Strange Tales

Strange Tales MAX #1

by Paul Pope, Peter Bagge, Molly Crabapple

At long last, the wait is over! Marvel is proud to present the debut of this hotly anticipated anthology showcasing Marvel's greatest characters re-imagined by the best and brightest talents working in independent comics today. Don't miss what's sure to be one of the most exciting collections of comics short stories ever produced! Every issue stars a stunning array of the best, most exciting cartoonists on the planet - showcasing the Marvel Heroes as you've never seen them before! Featuring the long awaited Peter Bagge "Incorrigible Hulk!" Collects Startling The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man, Hulk vs. the Rain, and Diary of the Hulk.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Humor, Superheroes, Fiction, Anthologies

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

PAUL POPE is an American cartoonist living and working in New York City. Pope has made a name for himself internationally as an artist and designer. He has been working primarily in comics since the early '90s, but has also done a number of projects with Italian fashion label Diesel Industries and, in the US, with DKNY. His media clients include LucasArts, Paramount Pictures, Cartoon Network, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Conde-Naste, Kodansha (Japan), Sapporo (Japan), Marc Ecko, Dargaud Editions (France), EMI Canada, Warner Brothers, and The British Film Institute. His iconic Batman: Year 100, a science fiction take on the classic Batman origin tale, has won numerous awards, seen print in many languages, and appears frequently on many Top 10 Batman story lists. In 2010, Pope was recognized as a Master Artist by the American Council Of The Arts, and is currently sitting on the ACA advisory board. His 2010, short science fiction comic strip Strange Adventures (DC Comics)--an homage to the Flash Gordon serials of the '30s-- won the coveted National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award for Best Comic Book of the year. He has won 5 Eisners to date.

Reviews

[Scott]

Face front, true believers! This collection was one hell of a 'Marvel'ous steaming mess!

Other GR reviewers have used the phrase and/or variations of 'hit or miss, with more misses,' and I couldn't agree more. Strange Tales is a big mood-whiplash anthology - featuring an eclectic line-up of artists and their styles - which uses a boatload of sophomoric humor to poke some fun at a number of Marvel's flagship characters and their attributes . . . while also including a handful of oddly serious segments as well. I could count on one hand the number of times I laughed (the non-superpowered Black Widow impossibly surviving a number of crippling injuries during a mission; the Avengers in scenario mocking their actual print advertisements for Hostess Fruit Pies in the 70's; and a panting Uatu the Watcher being revealed as a voyeur while spying on She-Hulk in the shower), but so many other moments either just landed with a resounding thud or were oddly tone-deaf. The Spider-Man and Hulk stories that conclude the book - both of which center of their messy love lives and depict the characters as uncomfortably and/or extremely deranged - were just annoyingly awful, and the twice usage of 'gay' as a punchline was in poor taste. Also, the 'gag' regarding The Punisher being hired as a school tutor, in which he forces a lazy teenager to study at gunpoint after first blowing away his video gaming system, was something that I can't quite believe made it past the editorial staff. This volume may have a 2010 copyright date, but it feels like it originated from an earlier era.

[Forrest]

As a child, my primary exposure to comics came from the Marvel stockpile with a sprinkling of DC, Archie, and Richie Rich. Being an Air Force brat living overseas for many of my prime being-brainwashed-by-comics years, I had access to The Stars and Stripes bookstore on base, and not much else. It was only as a teenager that I became aware of such things as independent and/or underground comics. For years, I was forced to "make mine Marvel".

Now, that's not a bad thing. I really enjoyed Thor, Conan, and anything with Silver Surfer in it. Even after I returned to the states, I collected Defenders for quite some time and even had a subscription to the Star Wars comics and (dare I admit it) The Dazzler. Mom bought me the latter, though I think she was way more enamored of the sparkly mutant songstress than I was, but, hey, it was thoughtful of her. Thanks, Mom!

But like any good thing, familiarity breeds contempt. By the time I was in my middle teen years, I was thoroughly burned out on Marvel and comics in general. I "graduated" to more adult-oriented publications like Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal. For a long time I didn't seriously read comics at all.

Well, as you can see by my previous reviews, I've jumped back in the game and enjoy several titles, most notably Fatale and The Manhattan Projects.

