Like a master class on hipsters.
Creative Staff
Words/Art: Dyna Moe
What They Say
An illustrated pocket guide to the hip characters populating “cool neighborhoods” across America, devling into all hipster animal habitats—including the food, fashion, tech, and music industries—Hipster Animals is essential reading for those looking to identify species such as “city boy BBQ pitmaster,” “spazzy puckish crush girl,” “pho authenticity police,” “80s
Nite karaoke star,” and “mobile app brogrammer.” Including details on the creatures’ identifying characteristics, diets, mating behavior, and calls, this parody reference guide based on the hit Tumblr of the same name provides a snarky glimpse into the foreign—yet all too familiar—world of the trendsetters among us.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Dyna Moe does for hipsters what Audubon did for birds, providing an invaluable resource for identifying the various types of hipsters that prowl the urban (and suburban) wilds. Broken into different categories, such as “Food and Drink,” “Friends and Lovers,” and “The Finers Arts,” the book goes into exhaustive—and hilarious—detail about this much-maligned animal.
Each entry follows the same basic pattern. It features a picture of an anthropomorphized animal dressed in whatever clothes are appropriate for the type of hipster it represents. Helpful arrows point out identifying marks and postures, such as “Jaunty tableside stance” or “Quirky, but not too quirky; mismatched, but not too mismatched,” and to the side its markings, its call, its habitat, and other important information are provided, along with an overview of the species. The amount of detail Moe packs into these pages is surprising and far more than I was expecting from a 103 page book.
And it’s hilarious. Moe manages to strike just the right amount of snark in her comments—not too much and not too little—and balances it out with subtle jabs at herself. She also includes fun little asides like a parade bingo scorecard with items like “big creepy puppet operated by 10-12 stoners” or “lewd act in broad daylight.” My favorite little extra was a food truck guide with examples like “Luftwaffle: The Master taste!” or “Stanford Pizza Experiment.” I try to avoid using the word “clever” when describing humor, because too often cleverness isn’t actually funny and only exists to draw attention to the intelligence of the writer, but this is very smart, very clever humor. I can’t tell you how many times I laughed out loud reading this book.
In Summary
Most of the time I’m pretty unexcited when I get small little books like this. Too often they come off as vapid distractions—worth a chuckle at most and immediately forgotten. I’m happy to say that Hipster Animals does not fall into that trap. This is smart and funny and it’s definitely going on my bookshelf. Do yourself a favor and check this out. Dr. Josh gives this an…
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A
Released By: Ten Speed Press
Release Date: September 22nd, 2015
MSRP: $14.99
