By: Chris Duffy Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 224 Publication Date: May 01, 2001 Release Date: May 01, 2001
I got mine autographed by Kyle Baker! 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.
Coool idea 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?)
Pretty Amusing. 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.
Me am disappointed, Greg. 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.
Mostly junk, with a few *teriffic* stories 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.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
