Big Baby (CHARLES BURNS LIBRARY SC)

If you're even looking, just buy it. Unbelievably awesome. I also have the single-issue color edition of "Curse ofthe Molemen" (one of the stories contained in this volume), which is cool, but this hardcover (black and white original art) is a great coffee-table book to put out when your weird friends visit. They should do a coloring-book edition of this for the demented man-children out there.

I've never read a bad comic by Charles Burns; The art is incredible and his storytelling is subtle, smart, and engaging. I consider him one of the top five cartoonists working today (Dan Clowes, R. Crumb, Adrienne Tomine, and Chris Ware being the others) and "Big Baby" is another fine example of his talent. As always with contemporary comic books, it's a bit expensive for about a half hour of reading, but it inspires immediate rereading and is just too good to miss. Highly recommended.

Very pleased with the condition of the copy I received. The delivery time was also shorter than the expectation I got. Overall I was very pleased.

Charles Burns knows what's goin' on. I love his high contrast, terrifying imagery. He doesn't explain more to you than necessary, and just tells you some terrifying, awesome stories. Big Baby is a few stories, with one that kind of inspired Black Hole.

THIS is the artist (Charles Burns) who SHOULD have been hired to contine "Dick Tracy" when Chester Gould retired, damn it!

Having read Hard-Boiled Defective Stories (a.k.a. El Borbah) and Skin Deep, I can now see how Big Baby fits into this trilogy of early Charles Burns books. It's the second volume. They're all different and each stand apart, but loosely speaking, they belong together. This one's my favorite.The book begins with Curse of the Molemen, a 32-page one-shot first published by RAW (1986) and reprinted by Kitchen Sink Press (1991). Tony Delmonto, a.k.a. Big Baby, is playing in a tree when he sees a pool being dug in his neighbor's backyard. One of the workmen tells Tony they're digging for treasure, piquing his interest. From his bedroom window, Tony sees some strange goings-on at night and, his imagination fueled by a late-night TV creepshow, he feels compelled to investigate.The next two stories were originally published in a weekly syndicated strip before being reprinted in collected form. In Teen Plague (RAW Vol. 2 #1), Tony's love for creepy comics causes him to suspect that a hickey on his babysitter's neck is actually the mark of the almighty Kaballa-Bonga, an alien intent on reproducing itself through the amorous pursuits of teenagers. With her boyfriend showing signs of a real ‘teen plague’, is Tony's suspicion far off? In Blood Club (Kitchen Sink, 1992), Tony and his friend Sam spend a month away at Camp Watakoma, where gruff, intimidating counselors, chilling campfire stories, and a ‘blood brother’ initiation are all part of the everyday experience. A nearby girls’ camp and a furtively-stashed skin mag add to the mix. And what about the ghost of that long-lost camper who's rumored to haunt the island at the center of Lake Lakootie?There are a lot of themes and motifs in these stories that would be re-explored in later works like Black Hole, and Big Baby works well as a main character with a distinct point of view; he's a little naive and out-of-step with his environment but very imaginative and not afraid of poking around into unfamiliar areas. In fact, his imagination sometimes makes us question whether what he's experiencing is real or the product of a uniquely overstimulated young mind. An early, introductory two-page story (from RAW #5) kicks off this collection, and an epilogue reflects on the character's evolution and publication history, including covers and other materials. The next book, Skin Deep, picks up where this book leaves off but quickly moves onto other characters.

