Rating: 3 stars

In the silly, yet fun Sad Monsters, Frank Lesser displays a higher form of humor that doesn’t settle for the obvious, but instead takes his shtick two steps further.

The humorous introduction sets the pace and although not every story is side-splitting, each one has redeeming qualities.

Though some of the usual supernatural suspects are included: werewolves, vampires and the like, Lesser approaches them in a totally different and creative way; and, true to his roots, he injects a shot of politics wherever possible to punch up the laughs.

Lesser’s monstrous experience includes: Pottery Barn-shopping humans that terrorize zombies with the intent of inducting them into their ranks as consumerist sheep, useful safety information for owning your own werewolf, and a peek into Godzilla’s existential crisis. Lesser even manages to tug at the reader’s heartstrings using an anthropomorphized claw-foot bathtub.

One of the best installments is an interview with a Manhattan art agent who represents a violent killer who makes art installations out of his eviscerated victims. A display so gruesome and offensive that it would make the National Endowment of the Arts pine for the days of Robert Mapplethorpe’s risqué photographs. As they say, “Only in New York.”

The chapter entitled “Some Gorgons Have All the Luck” extols the creativity of an ex-girlfriend who gets revenge by setting up her former man on a blind date with Medusa. Lesser not only provides hair-do illustrations for the stone-cold Miss M, including “The Rachel”, but food for thought for women everywhere.

Sad Monsters isn’t exactly sponsored by Mensa, but it does serve an important purpose: to make people laugh. No doubt after countless hours writing political humor for The Colbert Report, Frank Lesser just needed to let his inner monster out.
--------------------------------------------------------
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Plume (September 27, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-0452297395