4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Apt Title Indeed, February 2, 2011
This review is from: Holy Sh*t!: The World's Weirdest Comic Books (Hardcover)
I'm not a comic book buyer or collector, but I do like graphic storytelling in the longer format, and was curious to see what oddities might have emerged over theyears in the short form. This small gem of a book collects some sixty examples of the wildest and weirdest, ranging from a Tijuana Bible from the late 1930s satirizing Hitler called "You Nazi Man" to 2004's "Trucker Fags in Denial." Each title gets a two-page spread, with a full cover or near full-cover bleeding across the right page, and a synopsis of the book and sample panel on the left hand page, along with credits and publication information. The selections generally fall into the categories I expected:
Pornish comics -- "Tales From the Leather Nun" is pretty much described by the title, "Sweeter Gwen" is classic bondage, "Amputee Love" is also pretty well described by its title, "Genus" features lesbian unicorns, etc.
Weird superheros -- 1967's "Super Green Beret" battles the Viet Cong with his super strength, 1987's "Super Shamou" is an Inuit superhero fighting the scourge of glue sniffing, 1963's "Brain Boy" tackles communism, etc.
Industry promotional comics -- the American Cancer Society's cautionary teen tale "Where There's Smoke," professional service careers like being a barber or school psychologist are touted by Popeye, Wall's Ice Cream put out "Chill" with various flavors incarnated as superheros and villains, the California Prune Growers Association attempted to crank up the excitement about prunes by publishing the horribly titled "A Fortune in Two Old Trunks" in 1955, Greyhound did the same a few years later with "Driving Like a Pro", and the Savings and Loan Association wanted kids in 1968 to know that "Saving Can Be Fun!", etc.
Foreign oddities -- about 20% of the titles are non-American, including an anti-Soviet work from 1970s Czeckoslovakia called "Octoberbriana", the Australian "Book of Picture Stories" from 1943 brings to life aboriginal tales, "La Donna Ragna" from 1970s Italy is a kind of topless female Spiderman, the truly bizarre 1950s Australian sci-fi tale "The Purple People Eater", the torture porn of a 1980's Malaysian title and 1960s Mexican cheesecake "Los Novios", and soforth.
Other categories include romance comics, religious comics, and even presidential ones ("The Great Society" features a caped LBJ and "Reagan's Raiders" features a chiseled Reagan brandishing a machine gun). However, if I had to pick three favorites for flat-out weirdness, they'd be 1967's Fatman the Human Flying Saucer, 1993s Godzilla vs. Barkley (yes, that'd be Charles Barkley), and 1963's Herbie, which features a truly bizarre, almost autistic lard tub of a kid. On the whole, there's nothing deep to be learned here, just a fun little book that's bound to amuse and amaze anyone who picks it up -- perfect fare for the hipster's bathroom. My only complaint is that it's small, and as with any book on visual media, it would be better at a larger scale.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bizarre Collection, October 12, 2010
HOLY SH*T is a short examination and collection of around 60 comics that the authors find to be the weirdest comics ever produced. The book has a short introduction by the authors. Each comic examined in the book includes a full page copy of the comics front cover and another page with one panel taken from the comic and a description about the comic including such information as where it came from, why it was published, and other information about the comic. Most of the comics were published in the United States, but there's one that's from Russia (Octobriana) , one from Mexico (Los Novios) and one from Italy (La Donna Ragna). There are some in color and a few in black and white. There are also comics from just about every genre possible: political, crime, horror, and 'erotic' comics are all here. I think some of the most unusual titles include "Tales From the Leather Nun", "Mod Love", "Neraka", "Longshot Comics", "La Donna Ragna", "Amputee Love", and "Herbie".
I found HOLY SH*T interesting to read through because the collection of comics is so bizarre. However, I really didn't gain any insight or new knowledge from the book beyond knowing the names of some very off-the-wall comic books. I had never heard of most of these and there's a good reason for that.
HOLY SH*T is a book that will appeal to serious comic collectors, those with an interest in how propaganda has been used in history and its place in culture, and people who have a bizarre sense of humor. Other than the actual content of titles, some of which are adult in nature, the appeal and audience for the book is limited.
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