Bizarro World [Paperback]

Various (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bizarro | Publication Date: April 26, 2006

Where else could the world's greatest alternative cartoonists run rampant through the DC Universe in an all-new anthology of utterly unhinged stories and art? It could only happen in the BIZARRO WORLD! This 200-page volume features work by many of the fantastic creators who worked on the BIZARRO COMICS book (and made it an award-winner)!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This sequel to 2001's Bizarro Comics anthology again invites underground and alternative cartoonists - and a few other unlikely types - to get nutty with the DC Universe's characters. This time, curiously, almost all the stories are written and drawn by two different people. Contributors include some very big names: Craig Thompson draws a Spectre story, and Harvey Pekar of American Splendor fame imagines himself as Bizarro. A few of the highlights are by creators who also appeared in the first volume, notably Chip Kidd and Tony Millionaire, who collaborate on another totally out-to-lunch Batman story. A couple of themes and favorite characters recur; more than one story uses the "Jingle bells/Batman smells" schoolyard song, and everyone seems to love playing with the Legion of Super-Heroes. And a few creators take the "bizarro" mandate as an excuse to imitate the look and feel of early MAD comics. The best stories imagine the superheroes' world colliding with the plebeian realities these cartoonists specialize in: Kyle Baker's dryly amusing riff on Batman's butler custom-ordering a Batmobile, Mike Doughty and Danny Hellman's deadpan tale about Aquaman playing an open-mike night and getting upstaged by Robin, and Peter Bagge and Gilbert Hernandez's "The Red Bee Returns," in which the most deservedly obscure superhero ever attempts to update his image. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up-In this follow-up to 2001's Bizarro Comics, DC Comics once again lets the inmates take over the asylum. Working in teams, alternative comic artists and assorted smart alecks interpret an assortment of superheroes, from the beloved to the misbegotten. Bizarro is an idiotic, chalky doppelgänger of Superman; Bizarro World is home to him and many other Bizarros. However, the book is not explicitly about the protagonist; it's more about the Bizarro concept, a funhouse mirror held up to superheroes. The sheer number of artists and writers is astounding: Harvey Pekar seems to have written his own messy life into the story of a sad-sack Bizarro Superman; James Kochalka interprets the lame ducks of the Legion of Superheroes in his trademark kewpie-doll style, and Mo Willems examines the potential for gossip in "The Wonder of It All." However, the variety of styles makes the book uneven; the limited space is a challenge, causing some stories to seem half told, while others are reduced to one-liners; and the table of contents supplies page numbers but the work is unpaged. Many teen readers will never have seen the more obscure characters before, which will unfortunately dull some of the satire, but mainstream and underground comics fans alike (as well as those of MAD magazine) are sure to find something to laugh at in this collection.-Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Libraries, Ontario, Canada
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (April 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401206573
• ISBN-13: 978-1401206574
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.4 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,609,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book am so funny me cried., March 16, 2005

By 

Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bizarro World (Hardcover)

This is the sequel to the Bizarro Comics anthology from a few years ago. Like that book, this one features "alternative comics" types doing their versions of DC superhero comics. There are some great comics here, and also some not-so-great comics. But almost all of the comics are at least interesting. One thing I have to say is that you really need to be a fan of DC comics in order to understand the references in many of these stories. I don't think someone who is not into superheroes will get very much out of this book. But for those of us who do like superheroes, it's a lot of fun.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Less than the first but still great, February 19, 2005

By 

E. David Swan (South Euclid, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bizarro World (Hardcover)

Bizarro World had a lot to live up to following in the footsteps of the award winning Bizarro released several years ago and well... it fell short. The new Bizarro book is excellent but just not as memorable as the original. The Bizarro books (can it now be called a series?) use popular alternative cartoonists to create short stories featuring characters from the DC universe from icons like Superman to obscure characters like Kamandi.

Here are some of my favorite stories from Bizarro World.

In "The Wonder of it All" a high school aged Wonder Woman learns that using her new Golden Lasso to force her friends to give their honest opinions about her nets her more information than she wanted.

The Spectre/Jim Corrigan unleashes his ghostly vengeance on his fellow officers at the police station for such minor infractions as hogging the copy machine. It's actually pretty funny.

Green Lantern has a revelation about his weakness to the color yellow in "It's not Easy Being Green". The story seems like a homage to the old EC Mad magazine comics.

In "The Power of Positive Batman" Bruce Wayne finally resolves his issues with the murder of his parents and decides to retire and sail around the world. Clark Kent decides to join him and the two sail off.

Aquaman decides to attend open mic night and sing a song about his relationship with Mera. Like a lot of the stories this one is just sort of a slice of life tale showing the private lives of superheroes.

Tony Millionaire returns with another strange Batman story. His art has a very old gothic style to it as if the story were something dug up from the 40's rather than a brand new tale.

In "Personal Shopper", Alfred is out describing, to a mechanic, the specifications for a car he wants to purchase. You know, bulletproof, 200 MPH, space for rocket launchers, huge bat like fins on the rear. Wonder who that might be for?

There are also some clunkers in the batch. Lantern Sentai in particular seemed pointless besides showing the Lantern Corps as Manga. In "Jing Kal-El" the Superman origin is rewritten with Kal landing at the North Pole and taking on the mantle of Santa Claus. I just couldn't figure out why. Some of the stories just stopped as if they're meant to be continued in another edition of Bizarro. "Bizarro Schmizarro", for instance has Luthor change Bizarro no. 1024 into a normal looking Superman (save for the Question mark on his chest) and then the story stops with a promise of more to come.

Bizarro World is sometimes great and sometimes not so great. It's less than the original book but I still recommend it. The Bizarro series has a long way to fall before it can be considered average.

3.0 out of 5 stars Comic fans might like this, October 30, 2010

By 

Rextrent (Wichita, Kansas USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bizarro World (Paperback)

Tame stories with some decent artwork and few stories that actually entertain. Really a disappointment.
I prefer Not Brand Echh or reprints of EC Mad stories.