It’s been almost a year since we shared a post about our Memento Mori collection here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library – also known as our “funny books about death” collection. To recognize the occasion, we thought we’d share our latest addition to that collection, Tony De Saulles’ 99 Dead Snowmen, published in 2012 by Headline Publishing out of the UK.

Starring Stan the Snowman, 99 Dead Snowmen joins several other books in the Memento Mori collection to form a somewhat unexpected mini-subgenre of “books of (mostly) single panel cartoons depicting (essentially) a single character experiencing multiple versions of their own death.” This mini-subgenre also includes:

• 99 Stormtroopers Join The Empire

• The Many Deaths of Steve Koblish… written and illustrated by Steve Koblish

• The Book of Bunny Suicides series… yes, it’s a series… we have three of those…

• and perhaps not quite in the same category, but certainly genre-adjacent, 99 Ways to Die in the Movies

I don’t know what it is about this mini-subgenre and bunnies, but 99 Dead Snowmen notably includes four different versions of snowman death by rabbit.

Most, quite rightly, feature some kind of death by meteor.

Not sure why there’s a pattern of there being 99 deaths? Perhaps there’s a marketing advantage… and it does push the books to the top of alphabetical lists. It does also translate to a decent size book from a publishing standpoint. But yes, we will continue to ask all the tough questions here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library…

Unlike the other volumes in this collection, 99 Dead Snowmen does end on a bit more of an upbeat note, so if you’re new to this mini-subgenre and need to ease into it, this might be the right place to start.

Or… perhaps it might be best to binge the other six and end on a high note?

In any case, given how our Memento Mori collection began, 99 Dead Snowmen is a great new addition, providing a new element of humour and reflection on the transitory nature of life… and snow.

Happy reading, and laughing!

– Winston