The Norm

(TheNorm.Com, 2002-2005)
™ and © TheNorm.Com

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

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