Bizarro World

Bizarro anthology #2

by Todd Alcott (Editor), Peter Bagge, Kyle Baker

Presents a collection of stories featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and the Justice League.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Anthologies, Fiction, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Sam Quixote]

Like Marvel's "Strange Tales", DC commission a number of famous indie artists to write short comics about their most beloved characters putting them in odd scenarios, mocking them, playing with them, and showing their audience a lighter side to these characters they've never seen before.

The list of famous names (famous if you're into comics) is pretty spectacular: Harvey Pekar, James Kochalka, Craig Thompson, Peter Bagge, Ivan Brunetti, Eddie Campbell, Paul Dini, Dupuy and Berberian, Bob Fingerman, Dean Haspiel, the Hernandez Brothers, Chip Kidd, Derek Kirk Kim, Tony Millionaire, Patton Oswalt, Johnny Ryan, and Dave Stewart are just a few of the contributors to this collection.

My favourite strips were: a visit to Bizarro Theme Park; a retelling of the "Batman Smells" Christmas song; Positive Thinking Batman; Batman and the Monkey Wonder; Return of the Red Bee!; Monsieur Batman; and Alfred going to a mechanic to build the Batmobile.

The strips are a varied sort, some you'll like, some you'll think "meh", but it's great to see the various artistic styles that change every few pages, as well as some pretty funny representations of these world-famous characters.

I thought it was great fun to read and any DC fan will enjoy seeing their heroes portrayed in a less than flattering light (for once!) and some fun poked at their expense. Consider it a DC Universe Roast and nobody's getting away!

[Kent Clark]

A fun anthology of out of the ordinary while sometimes very IN the ordinary stories featuring the greatest DC characters. A great gift from my lovely wife, Cathryn.

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative]

I realize that I would have found it much funnier if I knew more than the very basics (other than Batman) about all the DC capes and tights. For those who do this will surely be **** or *****.

In order of appearance...
The Best:
-"The Power of Positive Batman" - Bergeron & Kerschbaum
-"Batman: Upgrade 5.0" - Haglund & Murrieta
-"Bizarro Schmizarro"Pekar & Haspiel
-"The Break" - Drysdale & Lane

The Worst:
-"Super-Dumped" - Ryan & Cooper
-"The Batman Presents: The Sensational...Monkey--The Monkey Wonder" - Dorkin & Wartella
-"Supergirl" - Estep & Horrocks
-Eddie Campbell, who I read without thought, happened to anger me tremendously with his stupid "A Day in the Life of The Flash" script that was was not funny in it's stupidity but was infuriating because he had the majority of writing in messy handwriting with incomplete words. Ha, he writes his journal fast. That zinger kills the entire story because it's too hard to read. What's so great is that no story within the entire collection is long and most are really short so you can flash right through the crap. Unless you're burdened with decoding the writing of course.

[tony dillard jr]

Bizarro World is a loose sequel to 2001's Bizarro Comics. Whereas the earlier book was a collection of vignettes and previously cancelled material from some of the industry's top Indy talent, book-ended by a story in which Mr. Mxyzptlk is aided by Bizarro to save his 5th dimension home from an alien invader, the later work was a strict anthology in every sense of the word.

Featuring the talents of the Hernandez Brothers, Evan Dorkin, Raina Telgemeier and a host of others, 2005's Bizarro World pales in comparison to it's processor with one major deviation: Christmas stories!

Andy Merrill and Roger Langridge's 'Jing Kal-El' is an oddball Elseworld in which we see what would have happened to the Last Son of Krypton if his rocket ship had crash landed into Santa's work shop at the North Pole. In 'Batman Smells', actor-comedian Patton Oswalt reveals the origins to the alternate lyrics of Jingle Bells. Artist Bob Fingerman takes viewers on a tour through Gotham City sewers and the Batcave in order to discover the answer. A couple of other stories have scenes that take place in otherwise non-holiday themed tales. But it adds to the unexpected merriment of an otherwise lacking anthology.

For being a graphic novel named after the Superman Family character, Bizarro is noticeably absent from a majority of this book. He does appear in the title story by Chris Duffy and Scott Morse, explaining that 'Bizarro World' is a DC Comics themed amusement park designed from a Bizarro point of view. However, the real Bizarro #1 is a closeted intellectual who milks his backwards persona for profit. Only those riches come at the cost of the anti-villain's dignity. A Harvey Pekar penned farce also stars Bizarro bringing the total number of appearances to 2.

Not counting the cover by Jaime Hernandez. Batman is the winner of most starring roles in this book with a grand total of 8! The Legion of Super-heroes comes in third with a trio of appearances.

While a very Batman heavy book, just about every character in the DC Universe appears in this book, if only for just a 'Wheres Waldo?' type-cameo as part of the background scenery of a panel. Supergirl, The Spectre and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth are among the characters who star in this collection of over 2 dozen short stories that look at DC Comics with an askew view.

