An Australian Classic - Long May It Be Remembered!
Ahhh. Nostalgia. Got to love it when you hit upon something that takes you waaay back to a Happy Place.
...And that's what Bug & Stump does - for me, at least. It's a blast from the 1990s, emerging from the fevered minds of creators John Petropoulos and Mark Sexton. Released under the umbrella of AAARGH! Studios and based out of Melbourne, Australia, Bug & Stump was one of the most popular titles of the "new wave" of independent Aussie comics that emerged in the early nineties.
It originally appeared as a monthly strip in the student paper Lot's Wife of Monash University, dealing with aspects of student life at the University, and quickly became a popular favourite of the readers - though one episode lampooning a militant feminist group at the University was never published as the paper's editors were "a little nervous about what might happen". It's still not clear if anything did happen, as it was included in a free collection of the entire run of the strip, released with the last issue of Lot's Wife for 1992.
Still, it didn't stop the creators from relaunching the strip as a (reasonably) regular comic in May 1993, now portraying the title characters as illegal aliens trapped on an unsuspecting Earth. Bug was now an escapee from the Asylum for the Criminally Disorganised, located on Planet 32A-28/delta1 in the Universe of Order 3. He is a green skinned, four armed and naive innocent, considered to be insane on his native planet due to his penchant for breaking rules with impunity... Bug eludes capture by entering a door clearly marked "Do Not Enter" (causing a few aneurysms on the way) and encounters a Portal - a talking door that whisks him away to another universe... ours.
Stump, on the other hand, appears to be a rogue member of the Space Integrity Patrol (SIP), an inter-universal police force designed to prevent illegal "border crossings" between universes. He's on the run, hunted by his own comrades, but he's resourceful and a quick thinker. He sports one of the most impressive quiffs seen in comics, and an ever present pair of strangely expressive sunglasses. Just don't call him 'short' (which he is, by the by, with an impressively muscular upper body, brought up short - ho ho - by a pair of legs that would depress a daschund.).
Naturally, the two characters collide - literally - and immediately fall foul of the organisation that opposes the SIP - the Illuminatum. Fisticuffs, awful puns and hat stealing ensues, and the pair end up sticking together - obstensibly so that Stump can "ruin Bug's life because he's ruined Stump's own'. And with such heartwarming thoughts, a terrific comic pairing comes into being...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug & Stump ran for nine issues between May 1993 and November 1995, distributed around Australia through newsstands and comic stores, and was well-loved by its wide audience. It gave the comic world a wide variety of fantastical and bizarre characters - Kill Eye, a psychotic roaming eyeball that emerged from televisions armed with circular saws, blades and an extensive list of movie quotes... The Boys in Blue - mutated policemen with zippered mouths, fascistic uniforms and a literal interpretation of the Law... Agent Masakrr - Stump's embittered younger brother and a high-flier in the SIPs, determined to bring his brother to justice... The SSSH Triplets. The Diamond Dogs. The Lost New Moral Army. And not forgetting the worst of them all - the Bewlay Brothers - part of the gestalt God of Chaos, winged angel-demon entities who are after Bug and Stump for their own nefarious ends...
The art and writing in the first issue, to be fair, owes more to sheer enthusiasm for its success - though there is great fun to be had in the repartee between the characters (a trait that happily continues through the entire series), and there is a good sense of storytelling. As the run goes on, however, it is clear that the art and writing improve at an impressive pace with each issue as the two creators hone their skills. And it should be noted that Petropoulos and Sexton do something fairly unique here - they share writing, pencilling and inking duties in almost every issue, indeed on almost every page. This achievement somehow lends itself to giving the book a special quality - as the creators improve together, so too does the complexity of the storytelling and the characters themselves.
The high point of the series is the self-assured issue #7, which boasts impressive art and a tight story, great layouts and fantastic humour. Brilliant setpieces and highly inventive plot devices move the story along at a cracking pace, and we get some lovely character moments - how not to use a peeled carrot as a sign of affection, and how to drive a four armed character with every arm immobilized in a cast insane by asking him whether he's upper left handed, or lower right handed... Cruel.
Such creativity and enthusiasm shone through Bug & Stump, and as a result it swept the pool at the 1996 OZCON Awards (Australia's answer to the Eisner Awards for local publications), winning all but one award - Best Title, Best Writing, Best Artist and Best Character.
In a nasty twist of fate however, sadly, Bug & Stump came to an untimely end at the beginning of 1996 when the creators ran afoul of their Australian distributors over the other title they produced, TISM. The first issue of this series - based on the misadventures of the infamous Australian band of the same name - was a massive success for an Australian comic, selling thousands of copies and going into a second printing. However the second issue was recalled by the distributors shortly after it was sent out due to its "inappropriate content", and as a result the distributors decided to drop TISM - and Bug & Stump as well. As a result, it was impossible for the creators to continue to run the series as they had lost the bulk of their sales, and they had to shut up shop.
Rumours still exist of a half-completed issue #10 - and, most tantalisingly, of three complete issues written by Sexton & Petropoulos and with art by the stunningly talented Australian artist Chris Wahl. These issues - purported to be issues #13 - 15 - remain unpublished. It remains one of the greatest disappointments of Australian comics history that the series was never finished...
Maybe one day...