No Matter Where You Go... There You Are...

Buckaroo Banzai Graphic Novels #2

by Earl Mac Rauch, Shawn Van Briesen (Artist), Earl Mac Rauch

First time in paperback! Writer Mac Rauch and director WD Richter return to their creation with brand new stories! Everyone's favorite adventurer/surgeon/rock star is back again just in time to save the world! Get the low down on the events that transpired before the movie! See for the first time a good look at Buckaroo's beginnings! This volume reprints the 2 issue "Prequel" series, the two-issue "H.O.T.H." series, and the "Origin" and "Big Size" issues.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Media Tie In

158 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2010

About the author

An American novelist and screenwriter, best known for writing the screenplays for A Stranger Is Watching, New York, New York and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

Reviews

[Max · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. The artwork is pretty universally bad. All of the characters, especially Banzai, feel incredibly out of character. The established history of the character is ignored, as this comic for some reason has Banzai's mother survive the destruction of the first Jet Car, despite the movie and novelization both indicating that both of Banzai's parents died. Don't bother to read this if you like the original film, and if you aren't familiar with Buckaroo Banzai at all there really isn't any point.

[Scott Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sort of mixed bag. The plus side (that brings it up to a 3 star, from 2 stars) is that it's as close as we're likely to get to a real, official Buckaroo Banzai sequel - the writer and director of the movie worked on this, which is GREAT.But honestly...I'm being kind, that's nostalgia talking, it's really a two-star kind of book.

The downside is that, as with many Moonstone Press releases, so many of the stories (especially the second half of this collection) are completely random; the plots, storyline, even the art seem to be almost randomly thrown together; like somebody cut a coherent story out in three-panel sections, put them in a hat and just drew them out at random and pasted them together. I don't know if they need new editors or what the deal is, but...it's kinda a mess.

[Pamela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Expectations were low, and still, this book failed. Picked this up from Thriftbooks because I was intrigued by the graphic novel format of a book of short stories, and hoped for some interesting nuggets about the origin story of Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers. The art was bad (in some cases really bad) and the plot lines worse. Pass this one by if you can.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you can put aside your feelings about the movie, these comic stories, while not great, are entertaining in a pulpy kind of way.

[Federico Lucifredi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is random and crazy just like the movie. 70% of the artwork is good (one of the stories has a retro style I don't like). Good overall — I mean, it is Buckaroo Banzai not Shakespeare, you have to set your expectations accordingly!

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short lived attempt to bring Buckaroo and company back, was noble but flawed.
The art was incredibly uneven and Rauch didn't seem to know what to do with BB past the two movie ideas.
He seemed to enjoy writing Perfect Tommy more than anything else, but that wasn't going to work.

[John M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love the movie, but this book is extremely disappointing.