Review by Frank Plowright
2023 sees the publication of Roger Langridge’s 2022 daily web comics in a pleasing hardcover edition. As it’s the third such book, it’s surely now legitimate to refer to these annual collections as a tradition. Let’s ignore Langridge’s introduction citing possible burnout meaning this may be the penultimate collection.
As before, the content varies wildly as it’s determined by what occurs to Langridge concerning the previous day’s events. On days when other inspiration is absent Langridge falls back on absurdist comedy, sometimes the weird rhyming reinterpretations of Old Bubba Crumpet and the ready made scripts provided by dreams. More usually strips concern funny domestic incidents, often concerning daft dog Luna, or commentary on the day’s news. There was plenty of that in 2022, what with Queen Elizabeth dying, about which Langridge was prophetic, Russia invading Ukraine, and British politics transformed into surreality that couldn’t have been scripted. The lettuce in the title refers to a piece of sensationalism in a British daily newspaper, betting the life of the lettuce would be longer than Liz Truss’ time as UK Prime Minister, and posting daily online updates of it next to her picture.
The comforting thing about Langridge’s strips is that no-one else could create them. He portrays himself as a dull old man, but his brain takes brilliantly individual turns conceiving hilarious observations and flights of fancy, and it’s a talent his son appears to have inherited. One strip over four panels starts out concerning how useless the family is at D.I.Y, and ends with simple, yet perfect versions of Laurel and Hardy. Who else would consider a beagle as an eagle made from bees, or No Shit Sherlock, the constipated detective? And that’s a couple of months before his constipation obsessed mother in law arrives. Yet among the absurdity you’re equally likely to stumble across insight and profundity as Langridge ponders existential questions.
Four panels every morning before starting the day’s work is a hard slog (try it for a month), so Langridge does resort to the labour saving device of recycling art with a new script. Most prominent are the tales of Old Bubba Crumpet (see Infections, Injections & Insurrections), nonsensical faked folk tales in rhyme detailing the ways of old, imparted by Luna dressed as a pipe smoking old woman. Mind you, Langridge ensures there’s a lot of common ground between her and rambling celebrity know-it-all Gyles Brandreth. Langridge is such a fine writer of nonsense, though, no-one’s getting shortchanged.
Given that this is over 300 pages of perfect Langridge cartooning that could never be the case anyway. We said it last year and it bears repeating that the daily strips have a prodigious hit rate over a year’s worth of material, and are once again presented in a reasonably priced hardcover book only available from Langridge’s website here, or from him at shows.
