Edward Bolman has been self-publishing his own unique brand of droll nonsense since the Seventies. Aside from Tim Corrigan’s C&T Graphics publishing Bolman’s three issue solo series, The Bathing Machine, in the late Eighties, his work has had limited distribution. Until this year, when Tom Fellrath of Phoenix Production released a complete collection of the seven issues of the relatively recent Noble Head Funnies series by Bolman.
Upon first glance, Edward Bolman’s Noble Head Funnies seems like a head spinning, rapid-fire amalgamation of lunatic characters in subtly humorous gag strips, panels, and fragments of stories. Only on a slower, more deliberate reading does one see the complex structure Bolman builds through each issue (and even continuing across individual issues).
Focusing on Noble Head Funnies #6 shows how Bolman builds his fractured world of humor in this way. Starting off with Bolman’s main character Mr. Kitty Fluff who appears in a series of strips where he begs to eat some weird item and screams in the last panel, “I don’t like it!” Then an installment of the long-running gag strip with buddies Black Rayed Sun and Spittoon of Hidden Delights, followed inexplicably by new characters Trylon and Perisphere (who are basically the same characters as BRS and SHD in different forms!). The main-ish story is the pastiche ‘K. Fluff, Society Sleuth’ where the titular cat plays detective to a group of turn of the (last) century rich people who have been kidnapped. Interspersed in the middle are a musical ad for ‘Chlurm’; ‘Spiders Versus Gorilla-Men: Chapter 7’, remember the Gorilla-Men later in the issue; a gathering of series villains (Satan, Pussycat, and Greenbean) which ends with Satan being skewered by Trylon flung from the strip earlier in the issue(!), and finally another advertisement, this time for “Time Travel Tape” (pudding flavored, no less).
Finally, we get to the second half of detective Mr. Kitty Fluff tracking down the kidnapped society types, who thank Mr. Kitty Fluff by inviting him to polish their Rolls Royces (Mreh, indeed!). BRS and SHD return in a one page strip where Spittoon shoots his ‘Issue Time Travel Machine’ at a giant inflatable Gorilla-Man sending it back to issue #4 (or page 123 in this collection). Rounding out the issue is ‘War and Fleas: Part 5’, which we take to be a very loose adaptation of War and Peace. Another silly ad for “Chlurm” wraps things up. Whew, the pace is not necessarily as manic as that tsunami of ideas, asrecurring characters (especially utility players BRS and SHD), as well as playful touches like musical interludes and fake ads serve to link things together well.
Edward Bolman’s art runs the gamut from Basil Wolverton intricacies to Ed Emberley simplicity and back again, sometimes in the same panel, let alone the same page. Mr. Kitty Fluff’s face is an incredible pattern of cross hatching made up of different thicknesses of brush strokes, but his body is just the barest outline of ink scratches. With that, Bolman wrings a wide range of slapstick and pathos from the Mr. Kitty Fluff character. Even Bolman’s backgrounds throughout shift from realistic, to cartoony, to near abstract to suit the needs of the moment in his wild, unique narrative.
We’ve always loved the clean, clear lettering of Edward Bolman. With a thin line and being all capitalized it’s perfect for the A6 size at which this collection is printed. Sometimes with the most experimental comics, the clarity of the lettering is essential.
Publisher Tom Fellrath includes some rare bonus material to round out the volume: ‘The Monkey and the Ghost Ship’ (2006) written by Chad Woody; the complete ‘Soonday Moonday Alphabet’ which was originally serialized in the 80s in an anthology titled Stuff; and, ‘Pussy Wallow’ a cat-themed turn on Poe and EC Comics, with an appearance by a prototype Mr. Kitty Fluff!
This collection is another fine edition in the Phoenix Masters series centering on classic mini-comics creators from the United States, remastered and published by Tom Fellrath of Phoenix Productions.
Edward Bolman (W/A/L), J.P. Noel (Co-creator), Brad W. Foster (Cover color), Steve Willis (Foreword) • Phoenix Productions, $20.00
Ordering information here
Review by Gary Usher
