Bush Leaguers

by Sam Fletcher, Joe Flood (Illustrator)

Bush Leaguers is an irreverent comedy-adventure comic book series about a down-and-out baseball team, set in the rough-and-tumble world of Gilded Age New York, written by Robert McKeon and Sam Fletcher, and illustrated by Joe Flood, published by Scout Comics.

The Brooklyn Bridegrooms are the scourge of late nineteenth-century New York. The cranks hate them, the team owner is plotting to shut them down, and Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt wants to lock them up. Most of the team are indifferent to their plight, save for one Skip Lapwhistle, the alter-ego of a former seamstress who dons a fake mustache and a baseball cap, and traded life in the sweatshop for life on the diamond. With the team on the brink, it’s up to Skip to rally the team, stop the team owner’s plot, evade Roosevelt’s clutches, and bring back the spirit of the game to the City.

Genres: Graphic Novels

104 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 2023

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This is an exuberant and very irreverent comedy that is beautifully illustrated. But it is very short and ends abruptly, just as the plot is starting to kick in.

The Brooklyn Bridegrooms are a disgrace: in turn of the century New York they bring chaos and disorder to Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt's carefully ordered world. When all looks lost for the team's future after a particularly unpleasant brawl, it's up to former seamstress and now cross-dressing Sally to save the team and ensure she doesn't have to return to the drudgery.

One can see the influences here: from the movies Slapshot and Bad News Bears to silly 70s cartoons from Hanna Barbera (minus the anthropomorphic animals). The players are known more for fights and cons than actual baseball. But this is definitely not a serious comic: right from the beginning, fans coming into the stadium are greeted with a special promotion of "blunt object night!" where everyone receives wrenches, horseshoes, and even a mace. With quite a few sexual innuendo, this does skew to older audiences.

The artwork is superb and really captures the era. Each page was a delight to read and pour over. But this ends incredibly fast and feels more like 15 pages than 96. In fact, the story ends JUST as it begins to get started. For that reason, the comic feels more like an introduction or a promo piece rather than an actual graphic novel. But I would definitely like to see more. Reviewed from an advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Ronnie]

"You're the worst assemblage of sons of bitches to ever disgrace a baseball field!"

The art is rich and deceptively intricate--I especially like the panels that feature newspaper articles, even the one on rancid hotdogs--and the writing is superb, together evoking a sort of florid nostalgia for a time and place when the nation's pastime was still in its infancy. The brief and well-illustrated essay at the end focused on the emergence of baseball and comic art in American culture is a plus. The contents of this one are better than the cover lets on.

First line:
"Play ball!"

[Chad]

An irreverent comedy comic about a Brooklyn baseball team that is more concerned with fighting than playing the burgeoning game of baseball. They are pursued by the overly law-abiding Teddy Roosevelt when he was police commissioner. It takes a long time to get going and ends as it's really beginning.