Bean Spotting – American Elf March 2, 2009

A cute passing reference to Beanworld appeared recently in James Kochalka’s American Elf daily sketchbook comic strip.



Click here for the full strip, and thanks as always to expert Bean-spotter Shield Bonnichsen for the heads-up.

Bean Spotting – Savage Dragon #41 [1997]

Hey, take a look at this page by Erik Larsen page from SAVAGE DRAGON #41 [1997], a big wedding issue where a lot of characters from various creator-owned books show up (like the DNAgents, E-Man, Flaming Carrot and Zot), and of course where villains crash the party. Can you spot Mr. Spook?





Took me a while, too. Here’s a close-up, along with Ted the Bug from Jeff Smith’s BONE.



The cameo probably appears in the various collected reprints that include this issue.

Bean Spotting – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #15 [1988]

 Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were probably the biggest phenomenon in self-publishing of the 1980s, coming from nowhere to become a multi-media empire that you couldn’t get away from in a few short years. The original book is actually quite a bit different from the more mainstream version of the characters, and I’ve enjoyed the bits of it I’ve read, both by the original creators and several of those who came in later.

Couple of amusing little Bean references in TMNT #15 from 1988. In the story, by Peter Laird and Jim Lawson, the Turtles visit a comic book shop, and one of them scores a great find:

And on the back cover there’s a painting of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird and their creations in a very cluttered studio, full of great stuff including some artwork on the wall, such as this:

Slightly more nebulous, but the robotic villains of the story, seen below, have certain design elements which suggest Marder style Beans.

The in-story reference is presumably present on the many reprints this story has likely seen in the last two decades. I don’t know if the back cover has ever been reprinted.

Thanks to Bean Spotter extraordinaire Shield Bonnichsen for pointing these out and providing the scans.

Bean Spotting – Marvels #3 [1994]

Marvels #3 [1994]
by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross

You can tell I’m running close to the end of these when I get to one like this…

MARVELS was one of the big song and dance super-hero production numbers of 1994, and was also a comic where Kurt Busiek decided that he would have actual text in the prop newspapers that appeared in the book, rather than “lorem ipsum” type text. And I guess after writing enough of that he went batty. So this page featuring some newspapers on the day after Galactus’ first invasion of Earth feature some rather odd text hidden in the corner, proclaiming that “Larry Marder is God” and apparently something about the UN declaring him to be the “nexus of…” [all comic book realities, presumably].

If you can take the squinting, the J. Jonah Jameson editorial speculating that the whole “Galactus invasion” was a hoax is worth reading as well, especially toward the end, where he starts ranting about that guy on a surfboard. The rest of MARVELS is worth a read as well.

This column was presumably present in all the myriad reprints of MARVELS that have come out since.

Bean Spotting – The Cartoonist #1 [1997]

The Cartoonist #1 [1997]
by Teri S. Wood

This comic collects Teri Wood’s comic strip “The Cartoonist”, which appeared in AMAZING HEROES from 1989 to 1993. Included are the two with Beanworld/Marder references, originally from AH #176 and AH #185. See the respective pages for more on each strip. Mr. Spook also appears on the cover, as part of a collage of images from the various strips.

You can find out more about Teri Wood and her comic book work, including WANDERING STAR, over at her website.

Bean Spotting – Amazing Heroes #176 [1990]

Amazing Heroes #176 [1990]
“The Cartoonist” by Teri S. Wood

Another entry in this list from Teri Wood, best known for her work on comics like WANDERING STAR and RHUDIPRRT, PRINCE OF FUR. From her regular humour strip based on current comics for AMAZING HEROES from 1989 to 1992 called “The Cartoonist”, featuring her (as an animated signature) interacting with a young woman named Silver and whatever comic characters she felt like poking fun at that issue. Very minor mention of Marder as the source for the swiped bean that grew Silver’s plant. The plant would continue to appear in a few strips, until Swamp Thing shows up and grows a new body out of it a few issues later.

The whole sequence of strips and others were reprinted in the 1997 published THE CARTOONIST #1 from Sirius.

Bean Spotting – Army Surplus Komikz Featuring Cutey Bunny #3 [1984]

Army Surplus Komikz Featuring Cutey Bunny #3 [1984]
by Joshua Quagmire

Here’s one that takes some squinting. There’s a pile of comics on the floor on the first page of this Cutey Bunny story, with all sorts of real and imagined comics of the mid-1980s. Among them, next to a NEXUS and below a SPIRIT is an issue of BEANWORLD.

