YOUR INDY WEEKLY: OOH PIE!

[MattBrady]

by Ryan McLelland

Ooh, Pie!
The Bogeyman’s Closet – 2006 - $7.99
Written by: Mike Alvarez and Joshua Strasburg
Art by: Mike Alvarez
Website: http://www.bogeymanscloset.com

Rating: 3 stars (out of 4)

Let’s start with the title. I hate it. Ooh, Pie! tells me nothing about this book and the cover shows, well, a pie. A pie filled with an eye and a finger. Okay, well, that part is pretty cool but it really seems more beneficial for a poster for a horror film because it really is sort of gross looking. But that’s the funny thing about Ooh, Pie! It’s a bad title with a weird cover and yet I’m sure I can talk about it for ten more paragraphs without ever getting inside. That would be a shame, because what an inside it is.

The comic is about a bunch of demons on the loose that invade things. A weird scarecrow creature starts to kill and take the body parts of the living. A chicken mascot of a chicken joint is possessed and starts talking a hell of a lot of jive. Mostly we are focused on cute little Greg, his upbeat father, his mother with the nice rack, and Twiggles – the cutesy possessed teddy bear.

This book is Child’s Play on acid possibly written and drawn by drunk ex-Archie Comics employees. That is not a ‘bad thing’, this is a GREAT thing. This 84 page horror/comedy takes its time in growing into a fiendishly disgusting mess of human body parts and laugh-out-loud comedy. We watch as Greg’s family begins to fall apart and how Greg’s grandpop turns from a some drunk old man into an evil puppet of Twiggles who simply yells, “BLORG!” With Blorg to carry him around Twiggles starts his evil plot to kill the family, kill the world, kill everyone! Except when Cooper X (think Hooper X from Chasing Amy except as a demon possessed revolutionary chicken) shows up it wrecks Twiggles plan. Or does it? God…I just don’t know.



I read it, I think it is totally messed up, I don’t know what the hell is happening, and I absolutely love it. It’s gross and yet cute in an early Disney animation sort of way. It’s not for the weak and mild-hearted, even myself thinking it gross and I’m someone who has seen some very disgusting things having been in the military some thirteen years.

Mike Alvarez and Joshua Strasburg bring Ooh, Pie! to life and do so with cute vicious drawings like Fred Hembeck on crack while being co-written by George Romero and Roald Dahl. It’s an evil teddy bear trying to get revenge on some guy named ‘Dad’ for being forced to do some evil horrible thing called ‘bedtime’. It’s a 84 paged delight that only loses a star because sometimes I don’t know what is going on. Does that make the comic bad? In some cases of other books maybe but in the case of Ooh Pie! I don’t care. I want to read what’s next and continue laughing and looking away in disgust.



If loving Ooh, Pie! is wrong then I don’t want to be right.

Have an indy comic you’d like reviewed? Contact Ryan at rdmclelland@hotmail.com.

[theyliveagain]

I am Joshua Strasburg, co-writer and inker/letterer or OOH, PIE! I want to thank Ryan for giving us such a great review and for being so enthusiastic about the book. It gives me a charge to see OOH, PIE! featured on the front page of Newsarama. Hot damn!

Our second book, BORT!, will be available soon, so be sure to visit our website/MySpace for more info over the comic weeks.

Check the links in my signature below to purchase your own copy of OOH, PIE! online at ComiXpress. If you live in Western New York, you can find copies on sale at the following stores:

New World Record (765 Elmwood, Buffalo)
Queen City Bookstore (3184 Main Street, Buffalo)
Halley's Comics and Games (1144 Oliver Street, North Tonawanda)
Don's Atomic Comics & Collectibles (6354 Transit Road, Cheektowaga)
House of Fantasy Comics and Games (1709 Pine Avenue, Niagara Falls)

Thanks again, Ryan McLelland and Newsarama!

[EMeadow]

But the real question is, are you drunk ex Archie employees? :-)

[ShinAkuma666]

This looks so messed up, right up my alley, will it be availlable through Amazon and Amazon.ca in the future ?

[theyliveagain]

EMeadow: We are not drunk ex-Archie employees, but we do occassionally get drunk (well, more than occassionally, as you'll see when you read the book) and we do occassionally read Archie books (but just for masturbatory fare). OOH, PIE! is just about everything we've ever wanted to stick in a comic, but unfortunately we left out the dimpled red-headed boys. Damn, I knew we forgot something ...

ShinAkuma666: Right now there are no plans to distribute OOH, PIE! through Amazon but that doesn't mean the plans might change. I'm a huge Amazon fan and use the Wishlist feature as my personal check-list for comics I haven't gotten around to reading yet. If you want to order the book online, you can do it at ComiXpress for $7.99 plus shipping/handling. Click here to do that!