Hi, It’s Me Again (2025)

By Trent McGee • September 17, 2025

In last year’s Well, This Is Me, the multi-hyphenated comedian Asher Perlman appeared to settle on cartooning as his chosen profession. Despite a career that includes late-night comedy, short films, and more, Perlman genuinely seems excited about working in a medium that doesn’t have the cultural relevance it once did, and it’s clear this wasn’t someone who settled for cartooning, but someone who dreamed of being a cartoonist his entire life.

Hi, It’s Me Again continues the journey, once again collecting dozens and dozens single-panel comics reprinted on paper (or via digital download, if that’s your thing) in one place for your reading pleasure. This means over 150 cartoons that first appeared in The New Yorker and Instagram, with some new artwork and commentary sandwiching them in one easily digestible, tasty package.

One thing I appreciate about Perlman’s comics is how literal they are. Like the best dad jokes, you often laugh at just how silly the premise is before realizing it’s the premise itself that’s the gag, creeping right up to dad-joke territory without wearing out its welcome. This type of humor is harder than it looks, and there’s no end to the countless mediocre newspaper (and web) comics to prove it.

Perlman’s comics take a broader approach with a little more bite, like if you smashed Gary Larson’s The Far Side with Charles Addams’ original Addams Family together. Humans, animals, everything is fair game in this world. A fun example is when two dogs are mourning at a cemetery, one says to the other “I want to dig him back up SO bad.”

They can also be prescient, as when a superhero is relaxing on a couch while a villain wrecks havoc in the background. “I’m working on not defining myself by my productivity.” says the caped hero taking a ill-timed break, a funny idea that predates a very similar scene in James Gunn’s new Superman movie. But Perlman did it first, so maybe Gunn should cut him a nice fat check?

And Perlman is also a good host, periodically dropping in to lighten the mood with even more irreverence and commentary between chapters. As we saw in his first collection, it’s still fairly awkward when the odd f-bomb is dropped into what are, generally, fairly toothless comics. And fairly toothless is a compliment when too many modern comics try to be edgy and (or worse, “offensive”) but come off as anything but.

Now we come to the part of the review I always dread for books like this: why buy paper when the internet is free? Forgetting that paper collections are amazing (and super giftable), they also look great displayed on coffee tables and when seductively slid into bookshelves. There’s also the added benefit of knowing the artist whose cartoons you’re buying is being compensated for their work. Money is pretty important, too.

Two books in and it’s clear there might be something to this Asher Perlman fellow. Hi, It’s Me Again makes a compelling case that his success might not be a fluke. To say that his comics are more comforting than hilarious isn’t faint praise, but a huge win for someone who found his calling and is putting in the work. His enthusiasm is catchy, his love for the medium sincere, and that helps makes this follow-up an easy recommendation for anyone in need of a few solid chuckles.