Defunct tabloid Weekly World News was once the home of disinformation as well as deranged characters like Bat Boy, Ph.D. Ape and more. Now that the publication has invaded comics, unhinged patriots like columnist Ed Anger may never be the same.
"Ed just wants this country to return to a more simple, innocent time, like when Indians were put down by disease-spreading white invaders who then forced the survivors to adopt a Christian God," writer Chris Ryall told Wired.com ahead of the IDW comic's Wednesday debut. "So maybe Ed's not an asshole so much as he just has bad timing. Not too long ago, he could have been president."
But as one sees in Wired.com's collection of exclusive panels below, invented personality Ed Anger is outdone by another presidential individual by the name of Bat Boy, the original Weekly World News tabloid's most popular character.
Bat Boy haunts the comic like a nightmare – or a dream, depending on who he's saving, which is practically everyone, including Anger.
"Some might place Bat Boy alongside Superman," Ryall said. "I'd place him above. Bat Boy is far from invulnerable, and only wears a pair of torn cut-offs, yet he's out there, fighting our wars and helping kittens. He's a true hero for the ages."
Ryall and gifted artist Alan Robinson are not the first comics goofs to bring Bat Boy and other Weekly World News characters to illustrative life. They've been mined by artists like Paul Kupperberg and Peter Bagge before. But this is a different animal, explained Ryall.
"I didn't want to make people new to the comics need to know anything about [the characters], or deal with any existing continuities," he said. "I particularly loved what Bagge did – I bought a couple original strips from him – but fans here won't see Martha Stewart as president with Lil' Kim as her adviser or anything. It seemed better for me to have Barack Obama in office as one more thing to make Ed Anger feel like this was no longer the America he knew."
Obama is not the only character torn between reality and fiction and being crammed into Ryall and Robinson's grinder. Those plugged into the political and pop culture mainstream, and its marginalia, will have plenty to point and grunt at. And not just Ph.D. Ape, who serves as Ed Anger's anger-management counselor below. Those who want to check their math can match up their sightings with the back-page annotations Ryall inserts into each issue.
"It is definitely a dumping ground," Ryall said. "At various points, The Twilight Zone, Jason Voorhees' house, Billy Beer, Iron Eyes Cody, the Guardian Angels, Hunter S. Thompson, the Three Little Pigs, Frank Miller's Batman, Rodin's Thinker and the old Jodie Foster Coppertone ad are referenced or ridiculed, all while still servicing what I hope is a coherent and not completely off-the-rails story. Remember Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he plucked various characters from literary masterworks and wove them into a compelling story? This is not that."
Chances are, however, that the movie version of Weekly World News would be less putrid than the cinematic bastard offspring of Moore's intertextual classic. Bat Boy has already spawned an off-Broadway musical, and been cited in films like Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys and toons like SpongeBob SquarePants. A wide-screen leap, or at least an Adult Swim animated series, seems like a no-brainer.
"This comic is basically a tent-pole movie on paper," Ryall said. "I do think these characters would be great to see on any sort of screen. Hopefully after people read the comic, they'll have fun casting the movie in their heads. Clint Eastwood as Ed Anger? Elijah Wood or Chris Kattan as Bat Boy?"
Take a look at the panels below and let us know your casting choices, or favorite Weekly World News screeds, in the comments section.
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