Not what I expected

This collection of Charles Burns' Big Baby stories is seriously out of this world - Burns' style marries the innocence of Tony "Big Baby" Delmonte himself (a sweet boy whose mask-like face passes unnoticed & unmolested) in a dark terror world of sinister faces and landscapes that is at once surrealistic while also bracingly realistic. Burns' unique stylisation is instantly recognisable, and his portrayal of sinister classic monster figures is a clear inspiration to Rob Zombie's early artwork for White Zombie.This over-sized collection shows Burns' art in all its glory, and contains four tales in glorious white on black, ranging in length from two pages ("Big Baby") to 22 pages ("Teen Plague"), to 32 pages ("Curse of the Molemen" and "Blood Club"). Each tale is brilliant. As a bonus, there's also an epilogue with some images from the history of the publication of Big Baby, as well as Tintin reference in the inner pages (with their portraits of characters from Big Baby, just like in the hardcover Tintin books) and a depiction of a back cover that is reminiscent of the back covers of Tintin books. Great!"Big Baby" is a short depiction of our hero playing with his toy soldiers. Nice. "Curse of the Molemen" is a super cool tale of Big Baby's moleman fantasies intersecting with developments with the wife-beating creep next door. Everything's dark, even scenes in the daytime, and each panel is inky and doused in the sinister - even Big Baby's night light! Great depiction of B-list horror movies and gruesome fright comics. It's almost an innocent prototype of the Stranger Things world, or something from Donnie Darko. Great. "Teen Plague" is an amazing babysitter story blended with alien invasion (the alien is a prototype for Monsters Inc's Mike Wazowski, with a bit of Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons). The amazing horror of Big Baby's rich fantasy life somehow perfectly dovetails with events of real life, nearly unnoticed by Tony himself as he carries on his childish delusion. We know better, which makes it brilliant... or do we!? "Kaballa-bonga!!" The last story, "Blood Club" is a sort of ultra-noir detective story about mysterious goings-on at a summer camp for boys. There's a ghost who's just chilling. Of course, Tony takes it all in stride. Brilliant.

Um bom livro de Burns que, apesar de ter suas qualidades, eu a encaro como um aperitivo para a muito mais sólida, complexa e interessante que é  Black Hole .Alguns dos temas que apareceriam em ‘Black Hole’ são antecipadas nesta edição, bem como seus personagens um pouco excêntricos. A começar pelo protagonista, um menino com cara meio alienígena – só que inteligente e que age e pensa como uma criança, com uma caracterização bem conduzida por Burns.Ela é composta por quatro histórias:- Big baby: duas páginas, apenas a introdução do personagem- Maldição das toupeiras: trinta páginas, uma história doméstica com monstros e esquisitices, interessante, mas nada de excepcional- Peste juvenil: vinte páginas, parece um conto no estilo de Black Hole, a melhor história do volume- Clube de Sangue, trinta páginas, acampamento de férias mais um fantasma, parece um episódio de Além da imaginação com as idiossincrasias de Burns, bem divertida.A edição da DarkSide continua primorosa, com um bom papel e uma capa linda. Só achei o preço cheio muito alto (R$ 59,90), uma vez que o volume possui apenas 100 páginas e pode ser lida rapidamente. As contracapas simulando os painéis do Tintim achei uma sacada ótima, não sei se é algo da DarkSide ou do autor.Em resumo, este é um livro a ser comprado sem medo em uma das promoções periódicas da DarkSide! Mas apenas para os que já leram antes o Magnum opus de Burns “Black Hole”, bem mais denso e bem acabado que este volume de formação do autor. Black Hole

present for son at xmas and he's happy with it

Acabei de receber, a qualidade é a do padrão Darkside que conhecemos, não há do que reclamar, só achei estranho q ele veio aberto, sem o plástico q lacra o livro (geralmente vem em livros novos). Sobre o tamanho do álbum, eu esperava que fosse maior, assim como a versão gringa, mas admito q preferi assim (menorzinho), pois tem o mesmo tamanho q o Black Hole, assim fica melhor para organizar na estante. As estórias são curtas porém bem legais (se não me engano elas foram originalmente publicadas na revista RAW), uma delas é praticamente um prelúdio do q viria ser black hole, ótimo material, indispensável para quem curte o trabalho do Charles Burns.

Dá pra entender o intuito dessa obra do Burns logo de cara. Um escape à negatividade e ao niilismo cada vez mais presente em nosso dia a dia e nas histórias que lemos, ouvimos ou assistimos. O Big Baby conquista o leitor nisso: sagas confortáveis e inocentes, mas que sempre te deixam na dúvida se a história vai mesmo dar o próximo passo e se tornar austera e horripilante. Esse é um grande fator que te prende nas histórias. No fim das contas, ele opta pelo fator lúdico — o que é excelente.Uma baita HQ.

Comprei este volume sem muitas expectativas , porém confesso que as histórias acabaram me surpreendendo. Se tratam de histórias fantásticas, que ora beiram o surreal e outras muitas vezes são de terror. Uma coisa interessante neste volume é que uma das histórias faz uma introdução ao que viria ser o Black Hole, outro volume muito bom e que eu também recomendo a compra a você que curte umas histórias de terror.