Basic Instructions Volume 1: Help Is on the Way

By Scott Meyer

Book Overview

Ever want to know the best way to combat the silent treatment'? How to destroy society? Apply video game skills to real life? Well, read Help Is on the Way, a collection of strips from the hilarious online web comic Basic Instructions! Cartoonist Scott Meyer will guide you through some of life's more uncomfortable moments with plenty of absurdly bad advice, usually packed economically into four side-splitting panels.'

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593079958
• ISBN13: 9781593079956
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Dark Horse Books
• Length: 119 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.9" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Humor, Masterfully Presented

I've followed Scott Meyer's web comic, Basic Instructions, ever since Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) blogged about how great it was. Scott Adams was right! I can't think of another comic that can compete with the quality and quantity of great jokes. The jokes lean slightly towards the "geeky, nerdy" side, but should appeal to a broader audience than comics like Dilbert, Foxtrot, or Ctrl+Alt+Del. Scott Meyer's drawing technique makes for fairly realistic people. In one comic he refers to his skill as photo-cartooning -- tracing actual pictures of people -- while his wife refers to it as cheating. There aren't very many different poses and facial expressions throughout the strip, so I have long assumed that he built a clip-art collection, and does most of his cartooning by dragging-and-dropping prior artwork and creating new drawings only when required. I bought this book and laughed again at comics that I had already seen -- I think it's brilliant. I enthusiastically loaned it to a friend, and he was much less impressed than I was. While I have recommended this book to several people already, I'm starting to realize that the comedy may be a little more "niche" than I originally thought.

Four Jokes for the Price of One

The format of the "Basic Instructions" comic strip is unusual. Generally comic strips build to one punchline in the last panel, but a "Basic Instructions" strip will have four related punchlines, one in each panel. It gives the strip an unusal rhythm, and it doesn't surprise me to find out that the author was a stand-up comic. Check out the "How To Correct Someone" comic (October 4 2007) on the "Basic Instructions" web site. If you feel the immediate need to print the comic out and post it on the wall at work, then you need this book!

ROTFL if you like twisted humor

If you like your comics on the edge, you will love this book. The layout is not in the least bit weird: four square panels with people talking. On the other hand, the topics and the views on life are wilder than anything you'll see in mainstream comics. Scott Meyer dishes it out as well as he takes it. It is the Far Side meets Dilbert though lots of popular culture.

A Five Chortle Book!

I chortled, guffawed, and laughed out loud while reading this book. Very clever and amusing while addressing many of the problems we face here in the 21st Century. Such as How To Tell Your Spouse About Your Day and How To Face Life As A Morning Person. My personal favorite is the footnote to How To Write A Haiku. By the way Scott, it's spelled "ninety." All in all, a book that you'll want in your humor library. And don't forget to check out the Basic Instructions web page!