Larry Gonick’s latest book, due out next month, is Hypercapitalism: The Modern Economy, Its Values, and How to Change Them, written by psychology professor Tim Kasser. He studies people’s “materialistic values and goals for money, possessions, and status” and the relationship between them and well-being. These connections are explained through Gonick’s cartoons. Hypercapitalism doesn’t have the humor I’m used to from Gonick’s other books. The opening, which introduces Kasser and his studies, explains that there are two parts to come, […]

I knew Larry Gonick did excellent illustrated histories, but I had no idea that he knew so much about math. (Although co-writing The Cartoon Guide to Statistics might have been a hint. Turns out he used to teach calculus at Harvard.) In The Cartoon Guide to Calculus, “the mathematics of change”, we begin with brief history (Newton and Leibniz), but quickly, we’re into formulas and functions. However, even those are accompanied by cartoon kibitzing, which makes the material come alive […]