Bizarro Comics

Rating:
Summary: Coool idea
Review: I liked this book, which, as other reviewers have said, features indy talent doing mainstream comics. I liked the framing story, which has Mr. Mxyzptlk, mischievious imp from the 5th dimension, waking up to find himself declared president of his home dimension. Unfortunately, the great dimension conquering gamesmaster A invades and challenges Mxy to a duel. After disqualifying himself, Mxy is allowed to picked a champion to represent himself from a catralogue which has every single version of every single superhero. Figuring that Superman does such a good job kicking him out of his dimension, Mxy selects him. But after the real Superman blows him off, Mxy accidently selects Bizarro, Superman's weird, backwards (and possibly insane) clone. Given 30 minutes to train him, Mxy exasperatedly gives Bizzaro a bunch of comics to read. But this makes the mixed-up Bizzaro to decide to defeat A by drawing comics...

And this is the result. Many of the short vignettes are quite good, Some are funny ( the Metal Men one, the Solomon Grundy gets bored one, the Superpets, the green lantern boot camp, the Aquaman in the bath tub, etc.), some are poignant (Supergirl and Mary marvel, the Bat cave, the sidekicks, etc.), and some are just cool. There a re very few stinkers here (the only one I can think of is the pointless Hawkman story. My only problem is that a lot of the stories are too short ( one or two pages) and that several writers or artists are iinvoloed in a huge amount of the stories, while others are barely there at all. Overall, a good book, and I'd read something like this again (sequel, anyone?)

Rating:
Summary: Me am disappointed, Greg.
Review: Bizarro Comics presents a mixed bag of stories featuring DC's most famous characters, as portrayed by a stellar array of alternative comic's best Writers & Artists. Unfortunately, most of the stories aren't up to snuff.

The good first: Artist Stephan DeStephano's Bizarro is soooo freakin' weird, I just couldn't stop chuckling every time he appeared. And he appeared a LOT, but more on that later. Writer Chris Duffy gives Bizarro such a freaky speech pattern that the laugh quotient is high, at least in the framing story....As for the shorter stories, Wonder Girl Vs. Wonder Tot was adorable, The Silence of the Fishes and The Man Who Cried Fish (Both starring Aquaman) were hilarious, the Batcave story was touching, and the Sidekicks trying to start their own Super-Team was weird and wild. The coloring and production values in all of the stories were GREAT, and DC really serves up a georgeous package at a reasonable price. There's a lotta bang for your buck...

Now the bad: Some of the stories were just plain stupid (The Wonder Woman goes shopping story), and others were amateurish (Hawkman saving a kidnapped egg...), and the framing story, while funny and enjoyable, is WAAAYYYY TOOO LOOOONGGG!!! It's over 80 pages by itself. Why?? And why is Matt Groening taking credit for the cover that was clearly drawn by Bill Morrison?

Overall, it's a beautiful book, with a few very good stories, and I'll recommend it for those reasons.

Rating:
Summary: Me am disappointed, Greg.
Review: Bizarro Comics presents a mixed bag of stories featuring DC's most famous characters, as portrayed by a stellar array of alternative comic's best Writers & Artists. Unfortunately, most of the stories aren't up to snuff.

The good first: Artist Stephan DeStephano's Bizarro is soooo freakin' weird, I just couldn't stop chuckling every time he appeared. And he appeared a LOT, but more on that later. Writer Chris Duffy gives Bizarro such a freaky speech pattern that the laugh quotient is high, at least in the framing story....As for the shorter stories, Wonder Girl Vs. Wonder Tot was adorable, The Silence of the Fishes and The Man Who Cried Fish (Both starring Aquaman) were hilarious, the Batcave story was touching, and the Sidekicks trying to start their own Super-Team was weird and wild. The coloring and production values in all of the stories were GREAT, and DC really serves up a georgeous package at a reasonable price. There's a lotta bang for your buck...

Now the bad: Some of the stories were just plain stupid (The Wonder Woman goes shopping story), and others were amateurish (Hawkman saving a kidnapped egg...), and the framing story, while funny and enjoyable, is WAAAYYYY TOOO LOOOONGGG!!! It's over 80 pages by itself. Why?? And why is Matt Groening taking credit for the cover that was clearly drawn by Bill Morrison?

