Beanworld vol 1: Wahoolazuma h/c back

Just occasionally something comes along in the comics medium that is so completely unique and different to anything else you've ever read that it makes you stop and just marvel. BEANWORLD is just such a creation. When it first was collected into a trade paperbacks more years ago than I care to remember it was recommended to me by Mark, and despite having a little look inside and being highly dubious, I purchased it and took it home. It just wasn't like anything I'd read before but I absolutely loved it!

Larry Marder succeeds in creating a whole bizarre new reality, or in fact The Four Realities of Slots, Hoops, Twinks and Chips which you might just fall into if you leap off The Legendary Edge whilst on a chow mission amongst the Hoi-Polloi Ring Herd! And then proceeds to populate it with an ever increasingly weird set of individuals who just happen to be beans such as Beanish, an artist and creator of the Fabulous Look-See Shows, Mr. Spook, hero and leader of the Chow Soljer army, and Professor Garbanzo, problem solver and generally deep thinker. And certainly not forgetting the musical Boom'r Band who try to keep everyone entertained.

The only way I can do justice to BEANWORLD is to say reading it feels like you are a spectator to a very different version of Universe creation unfolding before your very eyes, piece by surreal piece. You never guess who or what is going to appear next and what it may mean for the Beans and their reality, and therein lies the beauty of it. All disbelief is suspended, anything is possible, but don't imagine you'll ever guess what's coming next because you honestly won't!!

And then it stopped, nothing, not another bean for nigh on fifteen years until the recent single issue of all-new material in December 2008 which heralded this first collection of previous material and promising more long-awaited new material in the form of volume three. Larry Marder claims he's always had a complete master plan for his creations and this time he intends to see it through to a conclusion and I'm very excited. So sit back, relax and let yourself by entertained by the Beans.