There's a new genre rising from the underground. Its name: BIZARRO. For years, readers have been asking for a category of fiction dedicated to the weird, crazy, cult side of storytelling that has become a staple in the film industry (with directors such as David Lynch, Takashi Miike, Tim Burton, and Lloyd Kaufman) but has been largely ignored in the literary world, until now. The Bizarro Starter Kit features short novels and story collections by ten of the leading authors in the bizarro genre: D. Harlan Wilson, Carlton Mellick III, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Kevin L Donihe, Gina Ranalli, Andre Duza, VIncent W. Sakowski, Steve Beard, John Edward Lawson, and Bruce Taylor.
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Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
"The Bizarro literary movement is the ultimate in outsider lit." - 3AM Magazine
"The literary equivalent of a David Lynch or Tim Burton film ... These stories offer a glimpse into a rising genre that functions like the cult movie section in your local video store." - Horror World
"[Bizarro is] universally intriguing, thoughtful, intelligent and, most importantly, a hell of a lot of fun." - The Pedestal Magazine
"Sometimes comic, sometimes violent, sometimes sexually graphic (if not all of the above) and adolescently fearless to offend." - Details Magazine
"Bizarro fiction is by turns repulsive, stupid, and crude. But at its best, it is also compelling, intelligent, and well-written. Any literary genre that can be both bad and good at the same time is worth reading." - The Guardian
Even though the Bizarros are underground cult outsiders, they still have gained an incredible amount of respect in the publishing industry, having been praised by the likes of Chuck Palahniuk, Christopher Moore, William Gibson, Alan Moore, Piers Anthony, Cory Doctorow, and Charles de Lint, to name a few, as well as the publications Asimov's Science-fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science-fiction, Cemetery Dance, Fangoria, Wizard Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Face, among many others. They have also been finalists for the Philip K Dick Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Rhysling Award, the Wonderland Book Award, and the Pushcart Prize.
Bizarro isn't just weird fiction, it is damn good weird fiction, and the genre grows exponentially every single day, so, love it or hate it, you'll be seeing a lot more of it in the years to come.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are a lot of talented authors out there who are writing gut-twisting tales that just don't fit into the accepted mainstream of the New York Publishing Houses. If you are a horror or punk fan, then this tasty little sample simply should not be passed by. I for one love the Odd, the Bizarre, the Sick & Twisted, and the breath of freshly foul air that comes from hidden fictional treasures. This isn't a book for the squeamish or faint of heart. 'The Bizarro Starter Kit' is a collection of short and flash fiction grouped by author rather than story, so I'll give the lineup by author:
D. Harlan Wilson - 'At The Funeral', 'Cops & Bodybuilders', 'Hairware, Inc.', 'The Man In The Thick Black Spectacles', 'Classroom Dynamics', and 'Digging For Adults'. Wilson proves a spectacular ability for the new flash-fiction genre with his absurdly bizarro tales. My favorites were Hairware Inc. and Digging For Adults.
Carlton Mellick III - 'The Baby Jesus Butt Plug'. Adopting cute little Baby-Jesuses as pets, sickos who use their pets as b*tt toys, wolf spiders, pointless jobs, clones, zombies, and music boxes, this is one bizarro story. Mellick is a true master of bizarro. See my individual review of 'The Baby Jesus Butt Plug' for Mellick's stand-alone copy of this bizarre little treasure.
Jeremy Robert Johnson - 'Extinction Journals'. A cockroach suit in an apocalyptic nightmare. I believe Johnson is a writer to keep on your watch-list. Check out 'Siren Promised' and 'Angel Dust Apocalypse'.
Kevin L. Donihe - 'The Greatest F***ing Moment In Sports'. A hilarious and nightmarish account of Oscar Legbo's last bicycle race. Donihe co-authored 'Ocean Of Lard' with Mellick, a book that I loved.
Gina Ranalli - 'Suicide Girls In The Afterlife'. A strange tale of wandering through a bizarre Afterlife Hotel. Don't get lost on the wrong floor!
Andre Duza - 'Don't F(beep)k With The Coloureds'. An exotic, erotic female experiment terrorizes the Harrington House Retirement Center and the local police force. But it's the animation crouching inside that will get to them. This is a truly bizarro story, one of my favorites! And, it comes with a very peculiar illustration.
Vincent W. Sakowski - 'The Screaming Of The Fish', 'Peel And Eat Buffet', It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Ragnarok'. Another author shows talent at the new flash-fiction genre. My favorite is 'The Screaming Of The Fish'.
Steve Beard - 'Survivor's Dream'. Disjointed dreamlike tale of Dead Girl and the many traumas she must endure inside her own mind in order to return to the living. Another favorite, but extremely twisted and more than a little confusing.
John Edward Lawson - 'Truth In Ruins'. A post apocalyptic, landscape of Serial Profilers and Serial Killers takes you on one of the most surreal journeys in this collection. Lawson also edited the incredible collection 'Sick: An Anthology Of Illness'. I love Lawson's quote in his Description, "Reality is for people who can't handle fiction."