Overall, it's a beautiful book, with a few very good stories, and I'll recommend it for those reasons.

Rating:
Summary: The DC Universe for Everyone's Tastes
Review: Mainstream comics companies are not known to experiment much; sure, they'll kill off a main character to resurrect him/her in a later "special issue," and they'll insert cultural relevance from time to time in order to boost sales. Still, they don't dare radically change the big characters because (a) financially, those characters represent valuable properties and (b) the comics fanbase want the heroes to preserve their mythic proportions. For these reasons, BIZARRO COMICS offers a refreshing take on many prominent characters from the DC Comics Universe. Numerous comics creators from the smaller prestige presses and the remnants of the "comix underground" offer their interpretations of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash and others. Since these stories take place outside the current DC continuity, they should appeal to a wide range of readers. People unfamiliar with the various forms comics writing and art can take will discover a wide range of styles here. Regular comics readers will enjoy the interpretations of familiar, beloved characters.

The impressive roster of creators for this book all deserve mention, but readers should pay special attention to the award-winning story "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter" by the creative team of Kyle Baker and Liz Glass; imagine a teenaged girl sitting a super, invulnerable baby as depicted by a Tex Avery cartoon. "Inside the Batcave" by Paul Pope and Jay Stephens explores many kids' fantasies--to actually make it into the Batman's real lair. The Wonder Woman story by Bob Fingerman and Dave Cooper, "One-Piece, Two-Piece, Red Piece, Blue Piece," should appeal to the fashion-challenged frustrations in everyone. These and the many other stories approach the DC characters with pleasure and wonder, and this volume manages to balance a postmodern savvy with a kid-friendly appeal.

DC Comics deserves credit for presenting BIZARRO COMICS, and you'll be doing yourself a favor to read it and share it with your friends.

(THIS PORTION TO THE READERS WHO DO NOT USUALLY READ COMICS) Look, I'm deliberately not going to mention the hip, respectable comics that have earned literary praise from academia and the mainstream press, because I'd like for you to consider that the comics genre itself does not focus solely on stories for children. Like prose fiction, drama, and music, comics can address numerous genres and themes. Comics provide a forum for many types of expression--not just juvenile literature. You'll have fun with this book; portions are endearing, laugh-out-loud funny, surprising, and/or poignant. You won't regret giving BIZARRO COMICS a chance.

(THIS PORTION TO THE READERS WHO USUALLY READ COMICS) If you enjoy CHASING AMY, GHOST WORLD, LOVE & ROCKETS, and the like, you will want to read BIZARRO COMICS. Even if you prefer mainstream superhero books, however, look at BIZARRO COMICS as an introduction to comics creators you may not encounter often, and then enjoy finding their other work. You'll be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: Mostly junk, with a few *teriffic* stories
Review: Someone had a great idea with this book, but it was ruined by the legal dept. and higher-ups. First issue is the cover. It was supposed to be by Daniel Clowes (who is actually a talented artist) but was rejected because it was too deconstructive of DC's heroes. (You can find the black & white version on the web, just run a search.) And on into the book, which has an embarrasingly contrived "wrap-around" story that is filled with obscure DCU references and was done by half-a-dozen different "creators" -- essentially, it's mainstream. Some of the stories are good, but they could have been a lot better if the authors (talented cartoonists themselves) could have illustrated their own stories. Essentially, no one working on DC's major characters can write and draw his own story unless he has incorporated himself, because of character ownership and other legal issues. Another nail in this collection's coffin right there. All but one of the stories is in color (another nail) and much of it was colored by in-house DC colorists (another nail).

HOWEVER, there are two or three stories in here that are definitely worth reading. Better make that two. I'm talking about HAWKMAN by James Kochalka/Dylan Horrocks (art, letters, color by D.H.) that is wonderful with a wonderfulness I can't begin to explain -- just READ it, it's so heart-warming and funny and beautiful and i don't know what else. And then there's BATMAN by some writer and TONY MILLIONARE who draws the "classic batman style" in glorious *black and white* (actually black and sickly green) and it's wonderful.

