Customer Reviews

Bob the Angry Flower: The Ultimate Book of Perfect Energy!!!

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I love this guy. I make it a point to say "Hello," to him in the Small Press area at the San Diego International Comic Convention every year at least once a day. I refer to him as "Mr. Flower," even though I know it is not his real name. Thanks for putting up with me, and keep being awesome and putting out awesome works of awesomeness.

Once again, my brother has compiled another collection of his uniquely strange comic strip. And this time it contains an unpublished story about Lovebot, the Robot programmed to love, as he searches for sexual love and confronts the evil disembodied heart of Dick Cheney. So is the new book as clever as "Coffee with Sinistar"? Is it as consistently strange and peculiar as "Everybody vs. Bob the Angry Flower?" Well, now that you mention, no. It does contain many amusing and intelligent cartoons, but it does not share the same high quality as the previous two books.

Some cartoons, like "Sleeping with the Fishes" or "Boggin'!" or "Rice Roll Long Donut" are just gags that don't stay in the memory and don't deserve too. And there is something a little too glib, or a lot too glib, about the criticisms of Cheney as a murderous lunatic (especially "Grand Theft America"). One cartoon, in particular, "Disputed Territories," just doesn't work. It implies a number of analogies with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all of which are offensive and poorly thought out. I suppose it is slightly mitigating that the author admits that he was not entirely sane when he drew it, but still, it is the sort of cartoon that one (meaning I) should have ripped to pieces and thrown out the window. Likewise "Good Hitler," is a concept that doesn't work very well. "What would it be like if Hitler were redeemed?" is an interesting idea, but it requires a more serious understanding of redemption and absolution than an upper middle class Canadian born twenty-five years after his death can flippantly provide. (Especially when he shows little interest in finishing the excellent two-volume Hitler biography by Ian Kershaw his loving brother got him.)

On the other hand one should not forget the quasi-tribute to Geza Vermes in "WWJD?" where Christian theology meets Archie comics. Or the long-awaited return of the Microneers, and how Bob personally ruins the chances for mid-East peace. We also get to see the return of the long forgotten Doctor Renticulus! And sometimes simple ideas work rather well, as in "Jetpack" and "Slogor." While we don't see the return of Story Guy, we do see continued efforts to make Kofi Annan a comic strip hero. And although this book continues the last one's resort to gratuitous obscenity, one must appreciate the cunning nerdish tastelessness of "Schrodinger's Fridge." "Goin' after the Creationists," is also particularly amusing. There are several strips on "The Lord of the Rings," and they work surprisingly well given the innate dweebishness of the subject. One should also not forget the tribute to Doctor Fortini Markopolou-Kalamara. The best comic strips are those which show their characters developing or changing, and that clearly, is not happening here. But there are still some great punchlines: "Not the moral: Respect the elderly." "I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to end like this." "Who are you talking to?" "Well... you, I thought."

Stephen Notley's new book is just too damn cool. If you like your humor a little bit twisted, and a little bit dark, well, you'll really like it. My personal favorites include "Vegitarians Dilemma" with the genetically engineered headless cows, "Canada wins the gold", and well, look, if you're in any of the part of the world that isn't insane (i.e.didn't vote for the current crop of idiots in office in the states) You just gotta love any cartoon where Dick Cheney's heart runs around stabbing people or George W Bush gets "Smartified".. Trust me, buy a few for your friends. I did. Heck, give them a copy of Michael Moore's new "Dude Where's My Country" along with it - ya might just save the world.

UPOBE rocks something fierce like a...um...Shub Niggurath or really hard candy that cuts your gums up yet still tastes good... or robots fighting their natural enemy...THE BEAR!! Yes, it's true, it rocks that much. When I read Bob the Angry flower I poo a little.