i looks like Gary Larson was a fan too, at least from the style of that unicorn

My parents had these, too. It sure does explain a lot.

Kliban was a genius. Only Roz Chast comes close today -- not as weird, though.

Agree 100%!!! He's highly underrated... there's a lot in some of those strips. I've owned Never Eat Anything Larger Than Your Head" since 7th grade, and for all the ones I didn't get then, and for the ones I still don't get, I'm a huge fan.

I think he's credited as the inventor of the single panel comic strip, so without a doubt Larson is a fan.

My favorite one is probably the panel titled "The Only Show In Town", showing the long cue outside the theater where the marquee read "GO FUCK YOURSELF".

Tim Kreider's 'The Pain' is also along the same lines. He's veered into more political commentary lately, but some of his older comics are very Kliban-y.

http://www.thepaincomics.com/

Are you sure B Kliban isn't your godfather or something? Surely Mr. Rickenbacker made his acquaintance under the Eiffel Tower in the '60s.

Kliban shits on all other cartoonists. Here's my proof, as it has been for years-

http://www.coldbacon.com/pics/kliban/bkpig.gif

I was a teenager in 1975 when kliban's first book came out, and I ended up owning every one. as I've looked at them over the years, I've realized how his humor came to informed my deep appreciation for cartoon irony, absurdity, and cruelty, as well as my willingness to laugh at everything, even my own horrors. chuck jones' wile e. coyote is another favorite. go figure.

I will admit to still owning pillow cases from a set of sheets I purchased when I first left home at 18, printed with kliban's signature cat, the big, fat short-legged stripped tabby in the red sneakers.

and it's a secret delight to be in the same company as fnarf.

Not to pile on, but I loved me some Kliban when I was a kid, too. Thanks so much for unearthing these -- it made me want to track down his books.

Looking back I think I might have written him off unfairly, by blaming him for his Cat cartoons inspiring Garfield, or at least the first week or so of Garfield that was drawn in a similar style before the cat began mutating into a bug eyed humanoid.

It is a secret pleasure of mine that a co-worker of mine, a dear sweet 50-year-old lady who never cusses, never gets mad, and is just nuts about cats and has cat dolls, cat pictures, and (of course), dozens of B. Kliban cat cartoons all over her office and she would never, ever expect nor will ever know that Kliban also drew such hilarious, shocking, subversive, dirty, and utterly funny cartoons which she will never see.

I toy with telling her or (god forbid) showing her one, but it'd just ruin it.

I was, amazingly, totally unfamiliar with B. Kliban until reading this post. I am now the better for having read it.

I used to get hard-ons reading these books at 13. My folks thought the cats were cute and bought me the whole set, not knowing the rest of them were more thematically mature. I still dwell in a forest of B. Kliban memes.

I remember looking through my parent's Kliban books as a young child. I think the comic "Easy Home Test" (which I sadly can't find a link to) was my first exposure to the word "pornography".

I'm a dear, sweet 45-year-old lady who still has every one of these books, bought for me by my mom when I was 12 or 13 or so. My son and daughter(23 & 13) have never been denied them since they turned them up, at around eight years old in each case.
@10 I hate to break it to you, but your coworker probably already knows the rest of Kliban's work--though she may or may not love it.