So what ever happened to Marvel? Let's see, I burned out about the time Secret Wars was tying up. Then I came back to Marvel via the silver screen and discover that the franchise, from the movie side, anyway, has been ripped in twain. So, until contracts change, I won't be seeing Silver Surfer alongside Doctor Strange anytime soon. And that makes me sad. I just haven't had the heart to "make mine Marvel" again.

So what is the most natural thing to do with your idols after your idols have lost their holiness?

Mock them. Mercilessly.

And that's what Strange Tales does. It's as if Marvel got drunk and decided to give permission to a bunch of independent comic writers and artists to abuse their characters and storylines in whatever way they saw fit.

And, boy, did they! From the dark side of Peter Parker's supposed "super powers" to a domestically challenged Bruce Banner/Hulk as a Doctor Jekyll/Mister Hyde of the singles dating scene (I'm not kidding), the artists herein have stretched, chopped, boiled, and burned Marvel's sacred cows with shameless abandon. Imagine if Stan Lee had hired The Onion's staff in some bizarre alternate universe and you get the idea.

Not all of the stories worked for me. One was so abstract as to be incomprehensible. A couple were downright uninspired. But when they hit the nail, they do it with a resounding boom!

My favorite of the bunch was Tony Millionaire's Iron Man. This all-too-short strip harks back to the comic art and comedy of the early 20th-Century, falling halfway between homage and outright ridicule of both Marvel's Iron Man and the comics that preceded him.

If you're a Marvel purist who takes him- or herself too seriously, you're gonna hate this . . .

. . . and that's why I liked it. Not enough to make me get back into Marvel, but enough to justify keeping my distance. Gone are the days of Marvel and DC dominance. And I say, good riddance.

[Jan Philipzig]

I like many of these creators (and I am sure they can use the paycheck from Marvel/Disney), but I don't get the impression that they have many interesting things to say about Marvel superheroes. Kochalka's hilarious Hulk shorts were the only contributions that really worked for me - especially the one that has him taking on the rain that falls from the sky: his most epic battle yet!

[Matt Quann]

A fun, very silly compilation of short comics in the style of Marvel's What If? but with an absurdist twist. There's some really funny stories in this and ones that are just a bit silly. Since humour is very subjective, I think it's worthwhile for Marvel fans to check out and find something they'll like. Oh, great mix of artists on this too!

[Nicolo]

This is a great anthology featuring the best creators from independent and alternative comics. It is a hardcover collection that is sure to have a story or two that would entertain even the most discriminating comics connoisseur. I am very pleased that this book has rare Marvel work from my favorite non-mainstream favorites like Paul Pope, Stan Sakai and Becky Cloonan. It is also a good primer for sampling the work of other independent and alternative stalwarts as they handle and skewer familiar Marvel characters, comic creators like Peter Bagge, Michael Kupperman, Jim Rugg and more.

This hardcover is well produced, since it contains excellent stories from cutting edge creators and a great cover design from Chip Kidd. I really like it that Marvel did not go with the dust jacket this time and went with a full color graphic cover. This is really convenient for me since my other hardcover books would only end up with creased jackets as they are stored in the shelf.

This is a great book to have and I’m happy to have found it at a bargain price. Even if one hasn’t tried independent comics and its ilk, this is a good way to experience that genre with familiar characters.

[Sam Quixote]

The book takes the same premise as DC's Bizarro books where well known comic book heroes appear silly and go on daffy adventures. It's the comic book equivalent of going on vacation.

So with that in mind I was looking for a good time, some jokes, some light entertainment. And most of the book is just this. I enjoyed James Kochalka's Hulk scripts where he has Hulk fight Rain (yes the weather) and write a diary. Jason's Spiderman is insecure that he hasn't ever been in a bar fight and so goes out to a bar and starts one. Nicholas Gurewitch, he of the excellent Perry Bible Fellowship series, writes two excellent one pagers of Wolverine and Hulk. Jeffrey Brown contributes a funny Fantastic Four strip while Peter Bagge provides the most substantial works found here with lengthy stories on both Spiderman and Hulk. He makes Spiderman a corporate shill after reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" and deciding to follow the book's teachings. Hulk and Bruce Banner meanwhile become embroiled in a disastrous love triangle.

But most of the stuff here is kinda dull. There are numerous strips here that go on and on: a Punisher strip that is drawn so poorly and is about nothing at all; numerous Modok and Iron Man shorts that never take off; a poorly conceived Brother Voodoo strip; Black Widow doing nothing more than what she usually does - surveillance and intelligence gathering. And so on. It showed that much of the book was made up of half-baked ideas at best and were trying to read.

