skin on one day of the year (Groundhog Day). These are just ridiculous set-ups to achieve what the book is really interested in – mining the humorous ways in which terrible people talk to each other.
The book is full of unpredictable banners – look out for phrases like “The Unknown Soldiers of Cats…” or “I’m not biased…I listen to a lot of Satanic music!” This book basically goes from beginning to end with none of the characters willing to talk to each other, not really… which creates hilarious tension. It touches on mundane work relationships, literary aspirations and outright fantasy.
It doesn’t really have a coherent structure, but it doesn’t really need one. I mostly describe this book as a conversational car crash that had me laughing my head off several times.
Finally, if you haven’t read this book and like blue stories, as they say, despicable and miserable What a great way to start this year’s Halloween reading season.
Read more great reviews from The Beat!
