Basketball

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Authors: Charles S. Hellman, Robert A. Tiritilli
Publisher: Ancient Golf Publishing
Category: Book

Buy New: $9.95

New (3) from $9.95

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1861600

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 120
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 0.3

ISBN: 0935938109
Dewey Decimal Number: 790
EAN: 9780935938104
ASIN: 0935938109

Publication Date: January 1, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.

Editorial Reviews:

Book Description
"BASKETBALL" is a delightful cartoon book designed to give everyone a humorous look at basketball. The absurdity of basketball and its ludicrousness come to life from Tiritilli's pen. His hilarious cartoons target players, coaches and fans alike. Gunner and Mr.Dunk, from our LuckySportsTM collection of copyrighted sport cartoon characters, give a fresh, new look to basketball humor and are featured throughout the book. The book contains over 100 original black and white basketball cartoons. This book's silliness is a slam dunk for anyone who has ever dribbled a basketball. "BASKETBALL" is a gift for all occasions and makes perfect "bathroom" reading for short people and tall people alike.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars

Not a clean basket, but it still scores. April 30, 2005
"Basketball" is not your typical sports cartoon book. Instead of making fun of a particular player or incident (and the recent discord between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal is just waiting to be argued), Charles Hellman and Robert Tiritilli have taken everyday basketball terms (like "power forward," "good screen," and "fast break"), and phrases (like "basketball fitness class," and "ancient basketball") and turned them into often hilarious comic drawings.

The humor in these comics comes from knowing what the terms and phrases really mean. If you know what an "all-star game" is, then the picture of three stars (like the stars in the sky) playing basketball (all-star game..... get it?) is very funny. One of my personal favorites is a play on the term "point shaver" (the cartoon has a mafia guy sawing some pieces off the score). The more phrases you know, the funnier the drawings will be to you.

There are a couple of drawbacks to "Basketball," however, which keeps it from hitting a home run.

First of all, it only takes about 15-20 minutes to read the book from start to finish. At the current price of just under ten dollars, this comes to reading approximately fifty-cents worth of book a minute. There is a sinking feeling that comes over you when you realize you bought a book that could have been read while browsing through the bookstore.

Second of all, with the exception of the front and back cover, all of the comics are in black-and-white. The covers have great color to them and are so much better, not to mention a little funnier, than their corresponding black-and-white counterparts. As enjoyable as the book is in its current format, it would have been quite a bit better had each of the drawings been in color.

Despite how funny this comical look at basketball is, I really can't recommend buying this book for yourself. The quick reading time and lack of color drawings will result in a feeling of disappointment when you finish.

That being said, I think "Basketball" would make a great gift book to buy for the basketball coach or player in your family. They will thoroughly enjoy the comical look at the sport. And hey.... you can always read it yourself before you wrap it up. They'll never know.