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Madman Comics
The Complete Madman Comics Volume 2
From Madman's meeting with The Big Guy (co-scripted by Frank Miller!) to his run-in with riled-up renegade robots, like a flash of karma you'll again understand what being a kid is all about, whatever age you may be!
Contains: Madman Comics #6-10
Contains: Madman Comics #6-10
152 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 1996
1 person is currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Mike Allred
719 books178 followersMichael 'Doc' Allred (Also Credited as M. Dalton Allred) grew up in the 60's and 70's and was surrounded with the best in pop culture and a steady diet of music, movies and comic books including the three B's: Beatles, Bond and Batman to the point of obsession.
So it should come as no surprise that he keeps a hand in film and music (He's the lead singer and guitarist for The Gear), but comic books have always been a seminal source of joy for Mike and that joy remains the main ingredient in most of his work.
Allred first tasted success in the comics field with his wildly popular MADMAN series, which is currently being developed for a live action film with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. His earlier work from GRAFIK MUZIK was turned into the cult hit movie G-Men from Hell directed by Christopher Coppola (featuring Robert Goulet as the Devil). Other work includes Red Rocket 7, his history of Rock and Roll told in the context of a sci-fi adventure storyl the Madman spin-off THE ATOMICS and his magnum opus, THE GOLDEN PLATES, where he's illustrating the entire Book of Mormon.
Mike counts the secret to his success to be his wife, and creative partner, Laura Allred, who is is considered to be one of the best colorists in the business.
So it should come as no surprise that he keeps a hand in film and music (He's the lead singer and guitarist for The Gear), but comic books have always been a seminal source of joy for Mike and that joy remains the main ingredient in most of his work.
Allred first tasted success in the comics field with his wildly popular MADMAN series, which is currently being developed for a live action film with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. His earlier work from GRAFIK MUZIK was turned into the cult hit movie G-Men from Hell directed by Christopher Coppola (featuring Robert Goulet as the Devil). Other work includes Red Rocket 7, his history of Rock and Roll told in the context of a sci-fi adventure storyl the Madman spin-off THE ATOMICS and his magnum opus, THE GOLDEN PLATES, where he's illustrating the entire Book of Mormon.
Mike counts the secret to his success to be his wife, and creative partner, Laura Allred, who is is considered to be one of the best colorists in the business.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 6, 2023
Complicated simple fun. This is starting to hint at a greater storyline, I'm curious to see where Allred takes us.
January 23, 2022
La prima serie regolare dedicata al personaggio prosegue con storie lente ma movimentate. Con i crossover con altri personaggi "indipendenti" quali il Big Guy di Miller e prima ancora Hellboy di Mignola.
Divertente, di sicuro leggendo queste storie il tempo scorre bene.
3 stelle
Divertente, di sicuro leggendo queste storie il tempo scorre bene.
3 stelle
July 17, 2025
More madman! More awesome comics!
May 23, 2016
I was typing a really detailed, purposeful review of this but my piece of shit computer crashed and I lost it. So, haha. Here's a worse version?
--
I picked this up because the cover looks like the 90s. It put me in mind of Howard Chaykin, maybe? Or a little bit of Kaz.
Anyway, it was pretty good! I didn't read the first volume, so I'm assuming there's some backstory that I'm missing. I also had a harder time than usual determing which parts of this were a joke or not. I don't know if it's a lack of context, or if that unertainty is a feature of the genre; I mean, one of the characters is a sentient pile of vomit, so obviously this isn't THAT serious. But it does handle some issues with a decent amount of self-reflection, which is why I think that I was looking so hard for self-awareness here.
But, okay: on the lighter end of the spectrum, how do you read a phrase like "Can you tell me where the nearest moto-rooter rocket-car tunnel is?" You can read it as a parody of that 90s pulpy cyberpunk word salad. Or you can read it as straight pulpy cyberpunk word salad, because you're supposed to read it straight in so many things like this (see: Vurt, which unabashedly contained the phrase droidlocks). And - you know? I think that my insistence on knowing whether this is parody or not probably takes some of the joy out of it. Like, by the 90s when this was written, people were for sure aware of the tropes of this genre. And I think that they can be aware of those tropes while still using them sincerely. I tend to set up a false dichotomoy between "parody" and "clueless sincerity", in both literature and life, but I think that authors can be self-aware and sincere at the same time. These things became tropes because people get some joy out of them; insisting on making fun of that is a little bit cynical. Don't get me wrong, I love cynical, but I'm beginning to see that cynical isn't always better than sincere.
ANYWAY. I also have no idea what to make of Frank Miller's Big Guy character. I've only read The Dark Knight Returns, and I don't even vaguely know the plot of Sin City - I don't really have the context to know what Frank Miller is doing. So when this character keeps going on about the superiority of American manufacturing, I have no idea if it's a joke. Like - it must be a joke, right? Because American manufacturing is a joke. And when he tells (the fictional) Frank to do it "for his country", that's a parody of other over-serious super heros, right? But I really don't know. Comics can be super nationalistic.
I think that's what weirds me out about this - I have a pretty good eye for satire. I can normally spot the difference between the person sincerely being an idiot and the person pretending to be a sincere idiot. But I'm really not sure with this comic. Again: this could be lack of familiarity with the genre, or it could be a feature of the genre. I would have to read so many more 90s era comics to know.
