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Haven't seen the BAC. Fillerbunny... it's amazing he gets away with that. I mean, it was funny when he needed to kill space in the back of JtHM or something, but the Fillerbunny books are exactly what they look like: Jhonen saying "I can fill pages and pages with badly drawn, marginally amusing crap, and you'll buy it because you're a zombie fanboy/girl." No deeper meaning, no subtle in-jokes for the hardcore fans (not that I remember, anyway). And he's right. I bought one FB out of curiosity and another just to support the store, which was supposed to be going out of business.
And yet I laugh heartily at Happy Noodle Boy. Figure that one out.
You've been seduced by the power of his wet cough, and have stared into the spooky depths of his crotch. Actually, I suspect that the reason Happy Noodle Boy is so cool is *because* he's only a one page deal... and he's insanely quoteable.
As for the BAC, it's the bar none worst art I've ever seen from him, or most anyone else, and with the most random storylines I've run across... It seems like sort of an "outtakes of things Johnen wrote over the years that suck too badly to be published elsewhere." ...it's like Happy Noodle Boy on crack. But if you do like HNB, then odds are that you'll at least find the BAC ammusing for the same reasons.
And yeah, I bought the 2nd Fillerbunny for the same reason as you did... Though I did have to laugh at the "Comic by Fillerbunny" in it.
Yes, however when you've never read the previous books, there are a lot of references in I Feel Sick that just make no sense... Like the scene where Devi is flashing back to that night with Nny, or her dream about Sen~or Diablo in her store in the incoming nonsense section. IFS2 especially just kind of lost me because it wasn't as traditionally funny as his other works. It instead relied on the fact that if you've read the other stories, the foreshadowing and backstory would supply that sense of wonderment when you finally see someone fighting back against the demons and "winning" for once... and that even though Devi won against the demon, she was still not going to be "happy" in life, but at least she would still be herself.
But yeah, the reason it's so much fun to me is that he can take the same underlying story and tell it so well from different points of view... and for some reason I just kind of smiled at Squee's plight a bit wider than Nny's or Devi's.
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Invader Zim is somewhat different, probably because it's aimed at kids. It's less grotesque, but it depicts a world that's every bit as demented. It reminds me of something I once read about Shel Silverstein: he succeeds because he talks to the kids on their own terms, because they know he's on their side (as opposed to their parents'/teachers'/etc.). I suspect (and hope) the same can be said for IZ.
See, this is what happens to liberal arts majors after they graduate. Sigh.
Probably so... and it helps that his grown fans can relate to the mood of the show too, since it's pretty much the same style if not the same depth of story... that, and the inside gags that crop up everywhere. I have to admit that even though it's not very gory, I did rather cringe at that one where he rips out his "best friend's" eyes and tried to replace them with those mechanical ones.
