20 funny comics to lighten your mood and make you laugh

7. Gunshow

Absurdity and existential dread make pretty familiar bedfellows, sure. But were you expecting it to be delivered by a cartoon dog on fire?

Good comedy often demands a certain kind of darkness. Sure, you can try to create something light and fluffy, but you’re more often going to end up with some inanity like The Family Circus than a defensible work of art (slight apologies to Bil and Jeff Keane). That’s not to say that art can’t cover an entire range of emotions. Neither do artists have to go full grimdark Batman-crying-in-the-rain to make their point. But it’s rare that ignoring the ills of the world makes for something as wonderfully strange and funny as Gunshow.

Gunshow was launched by artist KC Green in 2008 and ran until 2014. It made Green’s career, moving him from a relatively unknown creative into one of the most popular comics artists today. While Gunshow had many recurring characters (including the dog on fire, eventually named “Question Hound”), readers more often encountered one-off jokes and short story runs.

One of the longer storylines was “Animal Club,” featuring four anime fans who must pick up the pieces after they lose their club meeting spot. Their offense? Showing a hentai film. Green’s work, especially on Gunshow, isn’t afraid to get gross.

Green ended Gunshow after he felt that it was time to move onto other creative projects. He’s kept plenty busy, though, and is currently at work on other webcomics and published work. These include some strange and fun one-off videos like the one above.

Oh, and for all of you that have seen the “This is fine” dog repeated in meme form, over and over: that’s not all. In 2016, Green updated that particular comic for modern times. It’s still plenty dark and oddly funny. Yet, it also contains just a glimmer of hope that we will all wake up eventually and grab our fire extinguishers.