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Tales From The Bully Pulpit
Most American presidents are given, at most, a period of eight years in which to protect a single country. But unknown to the public at large, one rough-riding president took it upon himself to protect the whole known universe -- for the entire expanse of time. What do a man who was formerly president and an inventor who was formerly alive get up to when they otain a stolen time machine? Science, that's what. Teddy Roosevelt and the ghost of Thomas Edison travel to the far-flung future on a wager, only to discover the terrible secret of space! It's a rough and tumble tale of science with both fists as our two heroes race through time to liberate the Red Planet from it foreign invaders.
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
64 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
About the author
Benito Cereno
82 books7 followersComics writer, Latin knower, folklore liker, Kentucky boy, Christmas enthusiast.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 18, 2019
Tales from the Bully Pulpit is a short graphic novel published more than a decade ago that's about Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Edison travelling to Mars and fighting alien Nazis across time and space. It's apparently incredibly rare, and supposedly a sequel is set to be published, but considering the fact that we haven't received updates from Cereno about his plans for said sequel in about fourteen years, I doubt we'll ever be blessed with a follow-up to this a strange adventure.
Oh, and, yes, I only picked this up because it sounded cool. Can you blame me, though?
I don't know if I'm the right kind of person to be reviewing a sixty-page comic book, but, you know, from an author's point of view, I can see why this hasn't received a sequel. The political chaos here is...pretty outdated, even if the premise is literally about killing Martian fascists! I'm not going to
pursue my exact thoughts on how Teddy's fight against Nazism is portrayed here, because this was never meant to be a comic meant to be taken seriously in the chance of Nazis getting a rise in power all over again (ha, ha, ha) but there are quite a few elements of Tales From The Bully Pulpit that only make it more apparent that this would have been a tough premise to execute properly today, as fantastically insane as the sound of such a magnificent historical crossover is. (In particular, I'm side-eyeing the part where all the defenders of democracy are revealed to be white men. I mean, come on, this is set in a universe where nothing make sense. Why pick the most generic lineup of vaguely progressive dudes known to mankind? I might be nitpicking here, but really...)
At the end of the day, though, I don't care all that much. Tales From The Bully Pulpit isn't really the magnificent conceptual story that I assumed it would be, but it is pretty bonkers, and it is pretty fun, even if that isn't all that up to date. Go try to find it if you're a nerd.
Oh, and, yes, I only picked this up because it sounded cool. Can you blame me, though?
I don't know if I'm the right kind of person to be reviewing a sixty-page comic book, but, you know, from an author's point of view, I can see why this hasn't received a sequel. The political chaos here is...pretty outdated, even if the premise is literally about killing Martian fascists! I'm not going to
pursue my exact thoughts on how Teddy's fight against Nazism is portrayed here, because this was never meant to be a comic meant to be taken seriously in the chance of Nazis getting a rise in power all over again (ha, ha, ha) but there are quite a few elements of Tales From The Bully Pulpit that only make it more apparent that this would have been a tough premise to execute properly today, as fantastically insane as the sound of such a magnificent historical crossover is. (In particular, I'm side-eyeing the part where all the defenders of democracy are revealed to be white men. I mean, come on, this is set in a universe where nothing make sense. Why pick the most generic lineup of vaguely progressive dudes known to mankind? I might be nitpicking here, but really...)
At the end of the day, though, I don't care all that much. Tales From The Bully Pulpit isn't really the magnificent conceptual story that I assumed it would be, but it is pretty bonkers, and it is pretty fun, even if that isn't all that up to date. Go try to find it if you're a nerd.
November 10, 2020
Teddy Roosevelt teams up with the ghost of Thomas Edison for a time travelling adventure where they fight Nazis on mars! I'm a Benito Cereno fan generally, so I was in the bag for this. Charming, silly, and fun. A light snack of dorky sci fi comedy with a few glints of real brilliance.
It does feel very much Of Another Time, reading this in 2020. Nazis as goofball cartoon villains instead of, like, half your uncles. A casual jokey R-slur (which I'm sure 2020 Benito wholeheartedly regrets) in the middle of a totally good natured and edgeless romp. To be honest, even a strong-jawed heroic cartoon American president feels weirdly distasteful in light of all the hardcore reevaluation of America and American history we've all been doing the past few years. Glad I checked it out, but one of those things that was clearly originally intended to be a completely inoffensive good time which now feels almost naïve in a current cultural context.
That said, I love me some Benito and I'm gonna read bunches more of his stuff.
It does feel very much Of Another Time, reading this in 2020. Nazis as goofball cartoon villains instead of, like, half your uncles. A casual jokey R-slur (which I'm sure 2020 Benito wholeheartedly regrets) in the middle of a totally good natured and edgeless romp. To be honest, even a strong-jawed heroic cartoon American president feels weirdly distasteful in light of all the hardcore reevaluation of America and American history we've all been doing the past few years. Glad I checked it out, but one of those things that was clearly originally intended to be a completely inoffensive good time which now feels almost naïve in a current cultural context.
That said, I love me some Benito and I'm gonna read bunches more of his stuff.
August 28, 2018
What does one even begin to say about this magnificent, irreverent, and wonderful comic. If you feel down, just read this. You will feel better.
February 17, 2009
Maybe a bit too non-serious for my taste, but greatly funny historical-characters-as-super-heroes story.
Teddy Roosevelt and the ghost of Thomas Edison travel through time and space on a big adventure, saving innocents from not-so-innocents. They travel from Nazi-control South America to Mars, saving the day!
Slight spoilers (but it was this plot point that led to track down the book in the first place) - My favorite part: the inclusion of other historical characters in the all-out fight at the end, particularily Ben "Poor Richard's Almanack predicts a hailstorm of fist coming your way" Franklin and Abe "I'm gonna emancipate your teeth" Lincoln.
Teddy Roosevelt and the ghost of Thomas Edison travel through time and space on a big adventure, saving innocents from not-so-innocents. They travel from Nazi-control South America to Mars, saving the day!
Slight spoilers (but it was this plot point that led to track down the book in the first place) - My favorite part: the inclusion of other historical characters in the all-out fight at the end, particularily Ben "Poor Richard's Almanack predicts a hailstorm of fist coming your way" Franklin and Abe "I'm gonna emancipate your teeth" Lincoln.
November 6, 2015
Hilarious, witty, and smart in its wordplay, knowledge of history (this is 2004, the internet wasn't the wealth of knowledge it currently is, to be fair), and their analysis of past expectations of modern technology, peoples' tendancy to twist or forget history, a satire of the concept of racism, and a fun time-traveling romp that could've made for a fantastic series, and feels like it was headed in that direction before poor sales happened.
August 17, 2011
This was the best random comics purchase I ever made in my entire life. MY ENTIRE LIFE.
March 31, 2017
That was psychotic. Psychotically awesome!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews