Bumf Vol. 1 - Softcover

Sacco, Joe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1606997483 ISBN 13: 9781606997482

Publisher: Fantagraphics, 2014

Synopsis

In the vein of the old underground comix like ZAP or Weirdo, author Joe Sacco promises that BUMF will go where it needs to go, and do what it needs to do.” Though world-famous for his serious, journalistic books like Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, and Footnotes in Gaza, Bumf promises to echo back to Sacco’s earlier days as a satirist and underground cartoonist. Bumf is a project that Sacco has been working on in between larger projects like Footnotes in Gaza, indulging his love of satire and cartooning. Often puerile, disgusting, and beyond redemption, Sacco apologized in advance, saying he couldn’t help himself. “They expect better things from me. They’ll never put me on a stamp now.”

About this title

About the Author:

Joe Sacco lives in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of many acclaimed graphic novels, including Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, But I Like It, Notes from a Defeatist, The Fixer, War's End, and Footnotes in Gaza.

Review:

“...Bumf Vol. 1 [is] a surreal, undisciplined, ecstatically offensive bit of political satire by Joe Sacco. ...Sacco’s unearthly skills as a draftsman haven’t abandoned him... BUMF is a scabrous howl from Sacco’s political id.”
- Martin Schneider, Dangerous Minds

“...Bumf remixes images of modern warfare to show our inhumanity. ... The crudity of Bumf clearly has intent: it will offend right-wingers across America. It’s a book with an expert command of an abhorrent style -- and in this is its substance.”
- Yo Zushi, New Statesman

“...Bumf Vol. 1 is a timely reminder that no matter how bad things might look, they’re always worse if you look closer. ...Sacco remains one of our best living cartoonists, and those with a strong stomach are encouraged to brave the horrors within.”
- Tim O'Neil, The A.V. Club

“The bastard child of Hogarth and Robert Crumb, measured it most certainly is not. Scabrous and bitingly satirical, its pages swiftly reduce western foreign policy over the past century to a series of ineffably stupid and calamitously prideful war games, and the US presidency to an airless void of buffoonery and corruption.... Bumf is gross, and vastly entertaining.”
- Rachel Cooke, The Guardian

“...Bumf is a radical, savage and hilarious comic.”
- Chris Hedges, Truthdig

“Here, [Sacco] takes this underground sensibility, inspired by books like Zap and Weirdo, and runs with it much further than he ever could in his more serious books.”
- Rich Barrett, Mental Floss

“The spirit of Bumf is not the arrogant disdain typical of satire but a crushing anguish. ... If Bumf doesn’t garner the sort of broad attention and acclaim that Sacco’s previous works have it won’t be because of any lack of passion, imagination, or artistry, but because it’s expressing something that’s genuinely painful.”
- R. Fiore, The Comics Journal

“Sacco’s return to satire after years of steely-eye reportage has been informed by his journey as a journalist, resulting in a brutally acidic, profane, and stunning assault on American politics, exceptionalism, and overall image. Sacco takes as much time taking shots at himself as a reporter and cartoonist as he does in conflating Richard Nixon with Barack Obama in a surreal, grim, but still funny evisceration.”
- Rob Clough, The Comics Journal

“Knowing where Sacco has been, knowing what he’s seen and drawn humans do to each other, and having seen him talk about his experiences in conflict areas when he was at Erlangen this June, makes this furious indictment of the United States’s human-rights violations infinitely more terrifying and disturbing. This is satire all right, but not the funny kind. It’s ugly, it’s haunting and it’s going to send chills down your spine.”
- Marc-Oliver Frisch, Comiks Debris

“It’s a cracking, wonderfully sick slice of satire, the sort of satire that has a ragged edge to it to leave an open, oozing wound afterwards, not a clean slice or cut, and even when some scenes make you laugh you’ll also feel guilty and uncomfortable because of what else is going on. And you should. An unusual, funny (filthy too) and darkly satirical work from one of our most acclaimed comics creators, prodding the dark underbelly of Western foreign policy to see what comes out.”
- Joe Gordon, Forbidden Planet International

About this edition

• Publisher: Fantagraphics
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1606997483
• ISBN 13: 9781606997482
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120