My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Belzebubs is a short, entertaining read centering around a black metal family, their band, and the romances and friendships of the various family members. This graphic novel gathers up a number of single 4-panel strips of the popular webcomic of the same name. There are some story threads that weave through the entire graphic novel, but there are a bunch of one-off comics here too.
To get this out of the way, I will say that there were one or two comics that felt racially insensitive to me. Other than those, I solidly enjoyed this quick read. The Belzebubs are a close-knit family with a chosen few friends and bandmates that make up the cast of this comic. The family’s interactions are very cute and lighthearted, even though they seem extreme for a “normal” family. The author relishes turning concepts of love (familial and otherwise) and friendship on their head with a “metal twist”. If you enjoy tongue-in-cheek references to biblical tales of evil and Dante’s Inferno, keep an eye out for references on t-shirt design and especially the town map that is laid out in one spread.
One memorable example of how the author turns standard situations into ripe comic fodder is when one of their kids complains about the monsters under their bed and the mom responds that they need to go to sleep now and they can keep playing with the monsters under their bed tomorrow. Definitely a fun book–my favorite sub-plot was the daughter’s budding romantic obsession with a guy in one of her classes at school AND the daughter’s friend’s equal (if not greater) obsession with a girl in their grade. I was also thoroughly entertained by the romantic moments between the husband and wife, especially when the husband describes his love and servitude towards his wife when it initially seems like he is talking about Satan/the Devil.
I enjoyed the friend’s perversion of a sonnet, describing her dark passionate emotions towards this schoolmate during one of their classes. Here are a couple of screenshots that may help you to determine if you’d enjoy this graphic novel too.
(Direct link to Imgur post with above images, to see more details: https://imgur.com/gallery/BD0Aykj )
I will say that I feel the book could have been more cohesive, especially when you can tell with the date the comics are written and how they are regularly put out of order… I wonder how cohesive the story felt when told serially through the webcomic site compared to this compilation.
Maggie Cann Can Do It! 