Anyway, I expect some self awareness in this because the storyline is, like I mentioned, pretty solid. The evil robots at the end aren't just evil; they're trying to get Frank to share some mystical knowledge about what it is to be truly alive. You know, is artificial intelligence the same as life? But I mean, that's pretty standard sci-fi fare (hi, Philip K Dick!) and this doesn't really offer anything new, other than maybe a general acceptance on the part of the human characters. I was a little more interested in Dr. Boiffard's character. He's SUPER SMART and seems to be turning into a giant brain, to the detriment of his humanity. He can't even speak at this point, and apparently lives in a hospital. Evil robots attempt to kidnap him because they need his knowledge. This feels prescient: information is probably the most important commodity that we have. In this case, it is symbolically trapped in a guy's giant brain, because comics. But in the real world it's the internet, right?
I almost turned this into an argument about how, like Dr. Boiffard, we have so much information available at all times that it's taking away our ability to communicate with each other. I don't think that's strictly wrong, but I don't really think it's strictly right, and I definitely do not want to get into that nuanced argument in a review of a comic book from the 90s.
Similarly, I think there's an argument to be made about identity and presentation re: Frank's discomfort without his costume in the opening pages of this volume, but again, this Goodreads review is probably not the place. Or maybe I'm just getting bored. Anyway, this comic: it held up! It's worth reading. Don't take all of my rambling about cynicism / sincerity, the nature of information, etc too seriously. This is book is still mostly nonsense that features a character who is a sentient pile of puke. HILARIOUS!
--
I picked this up because the cover looks like the 90s. It put me in mind of Howard Chaykin, maybe? Or a little bit of Kaz.
Anyway, it was pretty good! I didn't read the first volume, so I'm assuming there's some backstory that I'm missing. I also had a harder time than usual determing which parts of this were a joke or not. I don't know if it's a lack of context, or if that unertainty is a feature of the genre; I mean, one of the characters is a sentient pile of vomit, so obviously this isn't THAT serious. But it does handle some issues with a decent amount of self-reflection, which is why I think that I was looking so hard for self-awareness here.
But, okay: on the lighter end of the spectrum, how do you read a phrase like "Can you tell me where the nearest moto-rooter rocket-car tunnel is?" You can read it as a parody of that 90s pulpy cyberpunk word salad. Or you can read it as straight pulpy cyberpunk word salad, because you're supposed to read it straight in so many things like this (see: Vurt, which unabashedly contained the phrase droidlocks). And - you know? I think that my insistence on knowing whether this is parody or not probably takes some of the joy out of it. Like, by the 90s when this was written, people were for sure aware of the tropes of this genre. And I think that they can be aware of those tropes while still using them sincerely. I tend to set up a false dichotomoy between "parody" and "clueless sincerity", in both literature and life, but I think that authors can be self-aware and sincere at the same time. These things became tropes because people get some joy out of them; insisting on making fun of that is a little bit cynical. Don't get me wrong, I love cynical, but I'm beginning to see that cynical isn't always better than sincere.
ANYWAY. I also have no idea what to make of Frank Miller's Big Guy character. I've only read The Dark Knight Returns, and I don't even vaguely know the plot of Sin City - I don't really have the context to know what Frank Miller is doing. So when this character keeps going on about the superiority of American manufacturing, I have no idea if it's a joke. Like - it must be a joke, right? Because American manufacturing is a joke. And when he tells (the fictional) Frank to do it "for his country", that's a parody of other over-serious super heros, right? But I really don't know. Comics can be super nationalistic.
I think that's what weirds me out about this - I have a pretty good eye for satire. I can normally spot the difference between the person sincerely being an idiot and the person pretending to be a sincere idiot. But I'm really not sure with this comic. Again: this could be lack of familiarity with the genre, or it could be a feature of the genre. I would have to read so many more 90s era comics to know.
Anyway, I expect some self awareness in this because the storyline is, like I mentioned, pretty solid. The evil robots at the end aren't just evil; they're trying to get Frank to share some mystical knowledge about what it is to be truly alive. You know, is artificial intelligence the same as life? But I mean, that's pretty standard sci-fi fare (hi, Philip K Dick!) and this doesn't really offer anything new, other than maybe a general acceptance on the part of the human characters. I was a little more interested in Dr. Boiffard's character. He's SUPER SMART and seems to be turning into a giant brain, to the detriment of his humanity. He can't even speak at this point, and apparently lives in a hospital. Evil robots attempt to kidnap him because they need his knowledge. This feels prescient: information is probably the most important commodity that we have. In this case, it is symbolically trapped in a guy's giant brain, because comics. But in the real world it's the internet, right?
I almost turned this into an argument about how, like Dr. Boiffard, we have so much information available at all times that it's taking away our ability to communicate with each other. I don't think that's strictly wrong, but I don't really think it's strictly right, and I definitely do not want to get into that nuanced argument in a review of a comic book from the 90s.
Similarly, I think there's an argument to be made about identity and presentation re: Frank's discomfort without his costume in the opening pages of this volume, but again, this Goodreads review is probably not the place. Or maybe I'm just getting bored. Anyway, this comic: it held up! It's worth reading. Don't take all of my rambling about cynicism / sincerity, the nature of information, etc too seriously. This is book is still mostly nonsense that features a character who is a sentient pile of puke. HILARIOUS!
November 2, 2010
This collection feels more like a series of adventures than an ongoing story. There's a guest appearance from Miller & Darrow's Big Guy, the Chow Yun-Fat simulacrum Chow Skip-Wang, the origin of The Puke, the temporary shrinking of Madman, more hints into his relevance in the universe, and more robot mayhem. Not that any of this is bad, but I would like to get back to a longer story arc.
December 6, 2010
More, more!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews