Book Reviews from the Staff of the Poison Pie Publishing House

July 24, 2017

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 7, first printing July, 2017.

Bumperboy Gets Angry!
The seventh and final volume of the graphic novel Bumperboy Gets Angry! by Debbie Huey was published this month, providing a climactic conclusion to the epic that began with the publication of volume 1 in 2012. Over the past five years, the staff at the Poison Pie Publishing House have celebrated the arrival in the mail of each volume of this all-ages comic. In this review, we provide a few thoughts and share more than a few scans of the books and various associated ephemera.

Warning: this review contains mildly spoiled spoilers!

Since our first exposure to Bumberboy in the award-winning Bumberboy Loses His Marbles (2005), we have followed the exploits of Bumberboy. One of the exciting aspects of the arrival of a Bumperboy book in the mail was the individually illustrated bubble mailer that contained the contents of the order. In this review, we couldn't resist the temptation to also showcase some of the envelopes that appeared in our mailbox.

A bubble mailer from bumperboy.net, featuring no lesser hero than Bumperboy himself, date stamped February 19, 2008.

In the grand tradition of other fantasy epics (one need think no further than C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia or J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter) Ms. Huey chose to deliver Bumperboy Gets Angry! in seven volumes. Each volume is a hand-stapled minicomic ranging from 28 to 32 pages (with the exception of volume 5 which was 20 pages). Each volume features a color cover and a black and white interior. Below, we say a little bit about each volume individually.

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 1, first printing July, 2012.

A bubble mailer from bumperboy.net, featuring a smiling Bumperboy, date stamped July 30, 2009.

Bumperboy Gets Angry! begins with folks getting angry for no reason, transforming Bubtopia into Grumptopia. It took concentrating on nice thoughts, like going to the library, to put Bumperboy in the right frame of mind to solve the mystery. The bibliophiles at the Poison Pie Publishing House (PPPH) completely sympathized with the calming appeal of the library.

A bubble mailer from bumperboy.net, featuring Bumperpup, date stamped September 24, 2012.

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 2, first printing February, 2013.

In volume 2, Bumperboy and Bumperpup borp! over to Frederik's lab. The bird, usually a nemesis, is unusually helpful. Our heroes are also introduced to the girl with the weird history, Jillian of Shadow Bay! (We suspected, based on the eye patch, that there might be piracy in her history. However, we have other friends with eye patches that have never had anything to do with pirates. In any case, we had to wait half a year to find out.)

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 3, first printing July, 2013.

A bubble mailer from bumperboy.net, featuring Frederik, date stamped April 16, 2013.

As they travel through Shadow Forest in Volume 3, Jillian tells Bumperboy and Bumperpup the story of her youth aboard the pirate ship, the Flying Fario and her later life with the gangs of Shadow Bay. We at the PPPPH didn't know what a fario was but we looked it up on googly and discovered that it is a multi-talented word that can be randomly substituted for any other word to mean anything at all. What the fario!

The bubble mailer for Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 4, featuring Captain Heel of the Bad Boots Brigade, date stamped July 21, 2014.

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 4, first printing July, 2014.

Investigations in Shadow Bay suggest something is amiss in Volume 4. Some underwater reconnaissance leads to a discovery--an elusive quintopus! OMG! At the PPPH, we love books with new monsters and fantastic beasts. As proof, we link to a survey that we assembled of over one hundred bestiaries, which includes our own A Bestiary of East Tennessee illustrated in felt.

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 5, first printing July, 2015.

The bubble mailer for Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 5, featuring Gordy, date stamped July 06, 2015.

In volume 5, Jillian, Bumperboy and Bumperpup team back up with Gordy for some championship-level library research. OMFario! What an amazing coincidence. At the PPPH, we (have we mentioned?) love libraries too!

The bubble mailer for Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 6, featuring "the cat" (sans whiskers), date stamped July 16, 2016.

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 6, first printing July, 2016.

A return to Shadow Bay and some sweet diplomacy on Jillian's part in Volume 6 unite the gangs against the real enemy of the quintopus...the pirates of the Flying Fario.

The cover of Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 7, first printing July, 2017.

The bubble mailer for Bumperboy Gets Angry! Volume 7, date stamped July 17, 2017.

In volume 7, the grand finale serves up action galore. Can you say x-ray vision and fire arrows at the same time? Probably not, but far be it from us to stop you from trying.

Mr. Joseph Keffer, the inspiration behind The Mushroomnomicon, says of the Bumperboy Gets Angry! epic:
My favorite issue was the first one because I loved seeing all the normally happy characters of Bubtopia react to the mysterious situation. What in the world could have made Gordy say, "I hate socks!"?

Ms. Ruth Marie Keffer, the inspiration behind The Fairienomicon, says of the Bumperboy Gets Angry! epic:
My favorite issue was the last one because it had a happy ending but I can't say anymore about it since I don't want to spoil it. (Sorry.)

The inaugural A Good Book for Almost Everyone! Award from the Poison Pie Publishing House.

In appreciation of the various virtues of Bumperboy Gets Angry!, the staff at the PPPH created A Good Book for Almost Everyone! Award. Debbie Huey's Bumperboy Gets Angry! is the first recipient of this prestigious award. Why isn't the book for everyone? There is no accounting for taste. Some birds (Frederik, anyone?) might choose not to like the book just to be stubborn. Congratulations, Bumperboy!

Bumperboy approved business card and other buttony swag!

A borp! postcard from bumperboy.net.