{"product_id":"9781681370507","title":"What Am I Doing Here?","description":"\u003ci\u003eWhat Am I Doing Here?\u003c\/i\u003e is a startling masterwork by one of the forgotten innovators of American comics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1945, after more than a decade as a commercial illustrator—drawing advertisements and cartoons for \u003ci\u003eLife\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e,  and many other publications—Abner Dean invented a genre all his own:  One might call it the Existential Gag Cartoon. He used the elegant  draftsmanship and single-panel format of the standard cartoons of the  day, but turned them to a deeper, stranger purpose. With an inimitable  mixture of wit, earnestness, and enigmatic surrealism, Dean uses this  most ephemeral of forms to explore the deepest mysteries of human  existence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Am I Doing Here?\u003c\/i\u003e, Dean’s second book and  perhaps his best, depicts a world at once alien and familiar, in which  everyone is naked but acts like they’re clothed—a world of club-wielding  commuters and byzantine inventions, secret fears and perverse  satisfactions. Through it all strolls (or crawls, or floats, or  stumbles) Dean’s unclad Everyman, searching for love, happiness, and the  answers to life’s biggest questions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis NYRC edition is a jacketed hardcover with extra-thick paper, and features brand-new, restored scans of the original artwork throughout.","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47139692871920,"sku":"9781681370507","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781681370507_p0.jpg?v=1763693615","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781681370507","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}