Showcase Presents Ambush Bug: Volume 1

With the exception of the regular cast of characters (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk), the first real comic-book hero that I became a real geeky, I’m-better-than-you-because-you-don’t-know-who-this-is fan of was the bizarro cult icon Ambush Bug.

It was around 1985 and I was living in a small town in Texas called Blooming Grove. There was a small, mom-and-pop video store that sold stacks of comics — literal stacks, with no rhyme or reason — and because my dad was chief of police, they always gave use free rentals and, every Friday, free comics. My brother and I picked up the weirdest stuff, from THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE: BOOK OF THE DEAD to the Jack Chick/fever-dream retelling of the Apocalypse in his CRUSADERS series. I even picked up a copy of a Mexican Spidey reprint where “El Hombre Araña” weds Mary Jane (Marijuana?), complete with pin-up poster.

One day, when shuffling through cardboard boxes of the latest scrounged-together issues, I found an incomplete set of the first limited-edition series of AMBUSH BUG — #1 and #3, if I recall. While, at the time, I didn’t get half of it, I still found it to be different enough to be enthralled and captivated by the silliness of the whole thing. I must have traced Mitsu Bishi a million times that fall.

Those two issues, along with a small handful of others, are really the only comics I have left from my childhood. Between the pencil markings and my name and address written on the cover, they are worth absolutely nothing, unless you count sentimental value, in which case, to me, they are priceless. Since then, I’ve picked up a stray copy or two of other AMBUSH BUG comics when I could find them in a bargain bin here or there, but more often than not, I just had to be happy to dig out those old issues and re-read them when a nostalgic mood strikes, wistfully enjoying the plot and character holes of not knowing anything about the guy except for what I held in my hands.

Besides … no one remembers Ambush Bug but me, right?

I thought so, until, like, four months after the fact, I learned that DC Comics, in its grand wisdom, has put them all into the highly affordable, highly fun SHOWCASE PRESENTS AMBUSH BUG: VOLUME 1 trade paperback, from his first appearance as a murderous (!) villain in DC COMICS PRESENTS #52 (featuring the new Doom Patrol) to his team-ups with Superman and Supergirl, through his numerous miniseries and even a stocking stuffer or two.

I never knew that Buggy had such a long and varied career! Even though a lot of the humor is pretty dated and a working knowledge of the most minute aspects of the DC Universe are required, creator Keith Giffen, scripter Robert Loren Fleming and inker Bob Oskner comprise a Holy Trinity of the best satire DC has to offer, with absurd laughs dripping off of every page.

This SHOWCASE collection is everything I remember and more. Even better, this isn’t the nostalgia talking — this is a really solid, hilarious sojourn into the lesser-known, wackier side of DC that, yes, only the most hardcore of comic readers will “get.” But for those of us who do, this might as well be known as the Green Gospel. —Louis Fowler

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF KEITH GIFFEN:
• 52: VOLUME ONE by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen
• 52: VOLUME TWO by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen
• 52: VOLUME THREE by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen
• 52: VOLUME FOUR by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen

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About Louis Fowler

Louis is a pop culture critic who hosts the DAMAGED HEARING radio show on KRFC-FM in Fort Collins, Colo.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Rod Lott November 30, 2009 at 8:16 am: I am halfway through reading this one, having never read the character before. I’m finding it both amusing and annoying. Some of the art is absolutely indecipherable in black-and-white.

Steve: I tried reading 7th Sigma in early 2011, and could get past the first few chapters… completely...
Matthew: The original GTO was hilarious, but it ran too long and became repitive.
Slade Grayson: Finally! Leonard’s last few novels have disappointed me. Glad to see that he’s maybe...
Scott Pinzon: This is great fun. So, will you guarantee a review on Bookgasm if I write a novel titled Solar Plexus?
Fred Zackel: I picked this up at the library and started reading to see if I wanted to borrow it. Got about thirty...

Showcase Presents Ambush Bug: Volume 1

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