Read more about Joshua Quagmire and his creations over at his website.

Bean Spotting – The Mighty Magnor #3 [1993]

The Mighty Magnor #3 [1993]
by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier

Mr. Spook and his Trusty Fork make a brief cameo almost right in the middle of this insanely crowded double page comic convention scene in the Evanier/Aragones super-hero parody comic THE MIGHTY MAGNOR. Other notables to look out for are a few Groo characters, the Flaming Carrot and Cerebus, plus comic book creators like Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, the crew from MAD MAGAZINE, Stan Sakai and the Evanier/Aragones team themselves.

Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier have had long careers in comic both together and separately, most well known together for over 150 issues of GROO THE WANDERER for almost as many publishers (soon to return after a long hiatus with a new special and mini-series from Dark Horse).

Bean Spotting – Understanding Comics [1993]

Understanding Comics [1993]
by Scott McCloud

Larry Marder is among those credited with “Editorial advice and selective ego-trimming” for Scott McCloud’s breakout 1993 treatise on the comics form, with some elaboration on that in the acknowledgements. McCloud also managed to get two little figures of Beanish in among the large samples of the varied world of comics.

On page 4 it’s literally a world, with a globe representing about a hundred or so samples of comic characters. Beanish is up there on the right edge.

Later in the book, on pages 52 and 53, McCloud presents a more formal study of the world of comics, placing over 100 samples in his triangular plane of reality, meaning and design. Beanish is #6, high and to the right.

LARRY MARDER‘s Beanish from TALES OF THE BEANWORLD. “Resembling” nothing ever seen (hence all the way to the right) Marder’s beans walk the line from design to meaning.

UNDERSTANDING COMICS has seen multiple printings from at least four different publishers and should still be readily available, and is well worth picking up.

Bean Spotting – Zot #34 [1990]

Zot #34 [1990]
By E. Yarber and Matt Feazell

The ultimate Beanworld crossover comes in the form of a six-page backup story in this issue featuring the “Dimension 10 1/2” form of Zot.*

[*ZOT #10 1/2 was a stick-figure mini-comic collaboration by Feazell and Scott McCloud published in the hiatus between ZOT #10 and #11. Feazell continued it as a back-up in ZOT after that, including a full sized special ZOT #14 1/2]

A great little story, a real treat for fans of the two worlds that are colliding. Zot, Jenny and Woody are sailing in a boat with a star on it when they get surrounded by Mystery Pods, which at mid-day is apparently enough to activate some Float Force and transport them to the Thin Lake. They arrive at the Beanworld, which is suffering from Reality Rot, warping the perception of the Beans and everything else. After Zot and friends help by conducting a Chow Raid against some confused Hoi Polloi they take Mr. Spook, Proffy and Beanish back to their world to find a cure. There we get such spectacles as Mr. Spook playing role-playing games (a real problem with his legendary lack of imagination), Proffy encountering junk food (including “Twinks”, “Chips”, “Bars” and “Butts”) and Beanish painting in watercolour, attracting the ire of Jesse Helms (?) before some Goofy Jerks arrive to take them home, explaining that Earth is a Reality Rot magnet so that the Beanworld will now be cured. Enigmatic ways to heal itself, indeed. All of this accompanied with copious footnotes by Beanworld and Zot editor Cat Yronwode.

Brilliant stuff, lots of clever jokes playing off each group of characters, and the artwork is spot on almost to the point that I’m not certain Marder didn’t draw his own characters. If you’re a Beanworld fan this is probably the one outside guest bit that you have to read.

Bean Spotting – Giant-Size Mini Comics #1 [1986]

Giant-Size Mini Comics #1 [1986]

By Mike Bannon

Larry Marder edited this first issue of a sampler of some of the small-press books of the mid-1980s, and drew several pages himself, but those will be covered in another post. For the Bean Spotter this issue, there’s a one-page story called “Tales of the KidneyBeanworld” by Mike Bannon, with a take off on the familiar TotB logo, plus some unusually creepy large and hungry versions of the Beans (with mouths, no less). Weird stuff.

Mike Bannon is best known as the artist for TO BE ANNOUNCED and OOMBAH for Strawberry Jam Comics, some very funny stuff, well worth tracking down.

