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By collaborating with other comic artists, Nicholas Gurewitch uses his platform with 344k Instagram followers and over 149k Facebook followers to celebrate other great artists out there. In fact, some of the best, not that they need more exposure. Wait till you see what artists The Perry Bible Fellowship has crossed paths with to create fresh crossover comics. Spoiler alert: you'll find well-known artists in the webcomics universe such as Dinos And Comics, Poorly Drawn Lines, Shen Comix, theoatmeal, The RedDot Comic, Swords Comic, and Hot Paper comics, just to name a few. Stalk PBF's accounts for the newest collaborations, and you might discover your new favorite webcomic!
The Verge asked Gurewitch what he thinks of the new generation of comics: "I like the way webcomics are moving in some ways. I really like Nathan Pyle’s comic, and Alex Norris’ comic. They have a very similar color palette. I think I like this movement toward a gentler, sweeter, more forthright production. Maybe it’s the direction we’re going in because life is getting more scary. Sometimes I feel bad doing scary and sad comics nowadays because I’m like, 'Holy s***, people probably get enough of this.'"
The Perry Bible Fellowship is well known for dark, twisted endings that are often NSFW, could make you feel guilty for laughing, and might take a minute to figure out. He puts his surreal, humorous spin on serious and very real topics such as racism, mental health, death, religion, animal cruelty, and science, as well as simply ridiculous and out-of-the-box topics.
On the Perry Bible Fellowship's official Facebook page, the artist quotes world-class artists talking about his work:
"Gurewitch packs so many ingenious ideas—and so much dark, twisted humor—into three panels, they just about burst. The Perry Bible Fellowship is one of the flat-out funniest comic strips of all time."—Ruben Bolling (Tom the Dancing Bug).
"I've been reading this guy since his first strip in The Guardian and he's the best new cartoonist since Bill Watterson. This is the reason paper was invented. Give him your money now."—Mark Millar (The Ultimate X-Men).
So don't forget to leave your review in the comments, too!
Speaking of feedback, The Perry Bible Fellowship's edgy and morbid humor has caused controversy over the years. In an interview with ComicMix in 2008, Gurewitch said:
"It’s funny that the intent or intended personality in a work can somehow be lost, but people are responding to something and they’re entitled to take whatever perspective they want on it. But I do find it funny that a lot of people think a comic is simply 'f***ed up' and has no thought put into it, when personally, whenever I enjoy one of my comics, I can see something I’ve been thinking about in the comic, or something on my mind or one of my friends’ minds. When I come up with a strip like that, it has a deep relevance beneath the simple gag that’s on paper. I always find the comics more deeply relevant than they seem to the naked eye."
The Perry Bible Fellowship doesn't have a consistent topic, recurring characters, or style. In a 2005 interview with The Guardian, he said his early influences are The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes.
"I try to dip into whatever style might help the joke come across best. I'll work as much as I can on the comic up until the deadline. If given a month to complete a comic, I'll use all that up. The fact is there are comics in my archives that I would like to go back and try new things with."
As mentioned before, in 2008, Nicholas Gurewitch has shifted his focus from weekly comics toward film and TV, saying, "I feel I owe it to myself and the Perry Bible Fellowship not to turn a joyful diversion into a long career." In an interview with The Verge, he said that putting his cartoonist's career on pause has actually helped his comics too:
"Doing the 1,2,3,4 comic, they had the same exact structure every time. And since I’ve been doing them just for the internet, I found that my comics can sprawl and have so many more panels than normal, and do a lot of things that they used to not be able to do."
In 2020, all The Perry Bible Fellowship's comics from the internet's golden age between 2004 and 2007 were published in a nostalgic collection, The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack’s 10th-anniversary edition. He also published a Kickstarter for the book called "Notes on a Case of Melancholia, Or: A Little Death" which pays homage to the legendary Edward Gorey
