Book of Bunny Suicides

Book of Bunny Suicides
Return of the Bunny Suicides
Andy Riley

The books can be found individually, in a set, as a postcard book, in a Big Book of Bunny Suicides.

I said somethings about these books earlier, but I figured it's time to expand.

To Sum: Cartoon drawings of fluffy bunnies killing themselves in unique fashions. Some of them are just one panel, others span up to six (maybe eight). Often times there's cultural references - mostly to things adults would get. Very British in humor, not surprising given that the creator is, funny enough, British. Generally, however, these ways of suicide are not very likely to occur in real life, or by most humans. Part of the humor is that these bunnies are bound and determined, and often, it's not even noticed by the humans that are right there. (The one exception is Darth Vader.)

Things to Watch Out For: Well, there isn't a whole lot of sex. There's not a whole lot of nudity (unless one counts the fact that the bunnies are not wearing clothing). The thing that people will take note is the fact that these bunnies are trying to kill themselves - in very unrealistic scenarios. However, the idea of suicide seems to be the one people who have complained about this book are latching onto.

These are meant to be funny. They aren't meant to encourage suicide, but to poke fun at it. Some of the suicides are so elaborate, or so out there, that you know not to take it seriously.

Where to Shelve: This is going to be one of those where I fall back to who was the intended audience. Given the references, most of which anyone alive and functioning in the 80's would get, I would have to say this is for adults. Would 13 year-olds get the jokes? Most likely. But there are probably some that would go over their head. Like, say this panel:



Most adults have been exposed to enough British humor/culture that they're going to get most of what's going on, as well as having been alive for the cultural references. (Okay, most of us don't really need to have been alive to understand the hand-gesture to Hitler, but the statue of Saddam falling? The Doctor Who joke?) I will say that the humor is very, very British.

How I learned of it: It came out when I was working at a chain bookstore. A bunch of us flipped through it when we saw it.

Other reviews:

http://www.curledup.com/bunnysui.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/05/31/review.summer.books/index.html (review is about 3/4ths of the way down)
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6418669.html (Under the category "What's so funny?")
http://pfacker.wordpress.com/books/graphic-novels/

Past incidents:

http://www.kval.com/news/local/31282894.html
http://www.kval.com/news/local/31378584.html
http://www.lita.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2008/october2008/bunnieswontburn.cfm