Madman Library Edition Volume 2

Madman Library Edition #2

by Mike Allred, Laura Allred (Illustrations), Mike Baron

The Madman comics universe begins here--with over 600 pages drawn by legendary comics creator Michael Allred! For the first time, Madman 's debut series is presented in color for the ultimate surreal superhero reading experience in a deluxe, oversized, hardcover format.

Volume Two collects many of Mike Allred's popular Madman Comics stories including numerous Madman spinoffs and crossovers featuring the Superman/Madman crossover and the Powers/Madman one-shot written By Brian Michael Bendis and drawn By Michel Avon Oeming.

This six-volume Madman universe omnibus library edition series collects all of Allred's award-winning Madman universe (a.k.a. the Madmaniverse) stories in selected reading order for the ultimate Madman fan!

Collects MADMAN COMICS 11-20, SUPERMAN/MADMAN Hullabaloo, NEXUS MEETS MADMAN, MADMAN JAM, MADMAN KING-SIZE Super Groovy Special!, WHO KILLED MADMAN? (POWERS crossover), MADMAN All-New, Giant-Size Super Ginchy Special!, MADMAN Monster!, and MADMAN Detour to Armenia.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Adventure, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Action

576 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2022

About the author

Michael 'Doc' Allred (Also Credited as M. Dalton Allred) grew up in the 60's and 70's and was surrounded with the best in pop culture and a steady diet of music, movies and comic books including the three B's: Beatles, Bond and Batman to the point of obsession.

So it should come as no surprise that he keeps a hand in film and music (He's the lead singer and guitarist for The Gear), but comic books have always been a seminal source of joy for Mike and that joy remains the main ingredient in most of his work.

Allred first tasted success in the comics field with his wildly popular MADMAN series, which is currently being developed for a live action film with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. His earlier work from GRAFIK MUZIK was turned into the cult hit movie G-Men from Hell directed by Christopher Coppola (featuring Robert Goulet as the Devil). Other work includes Red Rocket 7, his history of Rock and Roll told in the context of a sci-fi adventure storyl the Madman spin-off THE ATOMICS and his magnum opus, THE GOLDEN PLATES, where he's illustrating the entire Book of Mormon.

Mike counts the secret to his success to be his wife, and creative partner, Laura Allred, who is is considered to be one of the best colorists in the business.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm loving these Madman Library Editions. Madman has had such a haphazard run of books over the last 30 years over a ton of publishers. It's awesome to have it all in one place. I love the ginchy nature of the series too. Here we get crossovers with Superman, Nexus, The Jam and Powers as well. That Powers crossover is genius.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madman Library Edition Volume 2 collects a ton of Madman material - MADMAN COMICS 11-20, SUPERMAN/MADMAN Hullabaloo, NEXUS MEETS MADMAN, MADMAN JAM, MADMAN KING-SIZE Super Groovy Special!, WHO KILLED MADMAN? (POWERS crossover), MADMAN All-New, Giant-Size Super Ginchy Special!, MADMAN Monster!, and MADMAN Detour to Armenia.

I don't really know what to say about Madman at this point. Allred's style is among my favorite in comics and Madman has everything good about comics - a sympathetic hero, mad scientists, robots, aliens, hot dames, smart mouth detectives, time travel, zombies, and mutants.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can never get tired of Madman, except maybe the existential crises. I mean I've been there about how my identity leaves me begging for meaning, but it can mean too much after a while. But hey I like seeing how a weirdo's presence can make the mundane more bearable. I mean I don't even need to look at the Atomics to know how Frank Einstein's presence made their bizarre situation easier to digest. Plus it normalizes the bizarre/campy fashion, like that Superman crossover says, there're no superheroes just the idea that oddities are as normal as anything else. Plus it makes guest appearances like those intercompany characters more bearable, because it's way too campy to take seriously, but just as memorable.

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Madman Library Edition Volume 2 collects issues 11-20 of the series as well as numerous specials and team ups including the Superman/Madman Hullabaloo, Nexus Meets Madman, Madman/The Jam, King-Size Super Groovy Special, Who Killed Madman, All-New Giant-Size Super Ginchy Special, and 20th anniversary Monster. The first part are the main series and it's the stronger part of the book where each of the stories has more time to breathe. My favorite issues came at the end of this run and involved two corrupt FBI agents who escaped from hell and are now trying to do good deeds to make it to heaven (but aren't very good at it). We get some more background on Frank too, finding out Madman was some sort of hitman or agent named Zane before died and was brought back as Madman.

As far as the specials, the crossovers were kind of a mixed bag. The Superman crossover involves the two characters mixing with each other so we miss out on either's signature look for most of the crossover. Also, this one should have fit in earlier in the book as it's referenced in one of the issues well before we read it in this volume. Nexus meets Madman felt more wordy than the rest of the series and Steve Rude's art wasn't as fun, but I did like the Elvis/Michael Jackson reveal. The Jam crossover had some of the best art in the series with Allred working with Bernie Mireault in a M.C. Escher style world. The Powers crossover was very fun but didn't really fit in storywise with the rest of the book. The final specials are fun, with each story being shorter but with plenty of beautiful Allred and guest art.

This is still one of the best looking books I've ever read.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love volume 1, Did Not Love volume 2.
This gets away from the core Madman story and has Madman teaming up with famous (Superman) and less famous (Nexus) superheroes.
The classic problem of superhero team-ups is that they suck for one fan or the other. Because you have to at least kind of introduce both superheroes, but if you're a Madman reader, that introduction is unnecessary and boring, and if you're a Nexus reader, it's probably not quite enough to make the character work for you.
Really, though, unless you love both characters, the team-up doesn't really work. Because I don't give a hot damn about what Nexus is up to.
Superhero teamups just end up feeling like when you were hanging out with a friend in elementary school, and he invited another kid, and you were like, "Who the fuck is this kid? I don't wanna hang out with this kid, I wanna hang out with my friend!"
That analogy explains both why I didn't love this comic AND why I'm spending my life writing overdone reviews on Goodreads instead of hanging out with people who enjoy my company.

[Calum · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final half of Madman Comics was really good and possibly even better than the first. I just love the world and characters Allred has created and can't wait to read volume 3.
9/10

Superman/Madman: Hullabaloo, is a great merging of the characters and is filled with silver age fun. However, I'm not a huge fan of Allreds Superman. Something about him just feels off. Other than that it's a pretty perfect crossover that doesn't feel drawn out.
8/10

Nexus meets Madman was not very good. The art didn't fit with the comedic tone and even then it wasn't particularly funny.
4/10

Madman/Jam was absolutely fantastic. I really loved the meeting of the two characters and it made me want to go out and read some of the Jams comics. The art is incredible and really made use it the medium. This was much funnier than Nexus meets Madman and I was more emotionally invested in it.
9/10

Who killed Madman is a great short story.
8/10

The various Madman specials are also great and it's really cool seeing all the different creators takes on this character.
7/10

[Alan Fricker · Rating 4 out of 5]

More mayhem and mystery with plenty of pomo goodness

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madman comics are, quite truly, the ginchiest.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Now I need volume 3.