Customer Reviews

The Bizarro Starter Kit (blue)

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The genre of bizzaro fiction is like nothing that I have ever read. The stories are very intriguing and hold the readers attention. Once I started reading I couldn't stop. I was very curious to see where this book was going. "The Bizzaro Starter Kit (blue)" is filled with many wacky, odd, and funny tales.
One of my favorite sections of the book is "The Birthday Party" by Ray Fracalossy. This very odd story is only one paragraph long. The tale seems like ten story lines jammed into one itty bitty piece. The way it is told sounds like bits and pieces of a very weird dream. Once I was done I felt more confused than satisfied. When I finished I was still trying to figure out what was going on. This story is so all over the place. It has so many random things that should not go together. Such as a pony, the repo man, a seven inch woman, and of course to top it off a happy ride into the sunset. With things like this in story it is hard to put the book down
Another fantastic part of this insane kooky book is the Tony Rauch story "The Stench." In this incredibly strange story involves a man coming home from work to a horrible smell in his living room. This smell turns out to be coming from a big hairy "Star Wars" like creature. Somehow this thing leads the owners of this house to come closer and decide to have children. This book is most definitely not for the conservative reader. If one decides to purchase this awesome piece of literature I highly suggest that they go into it with as open of a mind as possible.

The Bizarro Starter Kit (blue)

Introduction or What is this Book?
The first "Bizarro Start Kit" (colored orange) was an instrumental book in introducing bizarro to a wider audience. Combining eight of the top bizarro writers into one volume, it was responsible for hooking many readers (this reviewer included) on these strange new authors. This year, Eraserhead Press, Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Afterbith Books have combined forces yet again to give us "The Bizarro Start (blue)."
This time we have ten different authors contributing novellas and short stories for our reading pleasure. Due to the nature of this book, let's look at each writer individually.

The Authors

Ray Fracalossy
Fracalossy starts off the volume with twelve short shorts characterized by word-play and a strong sense of fun. These stories start the book off right, getting the reader into a strange and logically-loopy frame of mind. "A Body in Motion" is the stand-out piece in which a man's body rebels in some rather creative manners.

Jeremy C. Shipp
"Flapjack" is a novella about two men in a prison with one recounting the strange tale of how he got there. The story floats along with dream-like logic as Shipp creates new language and cultural customs. The main-character narrates with a sense of innocence and an ever present shadow of darkness. Tim Burton would be right at home directing an adaptation of this story.

Jordan Krall
Krall contributes "The Longheads," the middle novella from his collection "Squid Pulp Blues." The Longheads from the title are disfigured war vets that have some sinister plans for a small town. Meant to be read as a middle piece between two related novellas, "The Longheads" feels underdeveloped on its own. While Krall is a strong writer, one wishes he had submitted something more stand-alone appropriate for this collection.

Mykle Hansen
"Monster C*cks!" is the attention grabbing title to this contribution. It is a novella about a man who gets much more than he bargained for from a penis-enlargement system that actually works. Hansen tells a funny and thrilling story that in the hands of a lesser writer would just be juvenile. Instead, the reader receives an engaging tale that gets inside the head, and pants, of the main character.

Andersen Prunty
Shell is a sort-of bounty hunter, hired by The Rotting Man to go to Hollow City and bring back a woman named Pearl. So begins the surreal/horror/noir novella "The Devastated Insides of Hollow City." Prunty has a talent for writing dark and enthralling tales and this is no exception. For horror fans, this is the stand-out piece of the collection.

Eckhard Gerdes
"Nin and Nan" is the exceptionally strange offering from Gerdes. Nin and Nan live on top of a hill and when billboards and roads start to impede upon their space they are forced to take action. From there, they embark on a journey that takes them to the very top powers of the government. Those crazing the extremely bizarre will be sated with this story.

Bradley Sands
"Cheesequake Smash-Up" is the story of a place where buildings have the ability to levitate. To determine which fast-food franchise will monopolize the market, a race is being held with the structures themselves being used as vehicles. Sands has created a tale even weirder than the previous two sentences suggest. He easily wins the award for strangest, balls-to-the-wall weirdo-fest.

