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Cringe: an anthology of embarrassment
“Cringe: An Anthology of Embarrassment” collects over twenty stories of personal humiliation, shame & awkwardness from a variety of indie cartoonists.
Contributors include Cara Bean, Box Brown, Jeffrey Brown, Chris Carlier, Peter S. Conrad, Chad Essley, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, Delaine Derry Green, Sam Henderson, Victor Kerlow, Steve Lafler, Lizz Lunney, Fred Noland, Stephen Notley, Adam Pasion, Sam Spina, Geoff Vasile, Jamie Vayda & Alan King, Chad Woody, Jess Worby & J.T. Yost.
Front cover by John Kerschbaum, back cover by Danny Hellman, title page by Gabby Schulz and spot illustration by Noah Van Sciver.
Edited by Peter S. Conrad
Published by Birdcage Bottom Books
Contributors include Cara Bean, Box Brown, Jeffrey Brown, Chris Carlier, Peter S. Conrad, Chad Essley, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, Delaine Derry Green, Sam Henderson, Victor Kerlow, Steve Lafler, Lizz Lunney, Fred Noland, Stephen Notley, Adam Pasion, Sam Spina, Geoff Vasile, Jamie Vayda & Alan King, Chad Woody, Jess Worby & J.T. Yost.
Front cover by John Kerschbaum, back cover by Danny Hellman, title page by Gabby Schulz and spot illustration by Noah Van Sciver.
Edited by Peter S. Conrad
Published by Birdcage Bottom Books
112 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2014
About the author
J.T. Yost
14 books34 followersJ.T. Yost founded Birdcage Bottom Books in 2009 after receiving a Xeric Award, a grant for self-publishing. Birdcage Bottom Books has published over 70 comics and graphic novels.
His work has been published by NBM Graphic Novels, Three Rivers Press, Vice Magazine, Silver Sprocket, Kilgore Books, Hic & Hoc Publications, and the Arthritis Foundation.
His work has been published by NBM Graphic Novels, Three Rivers Press, Vice Magazine, Silver Sprocket, Kilgore Books, Hic & Hoc Publications, and the Arthritis Foundation.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 11, 2015
"Cringe" is subtitled "an anthology of embarrassment" which it is. Sort of. Probably half of the submissions are actual embarrassing autobiographical comics while the rest are disgusting or just plain weird stories. As with most anthologies, the pieces can be a little hit-or-miss but there's a nice cross-section of indie talent and drawing styles. No matter what your taste is in comics, chances are you'll find at least a couple of cringe-worthy comics in this book.
FAVORITES:
"Like A Hamster" by Sam Spina - Sam's misguided attempt to sell his mini-comics in a bar leads to an awkward encounter with a pair of Bacardi girls.
"Danielle" by Alan King & Jamie Vayda - A cool throwback 'comix'-style story about the author's drugged-out 'girlfriend' unexpectedly meeting his conservative mother.
"Time To Leave" by Chris Carlier - While waiting for a friend at a local dive bar, Chris runs afoul of a nasty female patron.
FAVORITES:
"Like A Hamster" by Sam Spina - Sam's misguided attempt to sell his mini-comics in a bar leads to an awkward encounter with a pair of Bacardi girls.
"Danielle" by Alan King & Jamie Vayda - A cool throwback 'comix'-style story about the author's drugged-out 'girlfriend' unexpectedly meeting his conservative mother.
"Time To Leave" by Chris Carlier - While waiting for a friend at a local dive bar, Chris runs afoul of a nasty female patron.
December 28, 2017
Top to bottom this anthology, along with Digestate and Bottoms Up from Birdcage bottom Books, is worth checking out. Considering it came out in 2014, there is a mix of well known ( Box Brown, Sam Spina, Jeffery Brown, Sam Henderson) and up and coming artists who all create great stories. My recommendation is to order the trio of anthologies from this micropress and see for yourself.
August 2, 2015
As impressive a graphic anthology as I've seen since Weirdo stopped publishing. These horror stories of personal embarrassment range from some of the common (failure to control a bodily function in front of someone who matters--at one point, that person is Scott McCloud) to the absolutely baroque. Alan King and Jayme Vayda's triple-X tale of a downward-bound lady and the low life who appreciates her builds to a climax of degradation, that is both sharply edited and very personal. On a completely different level, Fred Noland's tragic memory of an incident at elementary school is the kind of story that justifies the existence of autobiographical comics...it's a story that wouldn't work in any other medium. Peter S. Conrad's tale of badly handling the friendship of an elder male is very incisive and dry--a delayed-fuse embarrassment bomb. There isn't a bad story in this small yet well-selected package...from the well-knowns in the scene like Sam Henderson, Jeffrey Brown and Steve Lafler as well as talents I hadn't seen before, such as Box Brown's title-says-it-all "I Used To Eat Lightbulbs," Julia Gforer's story of the personal shame of being a cutter, and Chad Woody, who describes his backbone crumbling in the presence of a vicious roommate. None of these stories could have been as easy to tell as they were hilarious to read.
November 22, 2014
My favorite stories in here were the ones by Sam Spina, Lizz Lunney, Jeffrey Brown, Cara Bean, and a touching piece by Fred Noland (an under-seen, under-rated talent). Special mention goes to Stephen Notley, and to the team of Alan King & Jamie Vayda, for the most truly embarrassing, mortifying stories of all (I seriously died a little for Notley). What's missing here (well, for me): an Introduction by the editor - I always like to read notes about why an editor put a book together, what their inspiration & mission was, etc. The bios in back were fun.
October 22, 2014
The best stories are excellent for sure; well told comics-wise, but also make you feel the cringe. A shorter book with only the cream of the crop would be 4 or 5 stars. A mixed bag, like many anthologies. (I wonder if my favorites would also be other readers' faves?)
November 12, 2014
This was a great anthology. The stories were varied and some were truly cringe inspiring. It was a great read all around, and I look forward to another collection to come out again.
July 19, 2015
A nice mixed-bad anthology. Some of the stories were great, and others were on vaguely on theme. Nothing that I regret reading, though.
October 25, 2014
This was nasty and funny and great. Peter Conrad can really put together an anthology.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews