120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Enjoy overnight NZ-wide delivery from our NZ-owned independent bookstore! πŸŽ‰

Blubber

2.92 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 107 ratings, 32 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Blubber collects the first five issues of Gilbert Hernandez's comic series, featuring an absurdly X-rated and surreally transgressive set of stories. The narrative showcases a rogues' gallery of colourful characters and bizarre creatures like the Pollum, the Junipero Molestat, and the mythical Forest Nimmy. It blends absurdist satire of pornography and nature documentaries, pushing boundaries with a defiant provocation to those who cannot distinguish cartooning from obscenity. The artwork echoes the visual imagination of comic legends such as Jack Kirby.
Read More
Format: Hardback
$3799
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Blubber is suited for adult readers with an appreciation for experimental and provocative graphic novels, especially those interested in transgressive and surreal comics. It is recommended for open-minded fans of bold, boundary-pushing art and storytelling.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

The great Gilbert Hernandez's unfettered Id unleashed! Absurd, explicit, and profanely funny, Blubber makes all other comics blush.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Collecting the first five issues of Gilbert Hernandez's comic book series Blubber, this collection is an absurdly X-rated showcase for the most surreally transgressive of Hernandez's short stories.

Weirdos (Blubberoo, Mr. Elvis, John Dick, the Mentor), creatures (the Mau Guag, Doogs, and Orlats?), and anthropomorphs (the Cloarks, the Kekeppy) visit places where most comics fear to go. Blubber veers between an absurdist satire of porn (and occasionally nature documentaries) as well as a defiant provocation to those unable to appreciate the difference between cartooning and obscenity.

As R. Crumb said, "It's only lines on paper, folks!" It is also a howlingly funny book, filled with a rogues gallery of colourful comic book monsters (the Pollum, the Junipero Molestat, the mythical Forest Nimmy) and characters (T.A.C. Man, Mr. Hippy, Padre Puto, the Snowman, Baron Mungo, Red Tempest) that echoes the sheer visual imagination of Jack Kirby.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critics hail Hernandez as a master of modern comics, praising his imaginative monsters and unrestrained creativity. The New York Times Book Review highlights the strange and unspeakable acts of Hernandez's invented creatures, while The Comics Journal notes the minimal focus on plot in favour of extreme depictions of sexual deviancy. Open-minded adult readers may appreciate the wild, unrestricted imagination of one of the medium's most revered storytellers, as noted by Library Journal. The work is compared to the surreal styles of David Lynch and Guy Maddin by The A.V. Club, underlining its unique and perverse storytelling approach.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781683964865

Publisher: Fantagraphics

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 04 January 2022

Country: United States

Imprint: Fantagraphics

Illustration: 160 Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 175.0mm

Height: 270.0mm

Weight: 300g

Pages: 160

About the Author

Gilbert Hernandez was born in 1957 in Oxnard, California, and is considered one of the greatest living comics writer-artists in the world. In 1982, Hernandez co-created, along with his brothers Mario and Jaime, the ongoing, iconic, internationally acclaimed comic book series Love and Rockets, one of the greatest bodies of work the medium has ever seen. In addition to his work on Love and Rockets, its spinoffs, and side series, Hernandez has released a prodigious amount of original graphic novels and miniseries, such as Sloth, Bumperhead, and Marble Season. He also collaborated with Darwyn Cooke on The Twilight Children for DC. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2017 and is the recipient of a Fellow Award from United States Artists and a PEN Center USA's Graphic Literature Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Hernandez lives in Ventura, CA, with his wife and daughter.

Also by Gilbert Hernandez

View all
  • Lovers and Haters
    The first story collection in Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar saga to take place after the events of 2010's High Soft Lisp is torn from the pages of Love and Rockets: New Stories, Love and Rockets Vol. IV, and Psychodrama Illustratedβ€”and expanded with 14 new pages! In Lovers and Haters, 50-year-old cult movie actress Fritz, in addition to her alcoholism and the...
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Love and Rockets: The First Fifty
    The Washington Post, Best Graphic Novels of 2022 Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez are now recognised as two of the greatest cartoonists in the history of the mediumβ€”award-winning, world-renowned, critically acclaimed. But in 1982, when the first issue of Love and Rockets came out, they (occasionally working with their brother, Mario) were two young, struggling, unknown cartoonists who were bucking the...
    Hardback
    $76399
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Love and Rockets: The Sketchbooks
    Both Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez developed their skills as artists in public, in the pages of Love and Rockets, and as quickly as any artists ever have. The first issue showed two promising young tyros; by the fourth, both brothers were clearly among the foremost cartoonists of their generation. But not all of that development took place on the main...
    Hardback
    $14299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Hypnotwist
    The Eisner Award-winning creator Gilbert Hernandez returns with another instalment in the Fritz B-film series! In the wordless comic/silent movie Hypnotwist, B-movie actress Fritz plays a character who doesn't seem to be going anywhereβ€”until she puts on a pair of glittery pumps. Her wanderings become increasingly surreal as she confronts motherhood, alcoholism, a sinister smiley face, cruelty, and her worst...
    Hardback
    $4799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Proof That the Devil Loves You
    Three Fritz B-movies: one is entirely new, while two of the tales are expanded from their original appearances in the ongoing Love and Rockets comic book series. The titular story, Proof That the Devil Loves You, is a fable about a free spirit, Bula, played by Fritz. Something strange is going on in a town very reminiscent of Palomar. Gisel...
    Hardback
    $4799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Love and Rockets: Heartbreak Soup
    Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007, Love and Rockets will finally be released in its most accessible form yet: a series of compact, thick, affordable, mass-market volumes that present the whole story in perfect chronological order. This volume collects the first half of Gilbert Hernandez's acclaimed magical-realist tales of Palomar, the small Central American town, beginning with the groundbreaking Sopa...
    Paperback
    $5200
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Love and Rockets: The Covers
    From the very first cover of Love and Rockets in 1982, Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez have created artwork that subverted, contradicted, and celebrated the history of the comic book medium. They inverted familiar tropes and created some of the most iconic images in comics over the past 30 years, inviting fans and readers into their world. Amazingly, many of the...
    Hardback
    $6699
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