Bean Spotting – Zot #31 [1990]

Zot #31 [1990]
by Scott McCloud

Oddly enough, this was the first issue of ZOT that I read, and I got it shortly after discovering BEANWORLD and partly picked it up on the strength of the positive mentions of the book that I’d seen in BEANWORLD, as well as Scott McCloud’s introduction to the first BEANWOLD collection. So you can imagine my amusement when seven pages in the character featured this issue, Ronnie, mentions taking his girlfriend to a comic shop to get her BATMAN: YEAR ONE (admittedly a very well drawn comic) and how she almost bought an issue of “that cartoony Bean thing”. Complete with a panel of said girlfriend, Brandy, reading a comic that if you look real close has a scene of Beanish talking to Dreamishness. Now that’s attention to detail.

It’s also a very good comic overall, though probably not the best introduction to the world of Zot, since he barely appears in the story at all, this being in the middle of the excellent “Earth Stories” series, each one spotlighting the normal life of one of the regular teens in the book. Still, it was good enough to get me to read more, and eventually get all 36 issues of the series.

As mentioned before, McCloud went on to big things, and is currently touring the known universe in support of his book MAKING COMICS.

Bean Spotting – Zot #21 [1988]

Zot #21 [1988] (and others)

ad by Rafael Kayanan

1988 was Eclipse’s 10th anniversary, and as part of marking that they had a series of “Ten Years of…” ads focusing on the various types of comics they had published. ZOT #21 (and presumably other books, but this is the one a Beanworld fan is most likely to have) had one of the ads on the back cover, “Ten Years of Personal Vision”, with art by Rafael Kayanan, with many of the creator-owned characters that Eclipse had published. Beanworld is represented front and centre with Mr. Spook, Beanish and a pair of regular Beans. Also included are Zot, Jenny and Dekko from ZOT, Cynical-Man, Reid Fleming and more.

And yes, there is something odd about celebrating the personal vision of these features by having another artist draw the characters. Welcome to the dichotomy that was Eclipse…

Bean Spotting – Amazing Heroes #185 [1990]

Amazing Heroes #185 [1990]
“The Cartoonist” by Teri S. Wood

Teri Wood, best known for her work on comics like WANDERING STAR and RHUDIPRRT, PRINCE OF FUR, did a regular humour strip based on current comics for AMAZING HEROES from 1989 to 1992 called “The Cartoonist”, featuring her (as an animated signature) interacting with a young woman named Silver and whatever comic characters she felt like poking fun at that issue. One of my favourite was from #185, when Silver was transformed into a Bean for a guest spot by Mr. Spook. She captures the look of her character transformed to Bean form perfectly, and makes a nice Beanworld-centric joke which is probably still funny to those who don’t know the series.

This strip and others were reprinted in the 1997 published THE CARTOONIST #1 from Sirius.

Bean Spotting – Total Eclipse #4 [1989]

Total Eclipse #4 [1989]
Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz

Beanish became a surprisingly crucial part of this crossover series of many of the characters published by Eclipse, and the events became an important part of Beanworld lore as well. Marder explains how this came about in the third collection of TALES OF THE BEANWORLD, which reprints the Beanworld half of the crossover. For the actual TOTAL ECLIPSE series, Marder drew the Beanworld related characters, so that’ll be covered elsewhere, but I don’t think he drew the one cover appearance that Beanish had, with Bill Sienkiewicz scattering about two dozen Beanish figures across the front of this painted image which includes MiracleMan and Aztec Ace. I have to say, he does a pretty good job with a number of the poses.

Bill Sienkiewicz was a decent but pretty standard super-hero artist over at Marvel in the early 1980s, with a style heavily influenced by Neal Adams, until he “broke out” and started using some innovative design and storytelling techniques, not always successfully but always interestingly, and was a popular cover artist at this time. Major works include STRAY TOASTERS, BIG NUMBERS (incomplete), BROUGHT TO LIGHT, MOBY DICK, ELEKTRA ASSASSIN, MOON KNIGHT and NEW MUTANTS.

Bean Spotting – Zot #30 [1990]

Zot #30 [1990]
by Matt Feazell

This is one of my favourite of the non-Marder Bean cameos. At this time Matt Feazell was doing a cute little “Dimension 10 1/2” version of Zot in the back of Scott McCloud’s book. As his character Cynicalman explains Feazell had hurt his hand and was unable to do the story this issue, and this page, with guests Zot and editor Cat Yronwode, was what he did to introduce a reprint of a Cynicalman story.

