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Underground > Comic Books >

Mike Allred's Madman

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Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

15:28 / 21.02.02

I picked up a couple issues recently (after reading some good reviews in moriarty's recommendations thread. See? It works, man! Old reader getting new ideas!) and I loved it. Unfortuanately, the local shop (otherwise a great store with a large back issue collection) is woefully understocked in this area, and cannot/will not order single issues, only trades.

So: are there Madman trades? If so, I'll need the title and publisher (if it ever left Dark Horse, that is). Much thanks.

[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: Johnny the zenarchist ]

15:35 / 21.02.02

I've found two Madman trades

Madman Adventures Collection

Madman: G-Men From Hell

[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: Trijhaos ]

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

15:36 / 21.02.02

there is a madman trade available, or there was, one moment please.....
order here from amazon
Or use the links on this page (Ka Ching!)

Edited to say: "Damn you, i was too slow, TOO SLOW!"

[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: Elijah Non Grata ]

15:38 / 21.02.02

Was thinking about starting up an Alred/Madman thread today myself. Just picked up the 10th anniversary issue (the oddity odyssey), which collects the first Madman storyline. Allred's website is here: http://www.aaapop.com/main.html, looks like you can order backissues from there. Amazon probably has some available, too.

I really like his stuff. X-force was the first exposure I've had to his work, and I've been picking up Atomics His stuff's a lot of fun to read.

Matthew Fluxington

15:38 / 21.02.02

The very first Madman mini-series has been published as a trade called Oddity Oddysey. It's lovely, a bit darker in mood and subject matter than the comics that would follow. It's all in black and white with half-tones, and has "flip action corners", which is a flip book animation of Madman doing silly dances.

The second Madman mini-series was published as the trade Madman Adventures. It's a lot more like the series that would follow: colorful, sillier, more out-there with the adventure stuff.

Both of these books were/are published by Kitchen Sink Press, and are still in print.

I read the ongoing series that followed up til maybe the 15th issue or so, and got more and more bored by it - I think the best Madman material is all in those first two trades, personally.

I do adore Allred's art, I always have. I'm curious, have any of you read The Atomics or Red Rocket 7? I passed them up, should I consider catching myself up with them?

15:47 / 21.02.02

from Darkhorse's site: http://www.darkhorse.com/search/index.html?sstring=Mike-Allred

I've picked up a couple of his 'Atomics' trades. Good weird stuff, similar to X-Force but not as satirical. The art of course is beautiful. Worth checking out.

The Damned Yankee

16:57 / 21.02.02

<shameless plug> If any of you are fans of The Sims, I have a Madman Sim available at my website: Look in the "Other Favorites" section. I also have It Girl from the Atomics there. </shameless plug>

The shamelessness is over. Now I am shamed.

17:22 / 21.02.02

The Atomics stuff is alright - very pop, light and fluffy. The resemblances between that and his X-Force stuff is what's kept me from buying the latter, though I may reconsider. Most of the Madman material is great, and Red Rocket 7 is not bad, but I'd not call it essential. As you said, Flux, the Madman stuff falls off after a while, though the mroe recent issues have been good - harkening back to his earliest stuff. If newer Madman is dull for you, I don't think you'll be really excited by the other two series.

It's a shame that the Grafique Musique and Grafik Muzik material has never been properly reprinted. Those first books were my exposure and I loved them immediately. Met Allred at a con, prolly '91 or so when no one knew who he was and had a long chat - great guy. Still have a handfull of the little Madman balsa wood gliders he gave me then. Also good was the Everyman one-shot he did with Bernie Mirault - Epic published that, I think. It's great, but good luck. Then there's DH's Tales of Ordinary Madness, written by prolific letter writer Malcom Bourne - not a great book by any means, but inneresting for early Allread art. There's more that I can't remember, but it's all out of print anyway.

[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: videodrome ]

18:20 / 21.02.02

I'm curious, have any of you read Red Rocket 7? I passed them up, should I consider catching myself up with them?

I bought the first 5 or 6 issues but never finished the series if that tells you anything. Story of alien and his clones as they run from the bad aliens and influence rock n roll history in a Forest Gump sort of way. Maybe I'll send em to you next time I go on a cleaning spree.

23:16 / 21.02.02

do not waste your time with red rocket seven.

two reasons:

one - allred's potted history of rock 'n' roll is not merely idiosyncratic, it's patchy and naive and would have taken only the smallest amount of research to broaden out a bit. It shows him to be a "connoisseur" of the big obvious names of rock 'n' roll, but no appreciation for the smaller names that went along. his trajectory: little richard - elvis - beatles - bowie was, to me, dull and obvious.

two - all the pictures he's drawn of the rock musicians in the story look painfully obviously cribbed from photographs in that way that you can tell a group shot has been photoshopped. the faces are all awkward and static and never actually looking at the same thing.

two cents. is all.

m.