There are some other nice stories in here, but those two are the only ones that really hang together and work well (and have ONE artist).

Anyway, this book will probably blow away people who've never read a good alternative comic, but for me it's not so impressive. Do read those two stories I mentioned, though.

peace out -- yakov.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Amusing.
Review: The variety of storytelling styles by the dozens of creators who worked on this book almost guarantees that no reader will like every single story (or, conversely, hate every one). The types of humor vary widely also: there's MAD- and PowerPuff Girl-style parodies, Ren-and-Stimpy-type weirdness, also some outright slapstick. The Kyle Baker story reads exactly like a Chuck Jones cartoon. One of the Aquaman sketches reads like Spy-Vs-Spy. A few, like the Eddie Campbell story, manage to be extremely bizarre without being particularly funny.

The stories are all 10 pages or less with the exception of the two-part 75-page framing tale involving Mxyzptlk (which is entertaining although not quite as funny as the best of the shorter works). The creators are generally people who have worked on Vertigo and "indy" comics.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Amusing.
Review: The variety of storytelling styles by the dozens of creators who worked on this book almost guarantees that no reader will like every single story (or, conversely, hate every one). The types of humor vary widely also: there's MAD- and PowerPuff Girl-style parodies, Ren-and-Stimpy-type weirdness, also some outright slapstick. The Kyle Baker story reads exactly like a Chuck Jones cartoon. One of the Aquaman sketches reads like Spy-Vs-Spy. A few, like the Eddie Campbell story, manage to be extremely bizarre without being particularly funny.

The stories are all 10 pages or less with the exception of the two-part 75-page framing tale involving Mxyzptlk (which is entertaining although not quite as funny as the best of the shorter works). The creators are generally people who have worked on Vertigo and "indy" comics.

Rating:
Summary: I got mine autographed by Kyle Baker!
Review: This book features DC comics characters in stories by alternative cartoonists. The stories are not part of the regular DC continuity, so the artists are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want with them. This is not just a series of short stories, though. The book has a framing story where 5th Dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk has to defend his dimension by playing a series of games with a creature called "A". After he gets himself disqualified, Mxyzptlk is forced to find a "champion" to play on his behalf, and he accidentally picks Superman's imperfect duplicate, Bizarro. Mxyzptlk tries to teach Bizarro how to be a hero by showing him a bunch of comic books. So, Bizarro draws his own comics, which are really the ones created by the aformentioned alternative cartoonists. As for the comics themselves, well, they are different, that's for sure. Some are funny, some are serious and some are just plain weird. The most notorious story here is "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter", By Kyle Baker. It was originally supposed to be in a comic called "Elseworlds 80-Page Giant", but that comic was recalled and destroyed because some people at DC got cold feet over the comic's contents. (I don't want to give away what happens, but the story involves baby Superman having things happen to him that would kill an ordinary baby). This is a fun book that features interesting interpretations of super-heroes.

Rating:
Summary: A Rare Surprise
Review: To think that DC, one of the 'Big Fellas' in comics would ever publish a tome of flagship characters written and illustrated by denizens of comicdom's darker and cluttered passageways... well... I would have sooner bet that UPN was televising 'Jeopardy'. Two words for DC: 'Thank You'.

Sure, the Groening cover pulls in the mainstream comic fan- a recognizable beacon of familiarity... but crack this book open, and an entire universe of underground art, emotion, satire and attitude grabs your ears with two fists and gives you no choice in the matter. You're involved.

It's quite simple- for the comic afficionado, for the fanboy, for the person that used to look forward to 'New Comics Wednesday' at your neighborhood 7-11, 'Bizarro Comics' is sheer unadulterated rapture. Finally, a publisher humble enough to open the doors and shoot one from the hip without a hint of pretentiousness. Tear off the plastic, read it cover to cover, and read it again. Dog-ear it. Enjoy it.

For the casual observer of comics, I only offer this. Get a glimpse of what this medium has to offer, good, bad, and ugly, encased in one of the freshest ideas belched out by a mainstream comic publisher since... since... ... with it. It's a bloody grand read. Treat yourself.