Confessions of a Pop Fan

Thursday, July 21, 2005

I CAN'T IMAGINE THE WORLD WITHOUT BUMPERBOY

Before I continue my tribute to myself, let's talk about something really important:

That's it. No fancy shenanigans, no clever wordplay. I just love it. Besides, the book is full of fancy shenanigans and it has clever written all over it, so Debbie Huey has it more than covered. I mean, how can you not love a comic that has Onomatopeople with names like Bam or Pow? It's a credit to Huey's self-assurance that she has made a book for kids that gives kids the benefit of the doubt that they will even know what that means. It's a rare thing these days to find entertainment that actually remembers children can be clever, too.

Plus, there are dancing bananas.

Huey has self-published this collection of her minicomics using a Xeric Grant, and AdHouse Books are distributing it, so it's the most indie of indie comics. And yet, Huey manages to avoid all the hipster pitfalls that most indie comic book creators trip over when making books for kids. Too often such comics rely on an ironic pose to get them through, as if one jaded adult can only create such nonsense if other jaded adults can see him winking. Bumperboy Loses His Marbles! is played with a straight face, hearkening back to a time when we could all have fun without having to make excuses for it. Bumperboy's adventure is one every kid would want to have, and any adult worth knowing secretly wants to have it, too. It's a simple story: as Bumperboy and his faithful canine Bumperpup head off to practice their marble playing before the big tournament, their arch rival tricks them into dropping the entire bag of marbles through a Borp Hole, an interdimensional portal. The only way to get them back is to go into the hole themselves and search the strange worlds for the lost toys. With the deadline of the competition hanging over their heads, it's a bit of a challenge.

The line work in Bumperboy Loses His Marbles! is clean and charming, and Huey approaches each page with an eye that manages to be inventive while maintaining clarity. Her layouts aren't just simple grids, they move with the events of the story. The journeys through the Borp Hole become a constantly growing riff, and Huey creates wonderful montages to get us through the marbles tournament without cheating us on the action.

Bumperboy Loses His Marbles! is a graphic novel for anyone who wants to recapture the joy and remember what it was like to play a fun game--or read a good story--on a summer day. It's cliche to say it's for the kid who lives inside of all of us, but it really is. It's also perfect for those of us who are older comic book fans to share with a new generation of readers. I know my nephews can expect to get one in their Christmas stockings this year.

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I CAN'T IMAGINE THE WORLD WITHOUT ME, PART II

(jump down to part I of this exercise in vanity)

I signed Foxy Roxane's arm, right next to Jeremy Love.

Ian Shaugnessy beats Stacy for pure picture volume...

Ian so wishes.

Ian offers to lick off that barbecue sauce, unaware it's really a nasty razor accident. (Mad props to Jennifer de Guzman, who photoshopped it out for me in her pic. Reason 1,001,048,356 why j'adore Jennifer de Guzman.)

Ian tries to make Chynna and I suckle his hairy man teats.

I learn what it's really like to be an Oni freelancer. (l-r: Joe Nozemack, publisher; Jon Flores, superstar boyfriend; Chynna Clugston, Jon & Ian's mistress; Ian, superstar toadie; James Lucas Jones, editor in chump; Randal C. Jarrell, no one is really sure)