Steve Aylett
"Shamanspace" is the meta-physical offering that Aylett gives us. Dealing with the role of history, books, and self it is a complex and dense tale. Including a brief history of the story's world and a fictional bibliography, this is the most experimental story of the collection.

Christian Tebordo
"The Order of Operations" is the story of several people whose lives intersect around a common payphone. In a book filled with outlandish concepts, Tebordo's story stands out as it is mostly based in reality. Where it is unique is in its presentation, skipping back and forth between several perspectives. This one is for the more literary-minded readers.

Tony Rauch
Rauch finishes the collection with seven short stories. The reoccurring theme of his pieces is how the average person is suppressed and crushed by the weight of the world. Of course, this is told via miniature people in ant costumes and cranium enlargement. This selection of stories is a thoughtful final contribution to the book.

Final Thoughts
One could call this the second generation of Bizarro writers. They are a group of writers that are influenced by many authors contained in the first starter kit. What is most exciting is these authors, while influenced by, are not rip-offs of the first line of writers. Each of the eight authors contained within stand on their own as writers. With the shear amount of variety present here, any fan of weird fiction will find something they can love.

Continuing the tradition of the core Bizarro publishers in presenting a sampling of what the genre has to offer, The Bizarro Starter Kit (Blue) gives us ten fresh authors from the depths of the weird.

This time the reader is introduced to the work of Jeremy C. Shipp, Ray Fracalossy, Jordan Krall, Mykle Hansen, Andersen Prunty, Eckhard Gerdes, Steve Aylett, Bradley Sands, Christian TeBordo, and Tony Rauch. All of the authors represented have completely unique styles, and all are extremely fun and entertaining.

It should be noted that where the BSK (Orange) was very fun, and at times an easy but entertaining read, the BSK (Blue) is more... cerebral. The stories presented are far more thought-provoking and in places difficult. There are a few lighter, more fun pieces (Mykle Hansen and Ray Fracalossy's offerings come to mind), but overall the BSK (Blue) presents a strong argument for the literary merit of the genre.

Once again, the value of this book can not be overstated. Like it's predecessor, the works are samplings and in some cases whole novellas from larger works. The beauty of this edition is that one need not read the BSK (Orange) first. The starter kit series is meant to be read in no particular order and serves simply as a great way to familiarize oneself with the genre.

Again, this book is just plain amazing. The weirdness flows forth, taking you along with the deluge. Fun, thought-provoking, ultimately entertaining, this is an anthology worthy of a place anyone's shelf.

The Bizarro Starter Kits are designed to give newcomers a nice sampling of the bizarro genre. Here are just a few of the wonders The Bizarro Starer Kit (blue) contains:

The Longheads - Jordan Krall: Tommy Pingpong and his partner Jake are looking to buy some guns for a heist, all the while evade their former partner, a diaper wearing bastard named Peachy Keen. But why are the Longheads buying up all the guns?

The Longheads, insane and deformed war veterans, go on a homicidal rampage on the streets of Thompson, New Jersey, in this story but it's mostly in the background. The main part of the story is the pursuit of Tommy and Jake by Peachy. Throw in an image of Barbara Stanswick in the sky and a serial killer that draws comic strips on the backs of his victims and you have quite a tasty morsel of bizarro noir on your hands.

Monster C*cks! - Mykle Hansen: An inadequate IT professional takes male enhancement too far and his mutant penis takes on a mind of its own...

Wow. I had a feeling the lead's penis would grow out of control but I had no idea as to what extent. Holy crap. On a non-Bizarro note, the depiction of IT workers was spot-on.

The Devastated Insides of Hollow City - Andersen Prunty:
Shell, a detective, is hired to find Pearl, Queen of the Hollow City. Can he survive the slag plague long enough to find her and bring her back to the Rotting Man and collect his fee?

This story was a bit of bizarro noir, a grotesque journey through a plague-ridden city to find the queen, a diminutive girl named Pearl. I should have guessed where Pearl was but I didn't. I need to track me down some more Andersen Prunty soon. I like his style.

Cheesequake Smashup - Bradley Sands: In a battle for fast food dominance, McDonalds, Burger King, White Castle, and scores of other chains enter a building demolition derby. Gunning for a promotion, office worker Monty Catsin enters his employer, NGA, into the derby as well. Who will emerge as the sole provider of fast food in America?

