The Biologic Show

Infobox comic book title
title = The Biologic Show


imagesize=175
caption = Cover of "The Biologic Show" #0
schedule =
format =
publisher = Fantagraphics Books
date = 1994 - 1995
issues = 2
main_char_team =
writers = Al Columbia
artists = Al Columbia
pencillers =
inkers =
colorists =
creative_team_month =
creative_team_year =
creators =
subcat=Fantagraphics Books
sort=PAGENAME

"The Biologic Show" is a comic book series written and drawn by Al Columbia and published by Fantagraphics Books. The first issue, #0, was released in 1994, and a second issue, #1, was released a year later. An issue #2 was solicited in "Previews" and announced in the pages of other Fantagraphics publications but was never published.

The comic's title is taken from a passage in the William S. Burroughs book "Exterminator!" (in the chapter "Short Trip Home"). The passage is briefly quoted at the beginning of the story "The Biologic Show" in issue #0, one of several references to Burroughs in Columbia's early work.

Each issue of "The Biologic Show" contains several short stories and illustrated poems. #0 introduces three of Columbia's recurring characters: the hapless, Koko the Clown-like Seymour Sunshine in the opening comic "No Tomorrow If I Must Return" and the brother/sister duo Pim and Francie in "Tar Frogs" (a story which first appeared in the UK magazine "Deadline"). Issue #1 is dominated by the 16-page "Peloria: Part One", intended as the first installment of a never-completed graphic novel. It introduces a third character, Knishkebibble the Monkey-Boy, who reappears in Columbia's later comics.

Much of the material in "The Biologic Show" deals with unsettling subject matter such as mutilation, incest, and the occult. Kieron Gillen has characterized the series as "comics transgression in its purest form." [Gillen, Kieron. [http://www.ninthart.com/display.php?article=464 "Everybody Be Cool: Crossing the Line".] "Ninth Art". Accessed November 3, 2007.]

Reactions to the series were mixed. One critic lambasted issue #0 as "an array of senselessness ... transparent as a ghost and feigning substance"; [Aliberti, Vincent. Review of "The Biologic Show" No. 0. "Crash: The Quarterly Comic Book Review" Volume 1 #2, Winter 1995, 62.] another called it "a big, visceral, messy masterwork". [Pryor, Marshall. "Young Cartoonist Profiles: Al Columbia", "The Comics Journal" #205, June 1998, 80.] It was also highly praised by other alternative comics creators including Mike Allred and Jim Woodring.

Along with his stories printed in "Zero Zero" and "BLAB!", the two issues of "The Biologic Show" comprise Columbia's best-known and most-acclaimed solo works. They are also among his most readily obtainable comics due to multiple reprintings.

Contents

Issue #0

# "No Tomorrow If I Must Return Starring Seymour Sunshine"
# "Self-Titled Instructional Version" (aka "The Biologic Show")
# "Grinding Larry"
# "Over"
# "Extinction"
# "The Low-Born Peacock"
# "Li'l Saint Anthony"
# "Bruja"
# "Tar Frogs: A Pim and Francie Adventure"

Issue #1

# "Peloria: Part One (A Pim and Francie Adventure)"
# Seymour Sunshine Debris
## "Slow Machine"
## "Castigian"
## "The Hellbound Bellydancer"
# "Ersatz (A Family Name)"

Notes

External links

* [http://www.maths.tcd.ie/local/JUNK/mmm/Alternative/TheBiologicShow0.html Review of "The Biologic Show" #0]
* [http://www.monotremata.com/dead/archive/book_reviews/a-e_reviews.html Review of "The Biologic Show" #1]

__NOTOC__