More from Graphic Novels

View all
  • New Release
    Heartstopper Volume 6
    Read it before you see it: Heartstopper Forever movie coming soon from Netflix Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. The final installment in the bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel series about life, love, and everything that happens in between. Everyone in school knows Nick and Charlie. Everyone knows they're going to be togetherforever. But Charlie's busy with...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Lightfall: A Place Between
    In the fourth installment of the award-winning, critically acclaimed Lightfall series, Bea, Cad, and their friends continue their quest to restore light on their dark world. Perfect for fans of Amulet and Avatar, this next book dives deeper into the magical world of Irpa, where ancient secrets and adventures abound.After surviving a shipwreckΒ on the Fuerre Sea, Cad washes ashore on...
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2699
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Warriors Graphic Novel: The New Prophecy, Part One of Three
    The next graphic novel adaptation of the blockbuster, New York Times bestselling Warriors series covers the first two novels of the second arc, The New Prophecy (Midnight and Moonrise).Β The wild cats of the forest have lived in peace for many moonsβ€”but when Brambleclaw, a warrior of ThunderClan, receives an ominous prophecy from StarClan that speaks of a mysterious danger, he...
    Paperback
    $1999
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • One Piece (Omnibus Edition), Vol. 1
    One Piece (Omnibus Edition), Vol. 1 by Eiichiro Oda invites readers on an exhilarating journey across the vast and treacherous oceans. Follow the ambitious young pirate, Monkey D. Luffy, and his eclectic crew as they embark on an epic quest to uncover the legendary treasure known as the One Piece, a prize that will crown its possessor as the King...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2899
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    One Piece Box Set 1: East Blue and Baroque Works
    A premium box set of the first two story arcs of One Piece, one of the most beloved and bestselling manga series of all time! As a child, Monkey D. Luffy dreamed of becoming King of the Pirates. His life took a dramatic turn when he accidentally consumed the Gum-Gum Fruit, an enchanted Devil Fruit that granted him the incredible...
    Paperback
    $31500
    Elsewhere:
    $41000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Demon Slayer Complete Box Set
    Contains Volumes 1-23. Full colour. Double-sided Poster and Commemorative Mini-Book. Tanjiro embarks on the perilous path of a Demon Slayer, driven by a mission to save his sister and seek justice for his slain family! In the backdrop of Taisho-era Japan, we meet the compassionate Tanjiro Kamado, a boy who makes a humble living by selling charcoal. However, his tranquil...
    Paperback
    $29500
    Elsewhere:
    $41000
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Fourth Wing The Graphic Novel: Volume One
    Pre-order
    Fourth Wing The Graphic Novel: Volume One
    The first volume of a stunning graphic novel edition of the no. 1Β Sunday TimesΒ phenomenon,Β Fourth Wing,Β adapted by Rebecca Yarros herself!Β Β  This deluxe hardcover edition features a shimmering metallic, foil-stamped cover design, plus an exclusive art print of Violet and Xaden's first kiss, packaged in a stylish slipcase.Β  Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders as...
    Slipcase Hardback
    $11000
    Elsewhere:
    $12000
    Pre-order
    Out 6 Apr 2027
  • On Sale
    My Hero Academia Box Set 1
    Midoriya inherits the superpower of the world’s greatest hero, but greatness won’t come easy. Collect the first 20 volumes of the bestselling My Hero Academia manga in this heroic box set! Also includes a full-colour double-sided poster and an exclusive 48-page booklet featuring the never-before-seen bonus illustrations and author commentary printed on volume 1–20’s book covers in Japan!
    Paperback
    $25900
    Elsewhere:
    $35500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat
    In this hilarious full-colour graphic novel, Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat by Li Chen, readers are introduced to Cat Town's best kitten detective on a new and exciting adventure. When Detective Beans realises his favourite hat has gone missing, he quickly jumps into action to crack the case. Armed with his wit, determination, and a love...
    By Li Chen
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2200
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    MrBallen Presents: Where Nightmares Live
    From the New York Times bestselling author and creator of the hit MrBallen Podcast and YouTube channel comes a vividly illustrated graphic novel featuring nine spine-chilling stories, based on real events, of the horror that lurks within the unknown. In MrBallen Presents: Where Nightmares Live, John Allen, known popularly as MrBallen, returns with another heart-stopping collection of strange and mysterious...
    Hardback
    $4400
    Elsewhere:
    $5500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1
    Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 1 by Gege Akutami introduces readers to the gripping world of jujutsu sorcery and supernatural battles. This first volume sets the stage for an explosive adventure that intertwines the fate of humans and cursed spirits. In a world where cursed spirits, malevolent entities born from human negative emotions, prey on the unsuspecting, fragments of the legendary demon...
    Paperback
    $1900
    Elsewhere:
    $2099
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Wings of Fire the Graphic Novel - The First Seven Books
    Not every dragonet wants a destiny . . . Clay has grown up under the mountain, chosen along with four other dragonets to fulfill a mysterious prophecy and end the war between the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia. He's not so sure about the prophecy part, but Clay can't imagine not living with the other dragonets; they're his best friends. So...
    Paperback
    $9000
    Elsewhere:
    $11000
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.