Collecting the second season of the mind-blowing cult favorite. Featuring the origin of The Shield of Justice, Tales from the Haunted Jazz Club, The Hateful Dead bubblegum cards, the loathsome Kiss The Clown, Coffin Fly versus The Red Menace and the legendary cut-up issue - "84." What more could you ask for? Okay... We added some "Behind the Scenes" extras, too. Happy now?
Even more unsound than the first volume. Images against which it would be easier to guard in other art styles somehow ooze through the barriers when rendered in Shaky Kane's fevered pop art-via-EC style. This is the comic Frederic Wertham is reading forever in Hell.
I've never read the original Bulletproof Coffin. I'm not sure if that makes things harder or not, but it is what it is.
I'm not exaggerating when I say I don't think I got what this was trying to say. I understand certain elements, I understand how it dissects culture and comics in ways, but I won't sit here and pretend like I followed the plot completely.
But I'm a fan of weird. I'm a fan of surreal, crazy shit. I gravitate towards stuff like this. I read 'normal' stuff too but there's a definite bias here.
Disinterred is a mostly gross, interesting, strange, intense, funny, and sad collection of stories. I felt like each one was trying to go for a different mood or at the very least feel and it succeeded... some more than others, though I like all of the issues.
For example, I actually felt like Disinterred 2 was really sad (the first story told), but then what followed was sort of disgusting. I can't remember if it was 4 or 5 but I just couldn't follow one of them. It was a lot of stuff at once and my mind is too simple.
But that last paragraph sums up what makes this so great. You can feel sad for a character, and then feel disgusted. Mostly disgusted because due to the excellent drawing and colouring, the visuals are really brought to life. And the visuals are often grotesque.
The writing is solid as well. Visually it's interesting to look at but the writing really holds it together and spins a um, wonderful tale about... something.
Extremely weird. Not sure it has any point to it, but it was certainly engrossing. Is this a dark reflection of our society? Is it transgressive schlock? Maybe I'm a square for wanting more explicit intention from my narratives. I felt like this needed footnotes of the obscure references to even start to make sense of even the individual stories, let alone the connections between them.
Even compared to the first Bulletproof Coffin series, this was damned weird. I'm not sure yet if it's a good sort or not. This time they seemed more concerned with tricks & gimmicks than with storytelling. The story was not as engaging, with less relatable characters, than he previous outing. To be fair, the 84 panel experiment is brilliant. Cutting up 84 panels and making whatever story you wish is great. Even if I had a print version I wouldn't cut them up. Still neat though. Kane's are is ginchy, psychedelic fun.
Although the six issues/stories of this second volume are not as connected to each other as the stories in the first volume, the book was still a crazy, fun read.
Some people might consider the material highly offensive, as it's violent and disturbing and very, very weird. But that's not what offended me at all, because I was very busy being offended by all the incredible merch it advertises that money just can't buy. I WANT THOSE DAMNED T-SHIRTS.
The artwork is exquisite, and the stories build on the world of the original Bulletproof Coffin to drag the reader into a mash-up dreamscape where everything makes sense in all the wrong ways. This is the quintessential postmodern comic and it's nothing short of deliriously wonderful!
NOTE: The first volume of Bulletproof Coffin is a lot more linear (which feels very wrong to write, even if it's true), and if you haven't yet read it I warmly recommend doing so before looking at Disinterred. There's a lot of character and world building going on that's expanded (and deconstructed) by Disinterred, and a lot of references and callbacks to the original throughout.
Ok, so this was a recommendation from the local comic book shop. Open minded approach... jumped into it... and it just did not click. I love the style - its non linear and really grabs your attention... the colors were great and the little details were paid attention to (i.e. background features in the artwork). But something did not click.. thats all. I wish i could say it totally rocked, and i did read it through again. Normally i like this sort of thing, but something was missing for me.
Even less of a story than in the first Bulletproof Coffin series, but still great. Not recommended, however, if you do not have a high tolerance for weirdness.