This is a comic strip that originally began in the late seventies, before I was even created, under the title “Inside Woody Allen”. The fact of the matter is despite being a huge Woody Allen fan, I had not even heard about this comic once before it was sent to us  for review.

This particular volume is a compilation of over 300 of the best strips in the series, written by Stuart Hample. The main character of the strip is of course Woody Allen, and the humor is imitating his unique self deprecating world view. Although imitating isn’t the exact right word, because Woody Allen actually helped in its creation. But only by supplying the author with notes from years of his comedy sketches. For the most part I think Stuart Hample was largely successful in replicating Woody Allen in a comic strip.

Even if you aren’t a massive fan of Woody Allen, I think it holds up as a comic strip. If Calvin and Hobbes and Liberty Meadows are on one end of the scale, this falls somewhere behind them, but clearly ahead of The Family Circus and Peanuts. The one problem I had with this as a comic strip is that it was consistently one liners. They were funny, but they were always set-up and delivery. They never took the time to tell a bigger story, which is a negative when reading a big volume like this.

In addition to being filled with the best of 8 years of a funny comic, it has an interesting introduction by Stuart Hample about how he was first introduced to Woody Allen, and got the idea for a comic strip. The introduction includes some of the sketch pages he was given by Woody Allen, which are worth a look.

The book is broken up into seven different chapters, that are separated by the type of jokes their telling. So one chapter titled “Freud’s Last Resort” are jokes themed around Woody Allen’s analyst. And the chapter titled “Every Time She Had an Orgasm, Her Nose Grew Longer” would be jokes about his relationships. I don’t think I could pick a single chapter that I liked the best, because they all had their highs and lows, but the main point is that it was an interesting way to arrange the book.

It’s a fun read, and because every single strip is completely independent it would be easy to put down and come back to. I guess this is the definition of a coffee table book, or what modern man would call a crapper. It’s a nice volume and it would look good on the shelf. A must own if your a Woody Allen fan, and I feel sorry for you if your not.

Despite the fact that it’s supposed to be released on November 1st you can already pick up a copy at Amazon for nearly half the cover price. Buy it Here!