Life in Hell (Comic Strip) - Sampling, 1980-2012 {WebComixFan}

"LIFE IN HELL" Comic Strip

"Life in Hell" started in 1977 as a self-published comic book in which Matt Groening described with a caustic humor life in Los Angeles to his friends. It debuted as a comic strip in "Wet" magazine in 1978, and soon was appearing in alternative weeklies throughout the country. At its peak, "Life in Hell" ran in over 250 publications. The strip's topics and format varied greatly; a cartoon featuring dozens of tiny cramped panels cataloging doomed romances one week might be followed by a single airy panel depicting an intense moment of shame the next. And always, its style was that of a quick sketch, as if Groening had just dashed off whatever happened to come to his mind. The strip's fans included a Hollywood producer who asked Groening to animate "bumper" segments for "The Tracey Ullman Show," which of course led to the creation of "The Simpsons."

This torrent includes two "Life in Hell" collections, "The Big Book of Hell" and "The Road to Hell," along with miscellaneous cartoons from 1984 through the end of the strip's run in 2012. "The Big Book of Hell" I scanned myself; "The Road to Hell" I found in an older, underseeded torrent, and cleaned up as seemed necessary. The miscellaneous cartoons were collected from various online sites, most notably the completely unofficial and woefully incomplete "Life in Hell Archive" (lifeinhellarchives.tumblr.com).