Cheesequake Smashup is mother-whoopieing hilarious. Combine an absurd office, complete with an octogenerian sexpot, a giant goldfish, a gorilla, and lots of mobile buildings smashing into one another, and a heaping helping of absurd humor and you've got a winner on your hands. I'd say Cheesquake Smashup was worth the price of admission on its own.

All this awesomeness and more can be found in Bizarro Starter Kit (Blue.) Get out your credit card and buy it today!

I picked up the Bizarro Starter kit, both Blue and Orange, at the recommendation of a friend who has written bizarro and felt that these two books were excellent primers on this genre. I have not read the orange yet but am looking forward to it. I have read one full length bizarro novel by Andre Duza and another short story by Carlton Melick III, both related to zombies, but little else. I have read a wide array of unique and strange fiction throughout my life, but bizarro is certainly in a class by itself.

A definition, or rather, definitions of bizarro appear at the beginning of this book, so I won't attempt to expand on them. What I can say is that based on the ten different authors, all with very unique stories, is that bizarro is not just the genre of the weird-it is a genre that allows us to step alternately into worlds of the surreal, humorous, and horrific, sometimes all at the same time. Every story in this book was stylistically different than the rest-there was no solidifying theme running through the book. They challenged me as a reader to keep up with what the author was creating at every step. It seems that in a bizarro story, things can turn dramatically on a single sentence, even when some elements are used repetitively to bring a point across. This is not a genre to hop into assuming that you will be able to relax and casually blur over certain passages and retain full comprehension of what is going on.

I won't lie and say that I "got" it with every story written here, but I was entertained by most of these efforts, amused, repulsed, and intrigued, which means that these stories kept my interest, even if I wasn't sure of the exact path that I was being led down by each author.

With an introduction into the world of Bizarro, the Starter Kits intitiates with extreme prejudice. Daring you to dive head-first into this world of stunning imagery without the exclamation point, because the subderal hematoma induced walking stage-fright dreams hold sway and what you think is real truly is. Bizarro as a genre is coming in to its own. So jump on board and don't get left behind. There's something waiting that might just eat you, my pretty. Jordan Krall's 'Longheads' stands out. I also really ate the hell out of Andersen Prunty's "Devastaed Insides of Hollow City".

The book is very interesting and different from many other books. The title alone has meaning to the book and offers the reader an enjoyable read. Fracalossy's "The Birthday Party" is a story that seemed to be a little strange. The story starts off as if it is Steve's birthday but its really not. The point of the story was for the person to get a girl and a pony for his birthday and make it seem as if it had the tables turned. The story was interesting but a little odd due to the seven inch woman, which can only lead the mind to imagine the meaning behind her.

Another story by Fracalossy is "Cornflakes". The story is one that can be enjoyed by all who have lived with a roommate. The story starts off as a bomb being in the cereal box of a person that is enjoying cereal as a part of a meal. Then again he begins to yet eat another bowl with the bomb still being there. The bomb seems to tie in with there being no clean dishes, so they must eat off the bowl with the bomb. The story is interesting but can lead the reader to believe different things depending on who reads it and their interpretations. The book is one to be read by those who have an open mind and are willing to think outside the box. Overall something to definitely read!

(Ash Lomen)


This is probably one if the best introductions to bizarro you can get. With authors like Jordan Krall, Bradley Sands, and Jeremy C. Shipp... this is a great gateway high into the surreal world of altered states that is bizarro literature. As Lou Reed once said "Take a walk on the wild side."

I have read all of the starter kits. They have a huge list of amazing new and upcoming writers and really just amazing material within the amazing genre... Anderson Prunty and Jordan Krall are amongst some of my favorite stuff to read these days and I discovered them via this genre and these starter kits... Why not give em' a try you might find some new creative stuff to make you look and live outside of the box as well... meowwwww.

In this collection there is everything you need to know about bizarro. It's a good place to start to discover the many genres of bizarro fiction. I've read a couple of bizarro books before this starter kit and I really enjoyed discovering new authors works. After reading this book I immediately ordered the purple edition to discover some more authors. If you like surrealism, movies by Lynch or Caro & Jeunet, or if you know you have a twisted mind, jump on this, you'll love it !