03:39 / 22.02.02

I liked Red Rocket 7. sure, the music history may have been shallow, but it seemed to me the epitome of pop comic. in fact, it was probably (partly) because of that shallowness that it was so poptastic. a fun, sweet piece of work.

questions aplenty:

anyone know why the first madman story arc (previously mentioned "Oddity Odyssey") is so dramatically different from the later stuff? I mean, the first couple pages have the character BITING THE EYE out of another guy's head! quite a drastic change from the later, hip and friendly Madman.

Did Madman ever wrap up, so to speak? what happened with all the loose sub-plots? Dr. Boiffard went off into space? what happened with the vaguely slimy Dr. Flem?

13:53 / 22.02.02

Is allreds stuff so difficult to get?I've a load of the trades at home(memorey's alittle fuzzy though).I went through a phase of having money and buying any madn-man stuff.
I haven't gotten oddity oddysey, but I have the adventues one (is this the same as the yearbook 98?)theres the superman madman hullabaloo which is a lot of fun, as is the madman/JAM crossover which is all about MC Escher and this weird little world where he lives.I still know next to nothing about the jam guy though.

Frank went off trying to help boiffard, and it's one of the recurring themes aong ewithnthe fact that frank is supposedly one of the three?(or four?).
He still helps flem out with his inventions but gets kind of fed up at being taken advantage of all the time.The latest stroies in the comic have been tracing franks roots.
I love the comic.it just throws so many things together.Like mutant Street beatniks man!!!!
Sorry I'm so vague, posting from work.

15:03 / 22.02.02

Without a regular series to keep it in the public eye, lots of shops will reduce the number of trades they carry for a particular title. That cross-promotion thing just ain't happening.

Allred is one of my inspriations, not because I find his comics incredibly appealing, but because his drawings improved so quickly. Look at the old stuff he was doing with a tech pen, then when he transferred over to brush. Krakapow! The transformation is amazing.

That said, the best part of Madman was the pin-ups.

16:24 / 22.02.02

I'm liking Allred's work more and more these days. I'd draw comparisons between him and Roy Lichtenstein, if I knew anything about art.

Matthew Fluxington

16:42 / 22.02.02

Um, but Lichtenstein only cribbed images from comic sources. I see the visual connection, but it's more fair to say that Allred reminds you of the work Lichtenstein sampled, right?

16:50 / 22.02.02

Sure. Like I said, if I knew anything about art. The only Lichtenstein that I'm even vaguely familiar w/ is his comic-inspired stuff. I was thinking more about the sort of pop subversiveness that both of their works have.

18:37 / 22.02.02

The Jam guy was the hero of The Jam by Bernie Mireault, but he was more of a do ggoder than a super hero, he didn't have any powers, just a costume. The first five issues came out from Tundra and were a pretty good left field super hero type story arc. I think the book then went to Dark Horse, and ran up to issue 13 or so, each issue moved further away from super hero stuff and more into just, whatever, y'know. Sorry to sound vague, but that's kind of what happened.

Bernie Mireault eventually gave up the book to pursue other interests, but he is a true storyteller, you ask me, and if you can track down that five issue arc from Tundra, it's a sweet story. Mireault also did some stuff on Grendel way back in the day, too, and has done some stuff for Fallout, that science book by, um...Ottoviani?

18:54 / 22.02.02

The Tundra material was originally published by Slave Labor, as a black and white book. Tundra republished them, with new color by Mireault. Searching for info reminded me of the other really good one-shot Allred did years ago - Creatures of the Id, done with Bernie, which led, much later, to the fun Madman/Jam book.

His Grendel run was The Devil Inside and it was not only the run that got me (quite heavily, for a while) into the book - it also stands as the best run, period. Well, the two Matt issues that followed Bernie's were good as well...

But I digress. Bernie occasionally still publishes a book called Dr Robot and it's good, though a change of pace from the low-key urban charm of the Jam. Worth picking up at least an issue, though. He had started the character at Dark Horse, maybe in DHP, but it's since gone to another publisher.

Besides being a good writer and great artist, Mireault is a very talented colorist - one of the best in the business before the software revolution changed that side of things...

Here is some good info, and some Dr Robot stuff is here.

[ 22-02-2002: Message edited by: videodrome ]

19:03 / 22.02.02

More looking for Mireault material....
This is kinda awesome.

[ 22-02-2002: Message edited by: videodrome ]

15:24 / 23.02.02

the whole madman story is available in collected form.

the thing about the early madman being more dark than the character we know today, it´s simple. Allred was infleunced by the grim and grittiness of the time and wanted his character to be dark so he made him eat the eye of a "bad guy" who has to witness this with his one eye left. But Allred said in initerviews that this scene (which is in the opening pages of the whole saga) felt totally wrong to him right after he did it so he made MADMAN throw up the eye and never do that kind of shit again.

Allred´s MADMAN story constantly changes and I thought that his stuff was totally great, oddity oddissey, the madman adventure from kitchen sink and the first two darkhose trades were great in my opinion: it was a mixture of spirituality/horror/fun/and basically living in a pop culture world where dinosaurs and aliens and space invaders and covert operations all happen at once to frank, who just wants to have some fun with his girlfirend and find his friend dr. boiffard. anyways, the full story has yet to be told and will hopefully be continued. even though it always feels different there is one big MADMAN saga and I´m dying to read it all. you know, how will his life turn out? what will happen to his friends? will there be hugs for all? all the best, frank, old buddy!!!

