Lenni Reviews: "MAD About Trump: A Brilliant Look at Our Brainless President" by Various

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of satirical cartoons about the election of 2016 and the president himself. In true MAD Magazine style, some are one page and some are several page long comics. Some jokes land, some jokes miss, and some are kinda gross - also MAD Magazine's style - but humor can be very subjective. I personally wasn't too keen on some of the art styles but that's cause I didn't find them pleasant to look at; not because they were poorly done.

If you're an overly sensitive person and will trash this just because it's making fun of Trump, feel free to skip this. MAD Magazine is not a publication for people who can't take a joke and they to NOT hold back. I found that absolutely refreshing but others may not.

All the parodies are here; Beauty and the Beast, La La Land, Suicide Squad, Civil War, and while I may not have laughed out loud, I did chuckle at the cleverness of a lot of them and the publication as a whole is a welcome bit of levity among the absolute mess American politics has become. I'll have to give it 2 or 3 more reads to catch all the little jokes (seriously, some of them are like those Highlights Magazine hidden picture pages but for adults) but I had fun reading this. 4 out of 5 for it's unabashed and scathing honesty.

Lenni Reviews: "Goodnight Batcave" by Dave Croatto and Tom Richmond

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*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

In this parody of Goodnight Moon, Batman is lounging in his cave when some bad guys show up. He beats them up, then goes to bed. The whole rogue's gallery is there and the character design calls back to the Batman: The Animated Series character designs.

This book is clever and funny. The joke works better if you're familiar with Goodnight moon and I read this to my kid (who loves comics) and she laughed and did want a copy of her own.

For a book put out by MAD Magazine, it's pretty kid friendly. The art is in their typical style but there's nothing in it I would feel hesitant to show a kid who is already familiar with comics. There's a justifiable amount of violence (superheroes don't tend to cuddle the villains to jail) and I think this will give both kids and adults a few good chuckles. I read this on my Kindle but I think this is worth a hardcover purchase if you love Batman and love MAD. 4.5 out of 5.