For the longest time, Kyle Baker was a guy who could do no wrong, whose work was a rare but always fantastic treat. Of late, however, I've been a little disappointed, moreso by his mainstream color work like The Truth and Plastic Man but even a little bit let down by some of his more recent work, reprinted in Undercover Genie. So I had a little trepidation about Kyle Baker Cartoonist, wondering whether this would be the Baker stuff I liked or not. As it turns out, this is very much the sort of thing I like, and my biggest complaint is that I've already seen a decent chunk of it when it was printed as the convention special The New Baker. However, there's plenty of new stuff as well, and while this isn't as good as Why I Hate Saturn or The Cowboy Wally Show, it's a much better example of what Baker's capable of than his Marvel and DC work of late has been.
Baker has a variety of one-panel gag strips that are either reprints of his magazine work or in the same vein, ranging from a political cartoon to a goof on a familiar fairy tales to more random but equally funny subject matter. I was very taken by some of his more imaginative high concept comic characters, like hapless defense attorney Sweet Sue, but I probably enjoyed the one-off gags more. Baker's work here combines the topicality of a political cartoonist with the whimsy found in such masterful cartoons as The Far Side, and while not every joke is a winner, the overall effect is one of laughter. Baker's shots are often very much shooting fish in a barrel, but there's a definite wit, perceptiveness and imagination that makes most of the gags hit right where they need to.
The high point of the book for me is "The Bakers," a strip that looks at Baker's family life, with an emphasis on the unique joys of parenthood that is delightfully cute and hilariously funny. Perhaps, as a new dad, I'm biased, but Baker's kids are older than mine, and so it's not so much completely sympathetic laughs and him being very able at bringing the unique joys and troubles of parenthood to life. You really get the sense of wanting to strangle and hug someone at the same time, and Baker is also exceptional at bringing out the way that kids talk and act, spotting our hypocrisies and imitating them even when we didn't really know they were there.
Baker's storytelling skills here are really put to the test, as much of this book is made up of strips or panel gags that rely entirely on the art. To be sure, there's some dialogue interaction in "The Bakers" and plenty of captions to go around in the other strips and one-panel gags, but there are more stories that rely on Baker's ability to convey well-timed humor with nothing more than his art. He never disappoints on this score, never lacks for clarity, and the imagination that fuels such ideas as the Pied Piper's rats envisioned as Dead heads or an employee of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms taking his job very literally is clear in Baker's art as well. This is a gorgeous, gorgeous book, and a cure for those who couldn't get into the newer style that Baker used on The Truth or who find his Plastic Man a little bit too on the nose in depicting the wacky animated style it's aiming for.
Cartoonist is still a little ephemeral, a quick read, especially for those who already picked up The New Baker. I still find myself longing for another "feature length" comedy like Cowboy Wally or drama/comedy like Why I Hate Saturn. However, Kyle Baker Cartoonist is easily the strongest of Baker's recent work, full of laughs and great artwork and well worth the investment of time and money. Longtime Baker fans in particular will be glad to see some of his more razor sharp wit in these pages, although anyone with kids will love this one for "The Bakers" alone.
