Book Review: A Wealth of Pigeons by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss

A Wealth of Pigeons

by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss (741.5 Bli)

 

In his introduction, stand-up comedian, artist and musician Steve Martin describes the origins of this collaboration — despite his success in so many creative fields, Martin had never attempted to express his humor through printed comics. As his mental notebook of possible comic strip ideas continued to grow, he asked colleagues to connect him with an artist who might be willing to collaborate — enter Harry Bliss, acclaimed New Yorker single-panel cartoonist.

 

The two creative types “clicked” and began working together to create this collection, with the idiosyncratic title A Wealth of Pigeons. Sometimes, Martin would create an intriguing and thought-provoking one-line caption, and Bliss would create art to match. Sometimes, Bliss would have a quirky piece of art but no caption to attach, and Martin would respond. And sometimes, they just spit-balled together.

 

The result is an incredibly wry, quirky, and very humorous collection.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten: The Tweets of Steve Martin by Steve Martin or any of the various New Yorker Cartoons collections by a variety of artists.]

[ publisher’s official A Wealth of Pigeons web page ] | [ official Steve Martin web site ] | [ official Harry Bliss web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!