Bruce Taylor - 'The Breath Amidst The Stones', 'A Little Spider Shop Talk', 'Of Tunafish And Galaxies', 'City Streets'. More strange than sick, these short tales breath life into the lifeless. My favorite is "A Little Spider Shop Talk": ever wonder what a conversation with your spider-neighbor would be like?
Reading this introduction to bizarro is like reaching your arm out into some blackened void that has piqued your curiosity for years. Sometimes dreamily intense and sometimes almost childishly scrawled, these tales can be called nothing less than intriguing. I enjoyed the collection because it's so cultish and outlandish, and gives more than one author's view into this macabre, magnetic genre. It's a nice sampling that showcases some great (though warped) talents using an eclectic blend of horror, fantasy, sci-fi, punk, outlandishness, and insanity.
The book includes biographies, previous works, and information about each of the authors (some comically embellished) and websites to visit to find out more about your favorites. Talent doesn't always come out of a New York Publishing House; sometimes it creeps out from underneath strangely shaped and slimily pungent rocks. Enjoy!
D. Harlan Wilson - 'At The Funeral', 'Cops & Bodybuilders', 'Hairware, Inc.', 'The Man In The Thick Black Spectacles', 'Classroom Dynamics', and 'Digging For Adults'. Wilson proves a spectacular ability for the new flash-fiction genre with his absurdly bizarro tales. My favorites were Hairware Inc. and Digging For Adults.
Carlton Mellick III - 'The Baby Jesus Butt Plug'. Adopting cute little Baby-Jesuses as pets, sickos who use their pets as b*tt toys, wolf spiders, pointless jobs, clones, zombies, and music boxes, this is one bizarro story. Mellick is a true master of bizarro. See my individual review of 'The Baby Jesus Butt Plug' for Mellick's stand-alone copy of this bizarre little treasure.
Jeremy Robert Johnson - 'Extinction Journals'. A cockroach suit in an apocalyptic nightmare. I believe Johnson is a writer to keep on your watch-list. Check out 'Siren Promised' and 'Angel Dust Apocalypse'.
Kevin L. Donihe - 'The Greatest F***ing Moment In Sports'. A hilarious and nightmarish account of Oscar Legbo's last bicycle race. Donihe co-authored 'Ocean Of Lard' with Mellick, a book that I loved.
Gina Ranalli - 'Suicide Girls In The Afterlife'. A strange tale of wandering through a bizarre Afterlife Hotel. Don't get lost on the wrong floor!
Andre Duza - 'Don't F(beep)k With The Coloureds'. An exotic, erotic female experiment terrorizes the Harrington House Retirement Center and the local police force. But it's the animation crouching inside that will get to them. This is a truly bizarro story, one of my favorites! And, it comes with a very peculiar illustration.
Vincent W. Sakowski - 'The Screaming Of The Fish', 'Peel And Eat Buffet', It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Ragnarok'. Another author shows talent at the new flash-fiction genre. My favorite is 'The Screaming Of The Fish'.
Steve Beard - 'Survivor's Dream'. Disjointed dreamlike tale of Dead Girl and the many traumas she must endure inside her own mind in order to return to the living. Another favorite, but extremely twisted and more than a little confusing.
John Edward Lawson - 'Truth In Ruins'. A post apocalyptic, landscape of Serial Profilers and Serial Killers takes you on one of the most surreal journeys in this collection. Lawson also edited the incredible collection 'Sick: An Anthology Of Illness'. I love Lawson's quote in his Description, "Reality is for people who can't handle fiction."
Bruce Taylor - 'The Breath Amidst The Stones', 'A Little Spider Shop Talk', 'Of Tunafish And Galaxies', 'City Streets'. More strange than sick, these short tales breath life into the lifeless. My favorite is "A Little Spider Shop Talk": ever wonder what a conversation with your spider-neighbor would be like?
Reading this introduction to bizarro is like reaching your arm out into some blackened void that has piqued your curiosity for years. Sometimes dreamily intense and sometimes almost childishly scrawled, these tales can be called nothing less than intriguing. I enjoyed the collection because it's so cultish and outlandish, and gives more than one author's view into this macabre, magnetic genre. It's a nice sampling that showcases some great (though warped) talents using an eclectic blend of horror, fantasy, sci-fi, punk, outlandishness, and insanity.
The book includes biographies, previous works, and information about each of the authors (some comically embellished) and websites to visit to find out more about your favorites. Talent doesn't always come out of a New York Publishing House; sometimes it creeps out from underneath strangely shaped and slimily pungent rocks. Enjoy!
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Since I'm already a fan of Carlton Mellick III, I decided to check out the Bizarro Starter Kit to read work by other authors in the Bizarro genre. I loved the whole collection and will definitely be checking out more books by these authors.
