Lisa Hanawalt’s ‘I Want You’ Collects ‘Tuca & Bertie’ Creator’s Early Works

Lisa Hanawalt has built a reputation for comedy projects unlike anything else, whether it’s her involvement in Netflix’s BoJack Horseman, her own series Tuca and Bertie, or her cartoons for publications such as McSweeney’s, Vanity Fair and Lucky Peach. Her latest release, I Want You, goes back to where it all began.

The book collects Hanawalt’s early minicomic series of the same name, which launched in 2009 ahead of the launch of either BoJack or Tuca and Bertie, but featuring the kind of humor — and visual style — that would make both series critically acclaimed. (Indeed, with characters like She-Moose and He-Horse, there are elements that seem particularly prescient for both series, as well as her graphic novel Coyote Doggirl.)

The shorts collected in the book also preview the kind of work that would feature in Hanawalt’s collections Hot Dog Taste Test and My Dumb Dirty Eyes, combining observational comedy, surrealist flights of fancy and unexpected beauty into something that is uniquely Hanawalt, and relentlessly funny.

I Want You is available in bookstores now. A teaser of what to expect can be found below.