The Biologic Show, Number: 0

by Al Columbia

he Biologic Show is a comic book series written and drawn by Al Columbia. The first issue, #0, was released in October 1994 by Fantagraphics Books, and a second issue, #1, was released the following January. A third issue (#2) was announced in the pages of other Fantagraphics publications and solicited in Previews but was never published. "I Was Killing When Killing Wasn't Cool", a color short story with a markedly different art style originally intended for issue #2, appeared instead in the anthology Zero Zero. In a 2010 interview, Columbia recalled that the unfinished issue "looked so different that it just didn’t look right, it didn’t look consistent, and it didn’t feel right to keep putting out that same comic book, to try to tell a story where the style is mutating."[1] The series' title is taken from a passage in the William S. Burroughs book Exterminator! (in the chapter "Short Trip Home"). The passage in question is quoted briefly in a story from issue #0, also titled "The Biologic Show".

Each issue of The Biologic Show contains several short stories and illustrated poems. Many of the pieces deal with disturbing subject matter such as mutilation, incest, and the occult. Issue #0 introduces three of Columbia's recurring characters: the hapless, Koko the Clown-like Seymour Sunshine in the opening story "No Tomorrow If I Must Return", and the sibling duo Pim and Francie in "Tar Frogs". (Both "Tar Frogs" and the aforementioned "The Biologic Show" had originally appeared in the British comics magazine Deadline but were partially redrawn for Columbia's solo book.) Issue #1 is dominated by the 16-page Pim and Francie story "Peloria: Part One", intended as the start of an ongoing serial. It includes another character, Knishkebibble the Monkey-Boy, who reappears in Columbia's later work. Upon the demise of The Biologic Show Fantagraphics announced that Peloria would be released as a stand-alone graphic novel,[2] but this plan was also abandoned.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Short Stories, Graphic Novels Comics, Bizarro Fiction

34 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

At the age of 19, he was hired by Bill Sienkiewicz to be his assistant on Alan Moore’s, Big Numbers.

Since then you may have seen some of his numerous other works such as Pim & Francie, Doghead, and The Biologic Show.

He is also a musician and artist.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Biologic Show is a nineties comic book series written and drawn by Al Columbia. The short stories collected here might be described as alt comix, but it is also definitely horror, marked by occasionally disturbing nightmare/surrealist images, sometimes very sketchily drawn. It is consistently violent, so not for everyone (probably not many). I am reminded here of Crumb’s strangest line-crossing work. I read and loved Columbia’s also sometimes disturbing Pim and Gracie: The Golden Bear Days, and Pim and Gracie—a Golden Age-appearing comics duo—make their appearance here, but on the whole The Biologic Show goes to darker, more insane places.

Why "biologic"? Well, I guess it's about the bodies of humans and other creatures, about biology.

Why read something so strange and potentially upsetting? To see the province of the most alternative storytellers and artists and the dark edges of the imagination. Nightmare. Drug-induced, possibly. Surreal. I can only recommend this to fans of extreme alt comix and horror, so be warned, and I am not endorsing this, but you can actually read all 24 pages here.

https://archive.org/details/BiologicS...

[Ioan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard of Columbia a long time ago but I haven't mustered any interest in his work until a few weeks before the date of this review. And though my eyes had passed through all sorts of bizarre, scabrous, horrific things, graphical or written, Columbia's work climbed to the top after only a few glances. But it's not only about the black rays of the sun of melancholy polluting these pages. It's also about Columbia's original drawing style. He captures distorted facial expressions with surgical precision and his optics are decidedly a foodborne intoxication consequent to Naked Lunch and maybe some lectures on lives of saints and mystics. He is so muscular in his insanity that he manages to depict Heaven itself as another Hell. There is no trace of reality in this thing, it's only pure insular projection. Though not all the stories have the same impact (Bruja wasn't an exceptional one), the title story, Li'l Saint Anthony, Extinction and maybe even Tar Frogs (despite its irritating likeness to Eraserhead matter) make for a huge amount of quality.

[Ray Dunsmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hellishly disturbing, visually fascinating comics that read like an insight into the dreams of the schizophrenic ward. Totally and absolutely a must for anyone who revels in the grotesque side of thought and society.

[Wesley McCraw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, this is hard to rate.

[Twan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like nightmares in comic form.

[Javier Jiménez · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many adjectives to describe this comic, for example: creepy, violent, dark, gross, surreal and disgusting. However, it does have a good amount of imagination. In a disturbing way, but it does.

It's only 36 pages long but there are nine terrifying stories (some of them are just one page). "Self-titled instructional version" is the longest and probably the most brutal. The art style is raw and morbid which increases the sinister vibes. I like it as I could like a horror/gore movie but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

[marcii☆ thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the most depressing things I've ever read

[Croatoan616 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grotesque and fantastic. Al Columbia and his visions and art never fail to make me laugh, whether it is because it truly is hilarious or because of its obscenity.

[Nikita Katiyar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing but Clever

[dogunderwater]

This book is still kind of fucking me up, man.

[Graeme · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m just not a fan of gratuitous rape, even in horror comics.

[Sebastian Zax-Gadara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminded me of Gira's "The Consumer", the movie Gummo, Burrough's "Naked Lunch" and Acid Bath's lyrics. It's a slab of morbid drawing and writing and I see why it's considered an obscure cult-classic, but I don't see how it's revolutionary.

[Codee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this in the free library of my condo, so I definitely didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It sure is some fucked up shit! Probably my favourite story is self-titled instructional version.

[Gabriel Infierno · Rating 4 out of 5]

I respect this because it give me nightmares. Big TW for rape.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first graphic novel to ever give me nightmares. The artwork is unbelievably disturbing and uncanny valley. Absolutely horrific.

[Carlos CRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is beyond the nastiest comic I've ever read (and loved). The art is amazing. Al Columbia is one of the greatest.