For those of you that are unfamiliar, the first page offers the following explanation:
Defining Bizarro
1. Bizarro, simply put is the genre of the weird.
2. Bizarro is literature's equivalent to the cult section at the video store.
3. Like cult movies, Bizarro is sometimes surreal, sometimes goofy, sometimes bloody, and sometimes borderline pornographic.
4. Bizarro often contains a certain cartoon logic that, when applied to the read world, creates an unstable universe where the bizarre becomes the norm and absurdities are made flesh.
5. Bizarro strives not only to be strange, but fascinating, thought-provoking, and, above all, fun to read.
6. Bizarro was created by a group of small press publishers in response to the increasing demand for (good) weird fiction and the increasing number of authors who specialize in it.
7. Bizarro is:
Franz Kafka meets Joe Bob Briggs
Dr. Suess of the post-apocalypse
Japanese animation directed by David Lynch
For those of you that are unfamiliar, the first page offers the following explanation:
Defining Bizarro
1. Bizarro, simply put is the genre of the weird.
2. Bizarro is literature's equivalent to the cult section at the video store.
3. Like cult movies, Bizarro is sometimes surreal, sometimes goofy, sometimes bloody, and sometimes borderline pornographic.
4. Bizarro often contains a certain cartoon logic that, when applied to the read world, creates an unstable universe where the bizarre becomes the norm and absurdities are made flesh.
5. Bizarro strives not only to be strange, but fascinating, thought-provoking, and, above all, fun to read.
6. Bizarro was created by a group of small press publishers in response to the increasing demand for (good) weird fiction and the increasing number of authors who specialize in it.
7. Bizarro is:
Franz Kafka meets Joe Bob Briggs
Dr. Suess of the post-apocalypse
Japanese animation directed by David Lynch
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If this is a "Starter Kit", I can't wait to see what comes next! This is a shocking, disturbing, in some cases sick, but fun read - just what they intended. If you can make it through this, you, like me, are pretty weird!
The longer stories are: Mellick's "Baby Jesus Butt Plug"; Johnson's "Extinction Journals"; Donihe's "Greatest F*cking Moments in Sports"; Ranalli's "Suicide Girls in the Afterlife"; Duza's "Don't F(bleep)k With the Coloured"; Beard's "Survivor's Dream"; Lawson's "Truth in Ruins". Shorter pieces are by Wilson, Sakowski & Taylor.
Beware: Most (if not all) of the longer pieces have been published as stand alone books - each costing more than this book.
The longer stories are: Mellick's "Baby Jesus Butt Plug"; Johnson's "Extinction Journals"; Donihe's "Greatest F*cking Moments in Sports"; Ranalli's "Suicide Girls in the Afterlife"; Duza's "Don't F(bleep)k With the Coloured"; Beard's "Survivor's Dream"; Lawson's "Truth in Ruins". Shorter pieces are by Wilson, Sakowski & Taylor.
Beware: Most (if not all) of the longer pieces have been published as stand alone books - each costing more than this book.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great starter
This is a great starter for anyone considering getting into Bizarro. The book is filled with a wide range of all-stars, consider this the A-listers of Bizarro. Read more
Published 2 months ago by S. Koch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful
This is probably my favorite of all the Bizarro Kits. My favorite story is Carlton Mellick III's "Baby Jesus Butt Plug". You have to read this collection. Read more
Published 3 months ago by amadeo777
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Is It
I decided to buy this Orange Starter Kit to cheaply put some volume into my Bizarro Fiction collection. Read more
Published 5 months ago by The Bee
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best of the best in this collection
This is the Bizarro Starter Kit with all the legends of Bizarro fiction--Carlton Mellick III, D. Harlan Wilson, Gina Ranalli, and Jeremy Robert Johnson, to name a few. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jason Wayne Allen
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Introduction To Bizarro Fiction
The Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange) is a book that's designed as an introduction to bizarro fiction. It's a collection of novellas and short stories by some of the top writers in the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Yoyogod
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb !
The bizarro starter kits are simply the way to go. Many different emotions/feelings are possessed as reading through the wide array of available content. Read more
Published 16 months ago by jon117
5.0 out of 5 stars
Start here
The Bizarro Starter Kits are exactly what they claim to be - budget gateways to the wild, wacky, wonderful world of the weird. Read more
Published 21 months ago by 13visions
5.0 out of 5 stars
An awesome tome by some of the best writers you've never heard of...
Bizarro is the genre of the weird. Inside the Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange), you will find a large sampling of the most entertaining, the strangest, quite possibly the most unique... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Emory B. Pueschel
3.0 out of 5 stars
What is bizarro?
What is bizarro, exactly?
This is a question I get often. As I understand it, bizarro fiction is rather complex. It has its roots in weird (think: Kafka and William S. Read more
This is a question I get often. As I understand it, bizarro fiction is rather complex. It has its roots in weird (think: Kafka and William S. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Caris O'Malley
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic introdution to some excellent authors.
This was one of my first introductions to the Bizarro genre. I think these starter kits are a fantastic way to get aquainted with the genre as well as a great way to get a taste... Read more
Published 23 months ago by thekrazedone
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