Creased Comics

By: Brad Neely

Published by New York Review of Books, 2026-03-17

Hungry bridge trolls, limousine werewolves, and other absurd characters populate these delightfully irreverent gag cartoons from the golden days of webcomics.

Beginning at the dawn of the new millennium, the animator Brad Neely materialized as one of the funnier voices on the internet. Youtube hits like the foul-mouthed George Washington, his demented audiobook retelling of Harry Potter in Wizard People, Dear Readers, and the alarmingly prescient Adult Swim TV show China, IL (starring the voices of both Greta Gerwig and Hulk Hogan) all reveal how Neely captured a kind of freewheeling online spirit that is fading fast.

During this ascent, Neely was also quietly mastering another form, the webcomic, where he spliced together historical figures, fairy tales, wildlife, and absurd gag setups into truly laugh-out-loud cartoons: hungry bridge trolls ready to devour local “chappies”; Caesar’s real killer (Jeffrey); the Boo-Boo Maker; limousine werewolves; superheroes trying and failing to rescue Christ; and more eye-blasting thrills.

Gathered here for the first time along with Neely’s reflections about his work, Creased Comics is a portal into a truly individual creative mind, and a snapshot of some of the best days for webcomics.