What cracks me up the most about this page is the matter of fact answer that CM gives to Zot’s question about the greatest comic book of all time. I’m not sure I fully agree (I usually give the edge to TotB #7 instead of #4), but it’s hard to argue with the general idea.

Bean Spotting – Buck Godot – Zap Gun For Hire #4 [1994]

Buck Godot – Zap Gun For Hire #4 [1994]
By Phil Foglio with Barb Kaalberg

In the middle of his 8-issue adventure at the Gallimaufry, Buck Godot is suddenly attacked by ninja hordes, all working at cross purposes. For whatever reason, among those hordes it a a very determined looking Mr. Spook (just to the right of Buck’s head, if you’re looking for him on the full page).

Phil Foglio has done a bunch of great comics in the past two decades. My favourite of them is BUCK GODOT, but GIRL GENIUS, XXXENOPHILE and WHAT’S NEW are great as well. Currently his main work is GIRL GENIUS, with new material being serialized on the web before appearing in print collections. He’s also serializing old BUCK GODOT material on the web, currently the original colour graphic novels, but possibly going on the the 8-issue mini-series that this page is taken from sometime in the future.

Bean Spotting – Doctor Fate #41 [1992]

Doctor Fate #41 [1992]
Published by DC
Written by William Messner-Loebs, drawn by Peter Gross

As mentioned before, Marder was a regular letterhack to Loebs’ creator owned solo comic JOURNEY back in the 1980s. This I suppose partly explains the rather odd reference on page 14 of issue #41, the final issue of this particular Dr. Fate series.

Inza Nelson, then holder of the helmet and power of Fate, is reading a book called “Beans and The World” by “Fr. Lawrence Marder”, a geneticist and mystic who studied beans and taught using “subtle, illustrated metaphors”. Hmmm. Interestingly, the lesson she learns from the book is one straight out of the Beanworld, about how everything is connected and dependent, and is actually a crucial aspect of the final resolution of the series in the next ten pages.

Bean Spotting – Patty Cake #7 [1996]

Patty Cake #7 [1996]
Permanent Press
“The Unkindest Cut” by Scott Roberts

This is the first series of Scott Roberts’ PATTY CAKE series, one of the best comics to come out of the 1990s, and which continues to this day in the PATTY CAKE AND FRIENDS series from Slave Labor / Amaze Ink. It’s a constantly delightful energetic comic about the wonders of life as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Highly recommended. Check the site here.

This two page story is a good example of Roberts’ mastery of his techniques, with a mostly silent story about Patty getting hurt, requiring a trip to the doctor and a ridiculously oversized needle (no doubt much bigger in her head than in life) to the butt. In the aftermath of the trauma, she’s spoiled by her parents with all the comforts of childhood, which in this case includes a BEANWORLD comic book, much to the disgust of her older sister.

Oddly, when the story was reprinted in the 2003 collection PATTY CAKE – LOVE IS ALL AROUND paperback from Amaze Ink, the page was slightly edited to remove the comic book. Not sure why that was done.

Bean Spotting – Wandering Star #9 [1995]

Wandering Star #9 [1995]
Pen & Ink Comics
by Teri S. Wood

WANDERING STAR was an excellent science fiction drama that ran 21 issues, first from Wood’s own Pen & Ink Comics and then from Sirius Entertainment from 1993 to 1997. Presenting the story of Cassandra Andrews, a young woman from Earth who attends a Galactic Academy and finds herself deep in the middle of an interstellar war with her friends. It’s a wonderful story, at various times exciting and amusing and then veering off into tragic and touching.

In this issue, Cassandra continues the story of her return to Earth, now under alien control, the death of a close friend and the discovery that her father is responsible for much of what has gone on. She returns to her room in the last scene, where we see that her decorations lean strongly to 200 year old self-published comic books, with posters including BONE, CEREBUS, STARCHILD, HEPCATS and STRANGERS IN PARADISE. She also has some small figures on her table, including Phone Bone and, in the point of this post, Beanish (plus I think that little thing next to him is Ted the Bug from BONE).

This story was also reprinted in the second of three WANDERING STAR trade paperback collections, and eventually in the 2016 complete hardcover collection from Dover.