[Chris Browning]

A joy. As someone who tends to prefer Marvel, it’s a lovely surprise to see this is better than the Strange Tales volumes Marvel released. I think this is because there’s a wild variety of story types here, including some surprisingly serious and dark turns, and due to mixing artists and writers up a little so there are some surprising collaborative turns. I really loved this

[Rachel]

I read and loved Bizarro stories way back when they were new. This has a couple in that style, and a lot more than are just bizarre. Mainly wacky take-offs on various superheroes, definitely in the spirit of the originals. The quality is uneven; I liked some quite a bit, and found others boring. I had to drag myself through it in small increments, but it was worth it.

[Michael Martin]

Uneven and quite disappointing. A few gems, perhaps 10 of the 200 pages.

[Joseph Dinas]

A wacky series of many weird spoofs of DC characters. Several of them were very intriguing, but most of them were very boring. Its worth reading but not worth finishing tbh.

[John]

This is basically Strange Tales for the DC set. All relatively stand-alone and not too thought provoking, but pretty damn fun.

[Thedefarted]

Some of the art stands out but there's only a few good stories and some are downright shit to read. Good idea. Meh execution.

[Gig Wailgum]

entertaining and warped!

[Alarra]

My favourite three stories:

- The Power of Positive Batman (Aarong Bergemon/John Kerschbaum) - Batman goes on break. And Superman ends up being the Joey Potter to Batman's Pacey. :DD

- Dear Superman (Dylan Herrocks/Farel Dalrymple) - Flash wishes the world would slow down for him. Succint, lovely art, and it made my heart ache for the character.

- The Break (Eric Drysdale/Tim Lane) - "You know, we should all just "hang out" more". The JLA go on vacation and have fun. <333333

There were other cute stories, but these three were simple, and managed to make the superhuman human.

[Twan]

Loads of short 5-ish page long tales of DC superheroes in unusual situations, mostly humorous but some a bit more serious. Loads of the big guns from the alt-comic world turn up here to either write or draw these tales, Harvey Pekar, Craig Thompson, the Love and Rocket guys, Johnny Ryan, Eddie Campbell.......and a load of others.
A bit hit and miss, with about 65% hits with 'Dear Superman' written by a guy called Dylan Horrocks being the standout by a long shot for me. Get it from the library like I did. It's worth a freebie read even if it's just for the strip I mentioned.

[Ubalstecha]

Bizarro World is a place where the odd sides of Superheroes exist. Wonder Woman dumps Superman for a nerd. The Legion of Superheroes is turned into a cubefarm to cut costs. Aquaman is a down in the dumps hero who works through his pain singing at open-mike nights.

This volume is hard to get into, I almost put it down, but if you push through the initial amusement park story, you will find that there are some clever stories written by some of the more interesting authors out there, including the great Mo Williams.

Pick this one up.

[Jason]

Fun read with an impressive lineup of accomplished writers and artists. Like most anthologies, it's uneven. My favorites were Chip Kidd's and Tony Millionaire's "Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder," Mo Willems's and Ellen Forney's "The Wonder of it All," Chris Duffy's and Craig Thompson's "The Spectre," Aaron Bergeron's and John Kerschbaum's "The Power of Positive Batman" (which was probably my favorite of the lot), and John Krewson's and Evan Dorkin's "Kamandi: the Laziest Boy on Earth!"

[Peacegal]

I’m not a follower of Batman, Superman, or any of the other members of the galaxy of comic book heroes. However, these stories present the familiar DC comics stable in a whole new light—one that’s “Bizarro”! It’s an ironic, funny, and creative turn that even non-fans can appreciate.

[Mariah]

in my opinion, better than the first volume! the wacky stories and beautiful alternative drawing styles that changed from page to page were engaging and entertaining. definitely one of the few comics i will re-read, and force upon all my friends.

[Ming]

Some were fitfully amusing in parts, but the vast majority reminded me why I'm not usually a fan of alternative comics - they were dull and pointless. Call me a plebeian, but I'll take the mainstream stuff any day.

[Carl Waluconis]

This has many different alternative artists with takes on the DC super heroes. With so many, the quality varies, but over half are excellent. Some were genuinely hilarious. My favorite were Peter Bagge with the Hernandez Brothers. I wish they did an entire book.

[Automation]

not as good as the first one, but still pretty good.

[Phillip Goodman]

WHACKADOODLE! just plain grand comic book unrealism of the highest order, as colouful and sad as a creature composed entirely of dismembered clowns .

[Printable Tire]

I'd say about 10-15% of the stories in here are worth anything, the rest are total crap. Not required reading by any stretch of the imagination.

[Lynda]

Stories are too short for any development.

[Gregory]

Mixed bag. Some great stories, some poor. Worth a flick.

[Adair Arroyo]

its aight

[Jdetrick]

Much like the first volume, it has it's good and bad spots, although I think this is a stronger book overall. The highlight remains the Kyle Baker story, but there's lots of great stories here.

[Dancomfort]

DC turned some alternate comics creators loose on DC's superheroes. The results are interesting, generally funny, and, in a couple of cases, poignant.

[Audrey Hacker]

I can't believe there was a manga guy gardner story that was wild

[Galion Public Library Teens]

Review by G.B.: "I liked how they had many comics in one big book with their own twists."

[Colin Oaten]

Quirky anthology title taking a sideways look at the denizens of the DC universe from a stellar list of creators. A little hit and miss in places but a fun read nonetheless.