the bus 3

by Paul Kirchner

64 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2025

About the author

Paul Kirchner is an American writer and illustrator born in New Haven, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Kirchner's surreal comic strip - the bus - was a staple of Heavy Metal during its heyday (1979-85). A simple premise of a bespectacled middle-aged man waiting for his daily bus ride, though each time the strip would devolve into highly absurd scenarios. The humor was always laced into the illustration, since the strip itself was almost entirely wordless. So without the use of punchlines and puns, Kirchner relied primarily on delivering the humor effectively through the artwork - and it was remarkable how frequently this strip would produce laughs in a rather sophisticated manner. A clever comic strip that allowed itself to go lowbrow when needed, but also unafraid to swing for it with increasingly bizarre scenarios.

It's remarkable that decades later, Kirchner is still doing the strip. The recent relaunch of Heavy Metal features one of these new strips, but the bigger collection is now available through Tanibis (who also published The Bus and The Bus 2 ).

This collection opens with the history of buses, told in Kirchner's typical droll humor. This is perhaps the most words in the whole collection as Kirchner describes the "phylogeny" of the bus, starting from Ancient Egypt to the discovery of the steam engine. It's the perfect primer for what the bus is, an easy way for readers to acclimate to a new generation of strips. What follows is the return of the strip - and it's clear that Kirchner has not missed a single beat. The usual 6-8 panel layout returns with the use of meticulous cross-hatching and stippling, precise lines and wonderfully absurd premises. I cannot tell the difference between the bus strips made from the original run to now, so that just goes to show how much Kirchner has still got in his tank.

Not all strips gather the same level of laughs or amusement, but the experimental design of the strip still makes me marvel at the depths of Kirchner's creativity. I'm firmly of the opinion that Paul Kirchner's the bus belongs in the ranks of the great comic strips of all time. There is no continuity, no serialization, no narrative here, so anyone is welcome to take the bus whenever they please and enjoy the ride.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picture this: a man standing by a bus stop. It's been 10 years since the last bus passed, and yet he hasn't moved a muscle since. Waiting, patiently, for the next bus.

It's here !! It's finally here !!! Paul Kirchner really did it again. It's such a dumb, simple concept and he somehow squeezed three books out of it. And the craziest part is the quality never falters.

True to the rest of the series, this third entry explores the inescapable hell that are bus rides, through absurd one pagers featuring our three favorite protagonists: the man, the bus, and the bus driver.

Only read this if you like meta-textual, self-referential narratives. Will you dare take another ride on the bus ?

[Aidan Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Kirchner is quickly becoming one of my favorite cartoonists ever. Everything about the Bus series is so well done. He feels sort of like a comic artist's comic artist in a way in that the more you know about the craft the more you can appreciate the difficulty of what he does while making every strip feel extremely accessible and enjoyable to read.