A life of books . . .
Similar to the last two (Bob’s Burgers Vol. 1 and Medium Rare), we get to spend more time with the Belcher children off-screen.
We’ve got more musicals from Gene, Erotic Friend Fiction from Tina, and mayhem and mystery from Louise. I really appreciated that with this collection we got a couple of longer stories and a continuation from the previous collection. The authors were always great at pulling in various details from the show and making these comics feel like they’re part of the show.
These really are great palate cleansers! We bought this one when we bought Bob’s Burgers: Volume 1 on our trip to NYC this past January. We got a third one and I ordered the remaining two when we got home, so I’m looking forward to reading the rest. I can definitely see an improvement in the stories and the sections of these issues bound together. They’re tighter, funnier, and more on character than those in Volume 1.
The two biggest changes in these issues (and thus this volume) were Bob and Linda’s. Bob’s got better, he designed food truck ideas, and Linda’s got worse, her’s were now just family photo attempts. Tina and Louise’s sections each had standout pieces, but Gene’s takes the gold in this collection.
Tim found the first three when we swung by Midtown Comics in NYC with an hour to kill before seeing Wicked. I’m looking at these as palate cleansers between the other books I’m reading. I don’t give major reviews of these, because there isn’t a lot to review. Each issue, of which there are four or five in each of these collections, in general consists of five parts: Tina’s Erotic Friend Fiction, Bob’s section, Louise’s Unsolved Mysteries and Curious Curiosities, Linda’s section, and Gene Belcher Presents. Linda and Bob’s sections changed (or were left out) between this first collection and the second, so I’m not sure what to call them.
I can’t believe I’ve had this on my shelf for as long as I have. It’s been almost TWO YEARS since I bought it. TWO YEARS! I’m not sure I would go so far as to say this is THE pinnacle of Jane Austen fan-fiction, but it’s pretty close.
I say this for a couple of reasons the primary being that Baker didn’t deviate too far from Austen’s characters, she stayed true to them and only played with the background characters (they’re less than minor) and filled in their back stories. The secondary reason I say this is because it received reviews in the major publications and was fairly mainstream for Austen fan-fiction/inspired fiction. I mean sure you’ve got the major adaptations like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Clueless, but those are both modern adaptations.
I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one. I’m always open for a bit of Austen fan-fiction so when someone from the publisher reached out to me about this one I figured why not?*
I’m not one of those who is obsessed with any particular character of Jane Austen’s like the author. I love the broad strokes of her stories and the general caricatures and stereotypes she works in across all her work. So when the fan-fiction gets super specific, like this one, I’m never quite sure what will come out of it. Will I enjoy this authors take on the character? Will they stay true to not only Austen’s works but the generally accepted views of the character? Will it be enjoyable and readable?