Tales of the Beanworld, also known as Larry Marder's Beanworld, is a creator-owned comic book created by Larry Marder. Beanworld features stories about the life and times of the Beans, minimalistic characters which Marder has been drawing since childhood. The stories borrow concepts from various world mythologies, popular concepts of ecology, and pop culture.

Publication history

Marder initially self-published the series from 1984 before it was picked up by Eclipse Comics in 1985 – though it continued to bear Marder's own 'Beanworld Press' imprint. The series ran 21 issues until 1993, ending when Eclipse went bankrupt. A total of four book collections were released by Eclipse, reprinting issues #1–16. With Marder's permission, lead character Beanish appeared in Eclipse's 1988-1989 crossover limited series Total Eclipse. His appearances, drawn by Marder and seeing the character interact with the likes of Miracleman and Aztec Ace, were one of the few aspects of the series to draw positive reception. It had initially be planned that he would only make a cameo appearance, but at Marder's suggestion Beanish's role was expanded. It was also one of the few Eclipse titles to acknowledge the crossover's impact, with Beanish being absent from Tales of the Beanworld #10-11 as a result. After publishing a one-shot of new material in 2008, Dark Horse Comics republished the contents of the original series in two hardcover volumes in 2009, followed by a third hardcover volume with all new material. Marder stated that these collections completed the "Springtime" cycle of Beanworld stories. Dark Horse also published a very short volume (vol. "3.5") in 2012 that collected various short one-shot stories published over the year; the publisher also released Beanworld Volume 4: Hoka Hoka, Burb'l Burb'l! in July 2017.

Characters

Locations

Reception

Amazing Heroes review R.A. Jones was not a fan of the title when reviewing the first issue, but praised Marder's commitment to his vision. The series was nominated for 'Best Black-and-White' at the 1987 Kirby Awards, but lost out to Cerebus. Phil Foglio and Scott McCloud were among those to praise the series.