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Dumb and Dumber

From corporate headquarters to local
backrooms, some genuinely stupid
new comic books hit the stands

By Richard von Busack

I was trying to avoid the stupid this month, I really was, mulling over the dilemma of "do I write about the local comics I've read that were too stupid even for me, and then have to deal with the bruised egos of the artists."

I thought I could write about Batman. The new Batman: The Ultimate Evil graphic novel is supposed to be about Batman breaking up child-sex rackets.

It is even being sold with a press-release about the actual child-sex industry overseas, and about how different countries are trying to wipe it out, while somehow preserving more acceptable forms of child slave labor in the form of overseas toy factories.

And then the whole idea of Batman avenging child-prostitution rings seemed too stupid to write about, and instead I bought Real Stuff #20, which Fantagraphics has discontinued for the stupid reason that it wasn't selling.

Dennis Eichhorn had previously written many engrossing true-life tales of wild behavior, illustrated by various artists--tales of living in a sink like Idaho, of drinking too much and of getting into fights.

And lo and behold, Eichhorn signs off with an issue of awesome stupidity, the highlight of which is a story about his childhood hero Sheriff Spud and the Potato Posse, who was the Idaho version of Captain Delta, Beachcomber Bill, Hobo Kelly--whoever the oddly dressed kid's-show TV host was in your neck of the woods.

Real Stuff #20 ends with a punch line I wouldn't have used to regale the fifth-grade lunch crowd. It's the usual urban legend about the TV host whose career ends when he's caught in a motel committing some spectacularly unnatural act.

So I decided to do what I'd put off, reviewing Barbarian Women III ($3.50), published by San Jose's own California Comics. Well, you couldn't exactly call it smart. But at least it was local and stupid. Number 3 is the misogyny issue, but even gratuitous sexism loses its sparkle sometimes. (There is one good gag: "How many riot grrrls does it take to change a light bulb--none, because riot grrrls can't change anything.")

It was a vast chasm of stupidity yawning before my feet, with the Brady Bunch at the bottom calling my name, urging me to jump, give up, it's useless to resist. But at last, I was pulled back from the precipice with the thought that least someone is publishing absolutely vile, adults-only comics in defiance of the principle that only official, lucrative, corporate stupidity can flourish.

By being offensive ("Prepare to be mulched into worm food, you tasteless wench"), hard to sell and obviously hand-made, Barbarian Women III encourages other people to try their hand at comics. And so, in its own honorable way, it is fighting stupidity with stupidity.

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