The Norm

The Norm is a great comic strip, well-written and -drawn, smart and funny, featuring that rarest of things: a male lead who isn’t an idiot or emotional cripple, who’s neither a wuss nor a creep. It makes for addictive reading, and, if your local paper doesn’t carry it, these choice reprints will serve as a handy introduction to what you’ve been missing.

But The Norm Magazine is also a flipbook, and the other half is Tex Laramie’s Roundup, a comedy cowboy series that sends up old kids’ shows that couldn’t be much further from The Norm. Though nicely rendered and frequently funny, more often than not it’s over-the-top crude and rude. There’s a gag about a cross-dressing horse’s obstructed bowel and a waffle iron that’s memorable in the worst way possible. The results may be a chalk and cheese combo meal, but the cheese is sure good.

—S.A. Bennett

Jump to issue:

#0

Cover: $2.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Flip side is Tex Laramie; Flipbook; B&W; ca. 2001

1 copy for $7.99
#1

Sep 2003

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Reprints strips from 1996

3 copies from $2.98
#3

Apr 2004

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Reprints strips from 1997

1 copy for $2.99
#4

Jul 2004

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Reprints strips from 1997

1 copy for $2.99
#5

Oct 2004

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Reprints strips from 1997 - 1998

2 copies from $2.99
#6

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

3 copies from $3.82
#7

Feb 2005

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Reprints strips from 1998

1 copy for $4.95
#9

Jul 2005

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Reprints strips from 1999

1 copy for $1.27
#10

Oct 2005

Cover: $4.95

W: Michael Jantze · A: Michael Jantze

Reprints strips from 2000

1 copy for $4.25