Bizarro World

This is the sequel to the Bizarro Comics anthology from a few years ago. Like that book, this one features "alternative comics" types doing their versions of DC superhero comics. There are some great comics here, and also some not-so-great comics. But almost all of the comics are at least interesting. One thing I have to say is that you really need to be a fan of DC comics in order to understand the references in many of these stories. I don't think someone who is not into superheroes will get very much out of this book. But for those of us who do like superheroes, it's a lot of fun.

Man, I am glad I picked this one up! I bought the first Bizarro book in softback format, and so I figured I'd order this one when it came out, and it is every bit as good as the first one IF NOT BETTER! It's really well produced book, nice thick pages and good color. As far as stories and art goes, DC again paired up underground/alternative cartoonists with each otther (one writing and one drawing) to hilarious and/or strange outcomes. But it works, though! I think the best story in the book is either Batman & Monkey by M. Wartella, or Tony Millionaire's Batman. I guess it looks like I'm biased towards Batman, but I'm not. I like Wonder Woman best of all. But back to Bizarro World... other notable sections of the book were drawn by James Kochalka, Jason Paulus, Bagge/Hernandez, Rick Altergott, and Evin Dorkin. Some things I DIDN't like about this book: The cover pales in comparison to Groening's on Vol.1. and some of the art is actually piss-poor (notably Kyle Baker, Brian Ralph, Michael Kupperman, and Scott Morse), looking like the artists spent, like, one hungover morning working on the art and just rushed it in. Actually, there are a few other good stories worth mentioning by Hunt Emerson, Ellen Forney, Tim Laine, & Danny Hellman. And how can I not mention excellents scripts by Peter Bagge, Harvey Pekar, Evan Dorkin (+++),uh... and others I can't seem to locate write now. Oh, one other thing. Notably absent are these people who appeared in the first anthology and for some reason (idiocy?) were not in this vol.2: Stephen DeStephano, Bill Wray, Ariel Bordeaux, and, as I mentioned earlier, Matt Groening! OK, so that's enough of my yappin'. BUY THIS NOOK!

Bizarro World had a lot to live up to following in the footsteps of the award winning Bizarro released several years ago and well... it fell short. The new Bizarro book is excellent but just not as memorable as the original. The Bizarro books (can it now be called a series?) use popular alternative cartoonists to create short stories featuring characters from the DC universe from icons like Superman to obscure characters like Kamandi. Here are some of my favorite stories from Bizarro World. In "The Wonder of it All" a high school aged Wonder Woman learns that using her new Golden Lasso to force her friends to give their honest opinions about her nets her more information than she wanted. The Spectre/Jim Corrigan unleashes his ghostly vengeance on his fellow officers at the police station for such minor infractions as hogging the copy machine. It's actually pretty funny. Green Lantern has a revelation about his weakness to the color yellow in "It's not Easy Being Green". The story seems like a homage to the old EC Mad magazine comics. In "The Power of Positive Batman" Bruce Wayne finally resolves his issues with the murder of his parents and decides to retire and sail around the world. Clark Kent decides to join him and the two sail off. Aquaman decides to attend open mic night and sing a song about his relationship with Mera. Like a lot of the stories this one is just sort of a slice of life tale showing the private lives of superheroes. Tony Millionaire returns with another strange Batman story. His art has a very old gothic style to it as if the story were something dug up from the 40's rather than a brand new tale. In "Personal Shopper", Alfred is out describing, to a mechanic, the specifications for a car he wants to purchase. You know, bulletproof, 200 MPH, space for rocket launchers, huge bat like fins on the rear. Wonder who that might be for? There are also some clunkers in the batch. Lantern Sentai in particular seemed pointless besides showing the Lantern Corps as Manga. In "Jing Kal-El" the Superman origin is rewritten with Kal landing at the North Pole and taking on the mantle of Santa Claus. I just couldn't figure out why. Some of the stories just stopped as if they're meant to be continued in another edition of Bizarro. "Bizarro Schmizarro", for instance has Luthor change Bizarro no. 1024 into a normal looking Superman (save for the Question mark on his chest) and then the story stops with a promise of more to come. Bizarro World is sometimes great and sometimes not so great. It's less than the original book but I still recommend it. The Bizarro series has a long way to fall before it can be considered average.

This second collection of stories (the first being Bizarro Comics) again turns DCs icons over to some of today's best alternate cartoonists and is a very enjoyable romp through the DC Universe. Take underground comics, your favoite DC comics, old Mad Magazines and your favorite strips from your local alternate newspaper, blend and this is what you get. The framing sequence with Bizarro was more enjoyable to me than in the first one and seemed to blend in better with the rest of the volume. The book seemed a little heavy on Batman stories, but don't worry there are a broad range of characters that get the "Bizarro treatment". The tales ranged from homage, to parody, to satire to dope dreams to slice of life pieces that would almost (heavy on that word) be welcome in a regular DC comic or annual. Particular standouts were: Tony Millionaire taking on Batman again in a story that evokes a 1930's Batman feel. A Legion of Super-Heroes tale where a corporation driven Brainiac Five drives the Legion to rebellion. The story and art makes you think Kurt Swan and Shooter could have drawn and written this on some crazy rainy night. Evan Dorkins and John Krewson turn Kamandi into a slacker who'd rather veg out than help talking tigers, and lions and apes (oh my!). This volume was fun. The hits far outweighed the misses. If you did not like one story don't worry the next one will be along soon. Well worth it.