So there's some stuff that's good but generally I found the book a bit weak. The stories never seemed that imaginative nor funny and it could've been a lot better than it was. An ok collection.

[Sezer Turgay]

Zamanında ana akım olmayan çizerlerin bir araya gelip marvel için kısa öyküler yaptığı bir seri Strange Tales.Tabi antolojilerde iyi hikayeler kadar kötüler de oluyor.Benim en sevdiğim Johnny Ryan'ın Punisher hikayesi oldu.Stan Sakai'nın Hulkumsu hikayesi için de heyecanlıydım ama maalesef beklediğimi bulamadım.

[Terry]

Strange Tales mixes classic Marvel characters with indie artists and the results are strange — yet it works, for the most part. Paul Pope (Batman 100), Molly Crabapple, Jhonen Vasquez and Jeffrey Brown (Incredible Change-Bots, Bighead) are only some of the artists and writers brought together for this project.

In turn, they focus their unique perspectives on Dr. Strange, The Punisher, Iron Man, Spider-man, the Hulk and other Marvel mainstays. More often than not, the results are comedy gold like the Perry Bible Fellowship’s take on Wolverine or An M. Kupperman’s awesomely quotable Namor the Sub-Mariner in “Fed Up with Man” — “A Dog. A Barrel . . . Ridiculous!”

Even the more serious takes are still off-beat (like Max Cannon’s unsettling Peter Pepper) and a few like Jim Ruge and Brian Maruca’s blaxploitation take on Brother Voodoo or Jonathan Jay Lee’s marital arts-charged The Punisher beg to be revisited.

[Jamie]

Good stories by Pope, Mizuno, Cloonan, and Sakai, but not really enough to warrant paying the HC price. There is a kind of disappointing snobbery in how a lot of the creators approach the material, and some weird obsession with how superheroes eat.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction]]

This was awful. Why is this even a thing that exists.

[Alex E]

Marvel characters being drawn and written by indy icons and favorites in an irreverent manner? yes please!

This volume is a collection of stories that range from absurd, to exciting, to drab, to not so good at times. For the most part the volume is a success, with each vignette unrelated to the previous or next vignette, forming a cavalcade of cool snippets. This is almost like the newspaper funnies, but with Marvel characters. Some have fun, cartoony art, some have amazingly detailed art. Some are complete silliness, and some capture a more somber tone at times.

If there is any criticism, I would say its that this is a volume that does not take itself too seriously at all, and is not part of any storylines or plots going on in the Marvel Universe. The major theme to the book is FUN and doesn't go beyond that. Because it doesn't need to.

There really is something for everyone here as it constantly shifts in tone from story to story. If you don't like one tale, wait for the next one, or the one after that, I guarantee one will delight you in some way.

[Matthew Ward]

2.5 stars. This isn’t supposed to be a great or a normal book, and it really isn’t. But it is pretty fun and it is cool to see who some of the creators included in this were. I am looking forward to the next volume, but I don’t have any high expectations for it.

[Brett Marcus Cook]

Forgot how good Jhonen Vasquez's MODOK strip in this is, as well as Paul Pope's opener with the Inhumans. Nothing else really hit quite like those though.

[India]

I liked most stories. I heard of this book because Jhonen Vasquez contributed a comic to this book, so that is how I heard of it, because Jhonen is AWESOME! His comic was really cool, and so as many other comics in this book. So, four stars.

[Lewis Szymanski]

This collection is hit and miss, mostly miss. What's good is very good, but most of it is mediocre at best. Indy artists making Marvel parodies that are commissioned and published by Marvel are never going to be as subversive or transgressive as they need to be to be interesting.

[Jon Hewelt]

The Short of It: A mixed bag, wherein the good is REALLY good and the bad is just so-so.

I reread this collection every now and again, and always for the same artists: Jason and Peter Bagge. As a matter of fact, they are the reason why I heard of Strange Tales in the first place. I was idly searching my library's card catalog, trying to find books of theirs I'd yet to read, and I found this. Not normally a Marvel comic reader, I decided to check it out anyway.

Strange Tales is a bevvy of spoofs, parodies and satires (whatever differences those terms entail) of Marvel superheroes, ranging from the gentle nudge "isn't it cute when superheroes do normal people things" to full-blown deconstructions of the warped psyches of heroes and their villainous counterparts.

