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Time for Lights Out by Raymond Briggs

Started by Robin Low, 07 September, 2019, 09:33:19 AM

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Robin Low

Just spotted this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Lights-Out-Raymond-Briggs/dp/1787331954

When Briggs eventually and extremely sadly ends up on the RIP thread he's going to be one of the greatest losses to British literature, and in that I include fantasy, comics, children's books, auto/biography, social commentary, poetry...

He'll be praised, but nowhere near enough.

Regards,

Robin

shaolin_monkey

#1
Agreed. From Fungus the Bogeyman (I still have the awesome pop-up book) to When the Wind Blows (still kicks me in the guts every time I read it) - everything he does is solid gold, on the nose stuff.

Any idea what this latest title is about?

EDIT: just googled it - old age and death. Should have guessed from the title really.

Robin Low

Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 07 September, 2019, 11:23:30 AM
Agreed. From Fungus the Bogeyman (I still have the awesome pop-up book)...

The pedant in me is contractually obliged to point out it's the plop-up book ...

Fungus is quite an extraordinary book. You have pages and pages of horribly gorgeous toilet humour and puns ... and then this thinking happens until your comedy grotesque is in the middle of full blown (for a Bogey) existential doubt and panic.

I'll highlight two rarely mentioned ones: Unlucky Wally and it's sequel Unlucky Wally Twenty Year Later. Wally is another comedy grotesque, pathetic and pitiable, but while the first book is largely played for laughs, the follow-up is a different beast. The humour remains, but you then get all the terrible sadness of ageing and there are some deeply moving pictures. It's criminally underrated.  Oh, and Briggs is also honest enough to draw a cat's anus.

Regards,

Robin