‘Forces of Nature’ by Edward Steed from Drawn+Quarterly

Forces of Nature

Forces of Nature by Edward Steed, published by Drawn & Quarterly, collects 160 cartoons that push the limits of sketch comedy, but not that kind of sketch comedy. Steed has served as a contributing cartoonist to the New Yorker since 2013, supplying captivating covers and laugh-out-loud gags in his single-panel comics. These cartoons can be about anything under the sun, from crime settings to airport security, each being twisted in an unexpected way that will leave the reader chortling.

At the briefest glance, the style in Forces of Nature follows the quintessential norms of the New Yorker’s cartoons. The frameless panels make for a sudden appearance of silliness where anything can happen, and it usually does, as it has for decades. Steed’s art is reminiscent of other New Yorker cartoonists from eras past, including Edward Gorey in its haunting images and careful shading, Charles Addams in its dark humor, and Saul Steinberg in the rough edges and nearly monstrous characters. The jokes are all Steed’s, however, rivaling the unpredictable comedy of even Gary Larson’s The Far Side.

The Logic of the Absurd

Forces of Nature dips its toe into the surreal, but never into inanity. Each cartoon builds its humor from juxtapositions that draw a line of logic in the absurd, which makes them all the more hilarious as, in the world imagined, these things can totally happen. A huge and winding waterslide looks like great fun with its twists and turns, but the fellow at the bottom holding his breath has his feet encased in cement, leading down from the top where a pair of sinister shadows wearing broad-rimmed hats and long coats stand.

Two cockroaches comment on another with wide, shaking eyes, noting, “He survived nuclear Armageddon. But he doesn’t like to talk about it.” On the medalist stand, the grumpy second- and third-place medalists look up at the winner, grinning and still wrapped in the hurdles that he clearly charged through. Perhaps the greatest of all, an embarrassed-looking squid stands at the doorway of a surprise party covered in ink, themselves more surprised than intended. Page after page of cartoons present new ideas that will keep the reader laughing.

Many of the cartoons collected in Forces of Nature pull from recurring themes, giving a peek into Steed’s background and psyche. Biblical themes, specifically from the earliest books, make appearances, with Adam and Eve disagreeing on the size of leaf Adam needs and an angry God looking down on a four-legged snake who laments, “Not my legs,” while surrounded by his collection of shoes, skateboard, pogo stick, and Dance Dance Revolution video game. Moses is there, too, chiseling out a “thank you” note for the commandments on a stone slab. Numerous gags focus on prison tunnels, whether a group of players waiting on someone to reach the ball they knocked past the fence or a clown sneaking past an array of banana peels.

Nothing is safe from Steed’s attention in Forces of Nature. Even tennis players can be the butt of jokes, whether a player readying to serve a fish or a woman stopping her husband from giving money to two scruffy-looking players sitting on the street saying, “They’ll just spend it on balls.” Truly no one can anticipate what will come at the next turn of the page.