Typically, I'm drawn to the latter type, and was thus taken with both Jason's and Bagge's savaging of Spider-Man. But so, too, did I like some of the more absurd take-downs in this collection, such as the work contributed by Tony Millionaire and Michael Kupperman.

Honestly, a lot of my enjoyment from this read came from the comics whose authors I already knew, explicitly or tangentially. Example: I only knew Jhonen Vasquez through Invader Zim, but I enjoyed his addition to Strange Tales quite thoroughly. And though Johnny Ryan's work has a tendency of making me a little ill, I begrudgingly liked his juvenile panels, as well.

Those were the highlights for me, at least. The benefit of an anthology such as this is that different readers will like different things, AND that this is not a collection merely for fans of Marvel or fans of underground/alternative graphic novelists. I, personally, did not like some the "cuter" strips, and there were a few splash panel pages that were just downright baffling. But overall, I like it.

Strange Tales is a fun little read to bide the time between Marvel's inevitable cinematic sequels. Check it out!

[MechaComicReviews]

Like in any anthology, the content of Weird Tales from Marvel can be hit or miss. To be fair, I totally forgot about all of the all-star talent they were able to bring in for the book. Basically, a slew of indie creators were brought in to do their own unique takes on Marvel Superheroes. Most of them are really strange, outlandish, or just a different perspective.

I bought this anthology about a decade ago, and that’s probably the last time I read it. However, I did not remember that this collection features stories by James Kochalka doing a weird interpretation of the Hulk in an almost children’s book style, Stan Sakai’s what if The Hulk was around in feudal Japan, Jason’s take on Spider-Man which is delightfully understated, and Jefferey Brown doing gags about the Fantastic Four, who are some of my favorite creators in comics. Keep in mind, too, that the majority of the contributors are men.

The problem with the book is that it also features some creators I don’t care for like Peter Bagge who has the longest story. There are also a few other creators that are just okay. Nevertheless, I read this with the intention to review and then sell it, but now I’m happy to keep it because it does feature some of my favorite creators with stories you cannot get anywhere else.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez]

Tras tantas décadas de historias y creación de extensa y rica mitología que alcanza todos los palos de la ficción, no es de extrañar que Marvel Cómics sea una gran referente y fuente de inspiración para tantas generaciones de dibujantes y escritores. Este tomo surge de la iniciativa (no original, DC lo hizo antes en 2002) de reunir a artistas independientes que diesen su particular visión de los personajes de esta editorial sin tener en cuenta temas de canon y con total libertad. Por desgracia, prácticamente toda la obra es puramente cómica. Y no es precisamente un humor inteligente, siendo casi todas las historias bastante tontas o sencillamente ridículas. Ojo, que el humor es muy personal, y seguramente conecte con no pocos lectores. Pero es una lástima apenas encontrarse un par de historias que de verdad aprovechan la oportunidad y el concepto para jugar con el medio, los personajes y mitología.

Por lo que Relatos Extraños es una lectura bastante olvidable que para nada creo que homenajee como debe a una de las editoriales de cómics más importantes de la historia del medio.

[Duncs Comics]

This edition of Strange Tales has some big time players on it, and I mean some of THE BEST cartoonists of the time. I was going to sing the praises of the laundry list of creators on this, but just click 'Expand' on the authors/artists and check it out for yourself.

My most anticipated read from this was easily 'Oni', a Samurai Hulk story written and drawn by the modern master Stan Sakai.

That being said, there is a pretty consistent irreverent tone throughout this collection. That may work for individual stories, but when the book as a whole is trying to be edgy with the Marvel setting, it gets a bit juvenile and tired.

Bruce Banner hulking up to open a jar of pickles is probably the greatest one page comic I will ever read though. What a brilliant idea.

[John]

Telling "House Style" to go take a hike. This was Marvel going outside of its comfort zone and doing a miniseries using "indie" artists. Some of these artists sell better than anything Marvel puts out--but they just aren't suitable for "mainstream comics".

There's a lot of hit-and-miss in this collection. I'd ultimately be much more impressed if the art styles made it into traditional comics, as fill-ins, guest appearances or flashback/dream sequences rather than accentuating how "strange" this all is.

This came after Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules and before X-Men: Grand Design.

[Clint]

3.5 stars
A fun experiment that includes a ton of well-known indie cartoonists from the mid-00s. Not every story is great, and I enjoyed the absurd and silly takes way more than the few serious ones, but it’s solidly entertaining to see each creator tell a Marvel story with their distinct (and usually weird) visual aesthetic and tone.

