The Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories (Hardcover)

~ Nicholas Gurewitch (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Even the most benevolent impulse is sure to lead to a planet in ruins in this debut collection of Gurewitch's popular Web comic, The Perry Bible Fellowship. The dark, surreal humor is often compared to The Far Side but has an even more brutal and fatalistic sense of humor. Lavishly colored, the art switches among detailed depictions of comedy staples like sloths and dinosaurs to an empty-faced cast of doomed stick figure dreamers. Gurewitch's true strength is in expertly using the four-panel comic strip structure to suggest entire storylines and their bleak payoffs. In one, a man and woman stand in a field full of dead bodies, and the woman reacts angrily when she discovers the secret revealed in the final panel: the touching message Will you marry me? written on a hillside with the bodies. Similar themes of pop culture tropes played out to the point of disaster abound: aliens decide to kill the Earth instead of a planet of cute puppies, heaven is found to be not so cool when God forbids billiards, and so on. But as usual, attempting to analyze the humor defeats the purpose—Gurewitch's strips are destined to be refrigerator door classics in the very near future.
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From School Library Journal

Sweetness and light turn dark and grisly in this award-winning cult fave web strip having nothing to do with the Bible. The cover suggests a children's book: candy colors and candy people—who happen to be burning one of their number at the stake. The strips differ in art styles: some realistic, some cartoony; others evoking R. Crumb, Raggedy Ann, Chinese prints, Mother Goose, Bil Keane, Gundam manga, or Edward Gorey. Endings tend to the nastily downbeat. "Dad? There's someone at the door to see you," announces a smiling youngster to his head-in-a-book father. Enter an immense and very cool robot, basketball under an arm and cap on backwards. "You're under arrest for not being fun!" it sings out. Dad merely looks—and power rays zzzap from his eyes and blow the intruder to bits as the kid starts to cry. Or violently downbeat. "I love you," exclaims the Sun. "I love you, too!" says Earth. "Oh, kiss me." Trees, baby carriage, and people go up in flames. Quite a few gags relate to sex. Two guys ogle a horselike rear end. "Man, I'd like to get with that fine booty," says one. "That's disgusting," says the other. "She looks like she's 13"—and all three are revealed as centaurs. For sophisticated adult collections.—M.C.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics (November 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593078447
• ISBN-13: 978-1593078447
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #184,736 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Not today my little one", November 18, 2007

By	Peter J. Ward (Lewisburg, WV. USA) - See all my reviews

PBF is unlike any other comic out there and I'm really happy it has finally been collected into a book! The art swings between beautifully-polished and incredibly simplistic. The ocassional homage to another style (the Edward Gorey-inspired "The Throbblefoot Aquarium" is one of my favorites) is also refreshing and impressive. The art really compliments the odd but brilliant jokes imbedded in each comic. Some are obvious. Others take a while to sink in - I'm not proud of the fact that it took me over a week to "get" one PBF comic. Five stars for wit, writing, and art. PBF is currently delivering what Gary Larson's "The Far Side" brought to the late 80's, just not for as wide an audience.

As noted by others - NOT for children, unless your kids are just that much cooler than their peers.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but not that much extra stuff, November 13, 2007

By	Robert Stoffel (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me say first off that Nicholas Gurewitch is an amazing writer and artist, and his work is spectacular. Some previously black & white strips were colored for this book, and they look great.

My only problem with this book is that there really aren't a lot of extras. There are a couple pages of "lost comics" and that's it. I was hoping for some commentary, some extra comics exclusive to the book. At the end of the book I was a little underwhelmed.

But don't be put off from buying this book. It's still an excellent piece of work.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A dark, hilarious, and beautiful celebration, November 25, 2007

By	Katlanta (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

It's so nice to be able to hold these beautifully drawn cartoons in your hands; to have these lavishly illustrated beauties finally printed on quality paper. I stumbled on PBF from the XKCD Web site, and haven't been the same since. Though I have read most of these cartoons online, they still had me laughing out loud. And as dark and twisted as these cartoons are, some of the artwork is really wonderful. I love that the author uses so many cartooning styles -- they set moods, create contexts, and make the strips even funnier. While some of them can be racy or downright sick at times, they often poigniantly touch on vulnerabilities universal to the human experience.