15:37 / 23.02.02

Hey videodrome. I'd forgotten about Dr Robot. I have the dark horse one, didn't realise there was another one out. If you track down the publisher, I'd be delighted to know who. Cheers for the links too.

15:41 / 23.02.02

If you're looking for Everyman, I was running a google on Bernie Mireault and turned this up.

17:47 / 24.02.02

Surprise that this hasn't been mentioned yet, though it's not that big of a deal.

Several years ago I found an anthology book from Caliber with a psudeo madman story in it. It's Frank, post accident, but makes no mentions to Madman. The story is about him trying to get a record that he special ordered from a record store (Pixies, I think) but the clerks won't even look to see if the record is in, because his face is all screwed up. In the end, he makes one of the clerks think he's handsome, so that she'll get the record for him. She does, story ends. Not much, but I thought I'd throw it out there. It's kind of a fun story.

To date the book, it also has a gallery of James O'Barr's Crow stuff, and talks up the fifth and final issue of the Crow mini series (which Caliber never released).

Unfortunatly, the book vanished in the years when I stopped reading comics. Oh well...

Dan Fish - @Fish1k

19:57 / 24.02.02

The story you described about the record shop was apparently the first appearance of Frank (Madman) Einstein. I read a copy online on a fansite (which unfortunately no longer seems to be there).

Danny
Comics 4 sale @ www.fish1000.freeserve.co.uk

10:25 / 25.02.02

Wasn't mr robot a backup story in either madman or the atomics for a few issues (reletively) recently?
I definitiley remember reading it, I'll, have a look at my bback issues and see what I can find.

12:03 / 25.02.02

they recently ran the madman story where he was trying to buy a pixies album ('come on pilgrim', i believe) in the latest atomics collection.

The Planet of Sound

12:18 / 25.02.02

Allred is a God, pure and simple; buy whatever you can, with the possible exception of the Bluntman and Chronic stuff. Look out for the cross-overs; Madman meets: Nexus! Superman! The Jam! Bugs Bunny?

22:39 / 25.02.02

not to forget that shitful episode where he meets santa, who's got amnesia, and they have to fight a bunch of angry snow-men. with carrot noses and stick-arms, holy crap.

m.

The Planet of Sound

22:39 / 25.02.02

Which I thought was extremely good, in a Chuck Jones (God rest his soul) type way.

07:39 / 15.05.02

I thought I'd revive this, as Alldred has some things coming down the pike. Mike's one-off "IT Girl" w/ Chynna of "Blue Monday" fame (here's a picture of her with the (in)famous "Jesus Head") should be coming out soon. Oni Press's site says it came out April 31st, but I don't think it's out just yet.

Speaking of Oni, there's a long list of upcoming Oni projects in this Comicon article. Including Mike's super spiffy artwork for Oni's Summer Color Special:

Oh yeah, and there's a Madman pin-up issue that came out recently as well. BTW, Mike's back to drawing "X-Force" again, isn't he? And is Robert Rodriguez starting on the Madman movie now that Spy Kids 2 is almost wrapped up?

14:49 / 15.05.02

The Superman crossover rocked, by the way.

07:39 / 21.05.02

According to ifanboy.com, "IT Girl" is coming out this Wenesday (May 22nd). Also released on Wednesday is Mike Mignola's "Amazing Screw-On Head" and, um, (clears throat) "The Lost Book Of Elven Erotica, Vol. 1"

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:35 / 12.07.07

*BUMP* while trying to ignore that jiggly-eyed emoticon above.

The third issue of the new Allred & Allred MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS is out this week and I picked it up off the shelf to flip through it to find a strange, twisting adventure that featured a different artist's style - from George Herriman to Maurice Sendak to beyond - in each panel. So I picked up the first and second issues off the back issue shelves and bought them all. Then I read them, straight through.

Now, I've only really read Oddity Odyssey, and most of my familiarity with Allred's work is through his Solo issue, X-Statix, and (swoon) Dead Girl, but these three comics were really fun. They're definitely setting up the series, explaining who Frank is, going through his history in brief blurbles of poptastic electricity as we're lead through Madman's mindscape while he's under a magical curse and near the edge of death. It's set-up, but it's beautiful set-up and got me up to speed without too much problem. It felt like an old Silver Age Marvel comic, stark and dynamic - bright and dark at the same time. Has anyone else being reading this revival? It really sparked me up and I'm looking forward to more.

18:14 / 12.07.07

>>>The third issue of the new Allred & Allred MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS is out this week and I picked it up off the shelf to flip through it to find a strange, twisting adventure that featured a different artist's style - from George Herriman to Maurice Sendak to beyond - in each panel.<<<

I was really flattered to find that I'm one of the artists included in Allred's tribute.

18:45 / 12.07.07

#3 knocked me out. It must have taken Allred a long, long time to draw. Totally worth it though. Cam, what page was "your art" on?

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