Presenting a masterpiece from one of America's great satirists. Jules Feiffer has had one of the most varied and illustrious careers of any 20th century cartoonist. For over 40 years he contributed strips to The Village Voice, and has long been a regular contributor to the London Observer and Playboy. An animated cartoon based on his story Munro received an Academy Award in 1961. In the '60s, he branched into theater, writing several plays now regarded as classics: Little Murders; Knock, Knock; The White House Murder Case; Elliot Loves; and The Grown-Ups, to name a few. Originally conceived for the stage, his Carnal Knowledge became one of the landmark films of the '70s. He has written two prose novels, Harry the Rat with Women and Ackroyd, as well as a cartoon novel, Tantrum. In the 1990s, Feiffer embarked on yet another career, this time as a children's book author. He has over a half-dozen to his credit, including modern classics like The Man and the Ceiling. Passionella and Other Stories collects Feiffer's finest extended graphic narratives of the late '50s and early '60s. It opens in full-color with "Excalibur and Rose," the fable of a village comedian who embarks on a crusade in search of his serious side, which he finds in spades when he encounters his true love, the pathologically depressed Rose. The volume's centerpiece, "Passionella," a retelling of Cinderella set in modern Hollywood, concerns a chimney sweep whose fairy godmother transforms her into the "mysterious exotic bewitching temptress" and movie star Passionella. Other stories include "The Lonely Machine," an account of one man's attempt to find the perfect relationship through robot love, and "Harold Swerg," the predicament of the world's greatest athlete who'd rather stay at his mundane job than compete against others, despite his country's desperate pleas to enter the Olympics. Three more classic graphic tales and several entertaining one-act plays round out this handsomely designed hardcover edition.

The first of four volumes collecting Feiffer's landmark "Village Voice" strips.""My aim was to take the Robert Benchley hero and launch him into the Age of Freud.""--Jules FeifferIn 1956, a relatively unknown cartoonist by the name of Jules Feiffer started contributing a strip to the only alternative weekly published in the US, a small radical newspaper called "The Village Voice," It was originally titled "Sick Sick Sick," but Feiffer changed the name to, simply, Feiffer, because he got tired of explaining that the title referred to the society he was commenting on, not the nature of his humor, which, he insisted, was not sick.Politically, the '50s was dominated by the insipid Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower; the backwash of Joe McCarthy; and the Cold War, which was in full swing. Culturally, the Beats were revolutionizing literature, Marlon Brando was changing the face of acting, and Elvis Presley was altering the public's perception of pop music. The post-war suburban bliss of the country was being challenged by sociologists and economists in books like "The Lonely Crowd, The Other America," and "The Afflulent Society," The civil rights movement was gaining momentum. Camelot was just around the corner, and would be shattered by the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK. The Vietnam War would polarize the country. It was into this scrambled political-cultural climate that Jules Feiffer flung himself full throttle for the next ten years.His strip tackled just about every issue, private and public, that affected the sentient relationships, sexuality, love, family, parents, children, psychoanalysis, neuroses, presidents, politicians, media, race, class, labor, religion, foreign policy, war, and one or two other existential questions. It was the first time that the American public had been subjected to a weekly dose of comics that so uncompromisingly and wittily confronted individuals' private fears and society's public transgressions. "Explainers" is the first of four volumes collecting Feiffer's entire run of weekly strips from "The Village Voice," This edition contains approximately 500 strips originally published between 1956 and 1966 in a brick-like landscape hardcover format.

Prince Roger is sent on a quest, the purpose of which is to turn the carefree young prince into a sober man and worthy monarch. Roger gets everything wrong--except for the meaning of life, and that he gets right. "Feiffer follows "The Man in the Ceiling" with another winner, this time a rollicking medieval farce that pokes fun at medieval farces--and just about everything else--while managing at the same time to be hilarious, engaging and thoroughly entertaining".--"Family Life". Prince Roger sets out eagerly on a quest and finds a few adventures, a lot of friends, a damsel or two in distress (not!) and himself, in the end. A carrier of joy' whose mere presence causes everyone to laugh uncontrollably, Roger finds cruelty and kindness equally amusing, and expects his quest to be a lark. It's anything but: As Roger passes through the Forever Forest, nearly starves at the Dastardly Divide, sees people at their worst in the Valley of Vengeance, and temporarily despairs in the Mountains of Malice, he sobers up, learns to care for others, becomes an expert peacemaker, does Good Deeds, and falls in love with Lady Sadie, who says what she thinks as she repeatedly saves his bacon.'-K. Feiffer's worldly-wise, confiding tone and sense of the absurd are highly congenial, and the drawings are a vintage Feiffer delight.'-Publishers Weekly. 100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1995 (NY Public Library)

Comedy / 2m, 4f, 1f child / 2 Ints. An acerbic comedy by the famed cartoonist and author of KNOCK KNOCK and LITTLE MURDERS. It's about a middle-aged journalist who has, at last, grown up - only to find he's trapped in a world of emotional infants. "A laceratingly funny play about the strangest of human syndromes - the love that kills rather than comforts. Feiffer's vision seems merciless, but its mercy is the fierce comic clarity with which he exposes every conceivable permutation of smooth-ton

Elliot is a bachelor in his late thirties whose new girlfriend, Joanna, is everything he ever wanted in a woman--intelligent, beautiful, warm, independent--and yet terrifies him for precisely that reason. A twice-divorced real estate broker who likes order in her life, she is equally scared of the precariousness of having someone matter to her. Their uncertainties come to a head when Elliot takes her to a party to meet 'the guys'--Bobby, who works for Playboy; Phil, a recovering alcoholic; and Larry, who 'is not comfortable with a woman outside the confines of a divorce court.' The encounter becomes an initiation ceremony crackling with witty, barbed, and devastating dialogue that strips the two lovers of all pretensions, forcing them to confront each other anew in a painful awareness of their vulnerability. The result is a bitterly funny play about the ambiguities of being in love, with Jules Feiffer at his most incisive, wise, and wickedly honest.