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Author
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Topic: Review - The Adventures of Barry Ween, Boy Genius
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Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 01-04-2001 11:12 PM
   
OK, remember how touching and moving and full of real human drama Judd Winick's Pedro and Me is? Well, this is exactly none of those things, but it's also darned funny. It follows the exploits of the title character, a boy genius who seems constantly ticked off by the stupidity that surrounds him and by the tight situations his experiments get him into. This title is a collection of the first series; there's also a collection of Barry Ween, Version 2.0, and a third mini-series about to start.Winick apparently got frustrated with the daily-newspaper-strip biz -- panel sizes are shrinking and there are tons of restrictions on what you can and can not say. So Winick said to hell with it and started putting out Barry Ween as a black and white comic, putting in as many offensive jokes as he possibly could. There is no shortage of vulgarities, anatomical references, sexual language, etc. here. But there's also no shortage of genuinely witty dialogue and Monty-Python-esque absurdity, either, and that's what's more important. Combined with Winick's skill with facial expression, the absurd plot turns and crisp dialogue make this a solid comic. One of my favorite dialogue exchanges occurs between Barry and his friend Jeremy: quote:
B: Jeremy, if my calculations are correct, then there are nineteen possible outcomes for what is transpiring in my parents' basement. Fourteen of which will end with the fabric of all know reality being shredded. The other five just involve severe flooding. But this is no time to go running home.J: There you go again. Ordering me around. B: I do no such thing. J: You do so. You do it all the time. Come here, go there, help me build this bomb, gimme one of your kidneys, I'm sick of it.
If you smiled at all during that exchange, check out Barry Ween. [This message has been edited by Dave Thomer (edited 01-29-2001).] [This message has been edited by Dave Thomer (edited 01-29-2001).] |
Pattie Gillett
True Believer
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posted 01-09-2001 08:49 PM
I admit to laughing rather hard at this comic. The premise and a couple of the storylines reminded me of Dexter's Laboratory. There were times I caught myself reading aloud Barry's lines with a German accent. |
Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 01-11-2001 02:20 PM
There is definitely a similarity, but Barry Ween is much more mean-spirited and much less cute than Dexter's Lab. They're both terrific, though. |
Dave Thomer
Guardian of Peace and Justice in the Galaxy
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posted 02-21-2001 01:50 AM
A new Adventures of Barry Ween mini-series, called Monkey Tales has started. I'll probably do a full review of the mini-series once it's done, but for now, I'll just say this is a very good opener. Winick's art continues to be dead-on when it comes to character expressions, his dialogue continues to be drop-dead funny, and now he's thrown in some character development and growth for good measure. We've steadily over the last few Barry Ween stories been getting a sense of what Barry gives up being the universe's smartest individual. In many ways it's a thankless job, and one that distances him from other people he might want to be close to. At first, that didn't seem like such a big deal -- but in this story (in which Barry helps a gorilla from another dimension get home, among other things) Barry just seems [tired[/i] of it. It adds a whole new level to the storytelling, and it's quite effective. | |
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