[Maurice Funken]

Various independent comic book artists get their hands on the most popular Marvel characters in this anthology book. While usual superhero comics tend to be repetitive narrations these short stories are daring and fresh. Mostly more hit than miss...

[Erik]

Overall a completely mixed bag. There are some real gems in here - fun stories, great art, and sometimes both - but most of the gags are too similar or just not funny. This is pretty much only worth reading to see these characters in styles or situations you won't really get anywhere else.

[Nick Nguyen]

2.5 stars

I can see why the Peter Bagge stories are at the end... they're the best ones out of this collection of strips by artists who seem to have been jobbing it for this volume. Maybe this is all a meta-joke on Marvel about work-for-hire!

[Joel]

Funny but uneven. Some of the strips didn't make any sense to me at all (but I also don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of D-list Marvel characters, so maybe that's it).

[Z]

Not worth the time it took to write this.

[Scott Ollar]

A strange blend of largely nonsensical stories involving Marvel comics characters. Glad I only paid $3.00 at the local Goodwill bookstore.

[David]

good for johnny ryan and pbf

[Fizzgig76]

Reprints Strange Tales (Limited Series) #1-3, Startling Stories: The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man, and All-Select Comics (June 2002-November 2009). There is a lot of strangeness in the world, and Earth-616 is no exception. A world full of heroes has a world full of oddity…and be it a neurotic Spider-Man or a stressed Hulk, the world can always get stranger.

Featuring art and writing from multiple artists and authors, Strange Tales is a different take on the Marvel Universe with humor. The collection features the limited series Strange Tales along with a previously released Peter Bagg stand-alone issue Startling Stories: The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man (June 2002) which (as the title implies) features Spider-Man.

Marvel is always very regimented. The company, for legitimate reasons, has their characters under tight wraps. Only the artists Marvel Comics want telling their stories get to tell the stories that Marvel wants (with some exceptions). For this collection, the reigns are loosened, the gloves are off, and you get some interesting and fun tales…with no apparent rules.

The Strange Tales portion of the collection is probably the most fun for me. It has fantastic art and tons of variety. I love some of the character choices and the storytelling is enjoyable…the best part however is that it is fast and sweet. If a story isn’t good, you’re quickly on to the next story. As the title promises, they are also “weird”. You have some story ideas that you never expected to read and many remind me of the original run of Howard the Duck by Steve Gerber just in their inane humor.

Most of the back half of the collection is devoted to Peter Bagg’s The Meglomaniacal Spider-Man which was Bagg’s first work for Marvel. I actually read this comic when it was new and enjoyed it. Bagg pretty much treads on all the things that make Spider-Man both a great character and then mocks them in a way that is more like a comic fan tearing apart an issue. With liking Strange Tales portion so much, I rather wished there had been another three issues of that series instead of the Spider-Man centric issue.

Strange Tales is a fun little collection that doesn’t feel like a Marvel story. It feels like an underground comic that shouldn’t exist and that is the reason to read it alone. The series digs deep with strange characters and odd situations and sometimes both DC and Marvel need this. Strange Tales is a wild ride that is worth taking…I’d love to see more (maybe even a true horror version of Strange Tales).

[Patrick Hudson]

Way back in the late 90s when Marvel was in the middle of one of its many corporate crises, my eye was caught by a little black and white digest sized book at the comics shop called 'Coober Skeber Marvel Benefit Issue'. It had a spot with the word 'Free' on the cover, but I remember paying a pound.

It's about 150 pages of black white pages where of alternative cartoonists have a go at the Marvel characters. They range from straight out spoofs to more artistic interpretations, many of which are surprisingly perceptive and affectionate. I've always felt lucky to have snatched this up when I had the chance as I never thought I'd see anything like it again.

The Coober Skeber book was clearly the inspiration for the two volumes (so far) of Strange Tales from Marvel. In fact, they both feature the story 'Hulk vs The Rain' by James Kolchaka, one of my favourites from the Coober Skeber volume.

There are lots of other great stories here and some of them are brilliantly funny. It feels more like Mad Magazine rather than the underground comix vibe of the Coober Skeber book. It's not as broad as Twisted Toyfare Theatre or Robot Chicken,and it has a few big names like Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Michael Kupperberg and Peter Bagge who all turn in a classy performance.