Weird Business

Rating:
Summary: 420 page comics anthology featuring many top genre writers.
Review:

If you're tired of the same ole business. If you want something unique. If you think comic book swim suit issues are the dumbest thing since Jesse Helms, then here it is, a hot bundle of short stories, a la graphic novel style.

Not only does WEIRD BUSINESS contain tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the late, great Robert Bloch, it contains mostly original material that will, to put it mildly, blow the doors off your Chevy. From pure fantasy to dark horror, to humorous whimsy, to noir, to action/adventure and science fiction, this baby is as hot as the devil's cigar.

With 23 stories, 56 creators, and 420 pages WEIRD BUSINESS is the largest original comic ever produced in the English language.

WEIRD BUSINESS was nominated for the 1996 Eisner Award for best anthology and the ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS called it "Possibly the greatest comic ever."

Featuring the talents of Neal Barrett, Jr., Ambrose Bierce, Robert Bloch, Poppy Z. Brite, Nancy Collins, Bill Crider, Charles de Lint, Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Moorcock, Norman Partridge, Edgar Allan Poe, Howard Waldrop, F. Paul Wilson, Roger Zelazny, and a host of others, WEIRD BUSINESS is one of the most unusal and outstanding books ever done in the field of comics.

Rating:
Summary: WEIRD BUSINESS INDEED! One heapin' helpin' of horrific fun!
Review: Hell fire & brimstone if this ain't the s***. WEIRD BUSINESS suceeds on so many levels that it's nearly imponderable.

Rating:
Summary: WEIRD BUSINESS INDEED! One heapin' helpin' of horrific fun!
Review: Hell fire & brimstone if this ain't the s***. WEIRD BUSINESS suceeds on so many levels that it's nearly imponderable.

Rating:
Summary: Weird Business Has No Business Being Published...
Review: In a nutshell, Weird Business sucks. I would love, in fact, to get a refund for this collection of vague, incomplete, and frequently pointless comic strip stories. They did not entertain me at all. Even The Masque of The Red Death was too brief and also sparsely delineated in terms of story and plot. (I've read better plotting in some old Superman comic books!)

I also didn't appreciate Lansdale's put-downs of various unamed authors which he found unable to work with. In fact, I don't really care about reading a long-winded introduction to a collection of cheap comics. So I certainly don't care to read about Joey's vague beefs over various authors that he had to turn down for this project -- a project that resulted in the worst collection of horror comics I have ever read.

This book should never have been published. Most of the stories were incomplete, often rambling -- to the point that I seriously wondered if most of these authors had ever recently been escapees of some psychiatric facility? These stories, for the most part, weren't only witless, but they were incomprehensible at best estimate. More like scribblings from a bipolar schizophrenic subject thatn anything else. Hardly entertaining, if you get my drift.

Sorry guys! Better luck next time. Better yet, don't make any more of these stupid comics. Please! This book is about as interesting and welcome as another OJ or Clinton-Monica in-depth press coverage.

*yawn* ... *click*

Rating:
Summary: A well-done collection of literature-to-comics adaptations.
Review: Not only does this book contain a bevy of stories by authors you've actually heard of, like Joe Lansdale, E.A. Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Nancy Collins, and Robert Bloch, but Weird Business manages to showcase some brilliant artwork by known professionals and a few up-and-coming artists. If you are a fan of the old-school horror stories, without all of the overly-pretentious hoo ha that goes with it, then grab this book now. Just make sure you lock the doors before you sit down to read it...

Rating:
Summary: A wide-ranging, provocative collection
Review: Often, when one fails to understand the content of something, it is easiest to *blame the content*. "Weird Business" readers will have to do some thinkin' work along with the free shocks -- but the pleasures and terrors are worth it. This eclectic collection, boasting gems like "Hellbound Train," and -- yes -- "Gorilla Gunslinger," covers a range of tones and styles. Where else can you go from Poe to alternate histories, to the wish-it-would- happen trenchant fairytale of bovine revolution, "Till the Cows Come Home?" Where else will you find dinosaurs and Marilyn Monroe's brain in the same story?

Get it while you can, pardners, for tomorrow may bring nothin' but comic collections of over-licensed, over-marketed, corporate-owned characters, and hey: Here's some proof that once upon a time, *some* publishing companies were actually *independent.*

Rating:
Summary: A wide-ranging, provocative collection
Review: Often, when one fails to understand the content of something, it is easiest to *blame the content*. "Weird Business" readers will have to do some thinkin' work along with the free shocks -- but the pleasures and terrors are worth it. This eclectic collection, boasting gems like "Hellbound Train," and -- yes -- "Gorilla Gunslinger," covers a range of tones and styles. Where else can you go from Poe to alternate histories, to the wish-it-would- happen trenchant fairytale of bovine revolution, "Till the Cows Come Home?" Where else will you find dinosaurs and Marilyn Monroe's brain in the same story?

Get it while you can, pardners, for tomorrow may bring nothin' but comic collections of over-licensed, over-marketed, corporate-owned characters, and hey: Here's some proof that once upon a time, *some* publishing companies were actually *independent.*