Beanworld Volume 2: A Gift Comes! [Hardcover]

Larry Marder (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2009 | Series: Larry Marder's Beanworld (Book 2)

"A Gift Comes!" is jam-packed with new characters and monumental developments in the evolving Bean world culture. It kicks off with the birth of the next generation of Beans: the baby Pod'l'pool Cuties. It chronicles the discombobulation of Mr. Spook's fork by greedy Goofy Service Jerks. Meet Mr. Teach'm, who raised Mr. Spook on a cloud. See the crazy breakout origin of Heyoka, Bean world's upside down and backwards Bean. Read how Professor Garbanzo first discovered the Four Realities and much, much more! The Bean world is a self-contained, weird fantasy dimension that operates under its own rules and laws, but it also echoes deep truths about our own world at the same time. All the characters, whether they are friends or adversaries, understand that ultimately they depend on each other bean world's survival.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Originally published between 1988 and 1993, Marder's adorably mad Tales of Beanworld are collected under the title A Gift Comes! but could have just as easily been called Awww! Marder introduces a new element to his tightly constructed clockwork universe, the aptly named Cuties. Small, round bundles of peapodlike sweetness, the Cuties live in the Pod'l'pool, where they must be constantly fed and watched by the stick-limbed adult Beans. Frequently this entails the world's designated hero, the impetuous Mr. Spook, leading raids on the Hoi-Polloi people to capture the Cutie-sustaining substance Chow. It's an exciting, packed volume, featuring heroic escapades with Mr. Spook, choreographed musical numbers and otherworldly adventures involving the cross-dimensional Goofy Service Jerks (not to be confused with the Goofy Surveillance Jerks). Though Marder's surreal but compact b&w drawings have the anarchic feel of 1970s underground comix, nothing here is random or missing. It's a closed ecosystem, where each individual and element has its place, all laid out in a helpful foreword with map and glossary. An extraordinary world-builder, Marder is also a bright-eyed comic storyteller who doesn't mind sprinkling a little magic and cuteness amid the good citizenship lessons. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics (July 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595822992
• ISBN-13: 978-1595822994
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Larry Marder is a firm believer in Marcel Duchamp's observation that it is the viewer that makes the picture. Shortly after his difficult birth, his mother took one look at his lopsided head and exclaimed, "Why does he look like a bean!" So is it any wonder he's devoted his creative life to exploring the relationships and adventures that make up Larry Marder's Beanworld?

Marder was born in Chicago in 1951 and grew up in Highland Park, Illinois. He spent the first third of his life pursuing art. His interests in comic books and Native American mythology started at an early age. He was educated at Hartford Art School where he became engrossed in conceptual art and underground comix. It was in this period that his iconic Bean shaped characters were first developed. Marder earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1973.

After college, Marder went to work as an advertising executive in Chicago by day, and by night created the most peculiar comic book experience Tales of the Beanworld, first released in 1985 by Eclipse Comics. 21 issues were published until 1993. It was in that year that Marder went off to "join the comic book circus" full time, as the Executive Director of Image Comics and later President of McFarlane Toys. What he intended as a short sabbatical from Beanworld, ended up stretching into fifteen years.

To the delight of his fans all over the world, Marder left the business world and returned to making Beanworld full time in 2007.

Marder lives in Orange County, California, with his wife, Cory, and their two cats, Olive and Chipper

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It took a long time to get my Beanworld fix, August 5, 2009

By 

Reed Arthur Lindner (Conroe, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beanworld Volume 2: A Gift Comes! (Hardcover)

Beanworld isn't a place, it's an experience. I've waited 20 years to read the stories covered in this volume, as issues of Beanworld in the late 80s were hard to come by in my part of Texas. So it was with great anticipation and joy that I read the tales that Larry Marder first published so long ago.

Was it worth the wait? Yes, indeed.

Beanworld isn't for everyone. Marder is a fan of simplistic, primitive art and uses those influences to guide his own work. Many folks are turned off by his drawings that some characterize as simple stick figures that a child could create. Yet once the reader delves deeper he begins to discern that Marder has created an entire world, an intertwined ecosystem that works magically and breathes with life and a sense of wonder. This is certainly not childish artwork, but a carefully conceived universe that thrives in the reader's imagination. The adventures of Mr. Spook, Professor Garbanzo, Beanish, and all the others are heart-warming and delightful. I gave up comics long ago, but I will not give up Beanworld.

This second volume concludes all the issues that Marder originally published so long ago. I look forward to volume 3 and a chance to delight in the peculiar experience that is Beanworld.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible and absolutely unique comic story, September 23, 2009

By 

John W. Harris "JohnH" (Brunswick, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beanworld Volume 2: A Gift Comes! (Hardcover)

It's hard to explain to people what it is about Beanworld that makes it so engaging. I've never read a description of it that made it seem like something I'd want to read, and yet Beanworld is one of my favorite stories of all. What follows is just part of what I like about it.

Beanworld is not just a story of characters, although Professor Garbanzo, Beanish, and especially Mr. Spook are all wonderful comic creations. It's the story of processes, of cycles, and how they change and grow. At its core is the Life-cycle of the Beanworld, in which Sprout-Butts from Gran'Ma'Pa (the Beanworld guardian deity) get changed into Chow by the Hoi-Polloi, which is then stolen by the Beans in order to be eaten.

This cycle has been demonstrated many times in the Beanworld stories, and understanding it is vital to understanding Beanworld. But how did the cycle get started? How does it change over time? How does it survive threats to its continuance?

Another entertaining aspect of the series is learning about the strange physics of this fantasy dimension, and watching the other characters figure them out too. The ominous Mystery Pods, introduced in the last volume, play an important role here. It turns out that exposing them to various objects produces strange and magical effects. They cause some things to levitate. They also transport Beanish to meet Dreamishness, a sun goddess who travels through the sky. None of these effects are "just known" to the actors of the story; they have to figure them out through deductive reasoning. The best figure-outer of the bunch is Professor Garbanzo, the tribe's thinker. Her process of reasoning out the strange physics of the Beanworld serves as a marvellous microcosm of the Scientific Method.

Beanworld is filled with hidden secrets and unexpected discoveries. For example, when you see the line of thirteen beans and Mr. Spook marching off the Legendary Edge to steal Chow, this is not shorthand for there being an indeterminate, large number of beans. The army is only 13 beans in size. There are only nineteen Beans in the world. When Heyoka, in this volume, Breaks Out and leaves the army, that reduces its size to 12, making gaining food that much more difficult. Breaking Out produces unique, named individuals with ideas and abilities that improve Beanlife for all, but it also reduces the workforce that provides sustenance for the tribe. In ways just like this, everything that happens has a trade-off. Learning to recognize this, and seeing how simple events have profound consequences, is part of the unique experience of reading Beanworld.

4.0 out of 5 stars Wahoolazuma!, May 19, 2010

By 

R. Kato "RK" (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beanworld Volume 2: A Gift Comes! (Hardcover)

Beanworld is a great story to share with the whole family. I shared the book with my brother (high school age) and he loved it. I then shared it with my adopted sister (elementary age) and she laughed the whole time. After taking a stroll through Beanworld, you'll find yourself using the beans' vocabulary on a regular basis and taking a look at the small details of life. Don't miss out on these adventures!