by: Ben Katchor
Publisher: Pantheon (March 5, 2013)
Hardcover 160 pages
The Extension Fallacy is when an arguer takes a statement and exaggerates the parameters so much that it becomes completely ridiculous idea. This perfectly defines the humor in Hand Drying in America. The strips revolve around the nuances of city life. Much of them are concerned the variances of architecture in a New York City-esque environment. The constant raising and destruction of buildings, as depicted in this books paints a picture of a city landscape that drifts back and forth like an ocean current, where the occupants try to find stability and meaning in a chaotic ever shifting concrete jungle.
The stories take mundane aspects and
illuminate them to ridiculous heights. Such as the couple tired of the sealed
wrapping in these new condiment styles that hire people to open up the packets
for them. To the man who is obsessed with BTU outputs and heat sinks so that he
marries a woman that radiates a lot of warmth. To a man who is preoccupied with
the gravel in his driveway being taken away by strangers that he eventually has
his daughter’s fiancée arrested for theft.
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| Author Ben Katchor |
Katchor’s artistic style adds to the
surrealist element. Colored in muted tones, the charterers are drawn as almost
grotesque caricatures of people. Rigid smiles that reek of false friendliness,
like off-center candid stills where the participant was caught in an awkward
moment. Stiff limbs, like an old timey photograph where a person had to stand
rigid for 10 minutes before the shutter snapped. These all add to his dry sense
of humor and make a reader believe that we are just one beat away from some of
his stories being true.
It is a beautiful oversized book, 11.8
x 0.9 x 12.3 inches, with each page containing one of Katchor full strips. All
of these were originally published in Metropolis,
an architectural magazine, which this strip had been published in from 1998
until it recently ending in December of 2016.
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