Ok, I have a Story in this Collection so I am bias but it's an amazing collection with 10 great authors. $1 per author can't beat it. Give it a shot.

Spotted on Noran Miss Pumkin and Stephanie's profiles

This is worth your time and money. My placeholding simplistic sentiments aside, it's full of good stuff. Not just the excellent brainmelting novelettes you usually expect from BSKs but also comics and poetry. And though, yes, I am among them myself, the selection of artists is fantastic. From Athena Villaverde's simple magorealistic elegance to Jeff Burk's b movie bombast to Cameron Pierce's dreamlogic infused meditation on loss and despair that reminds me of nothing so much as Lynch's seminal w...

This was my first introduction to the bizarro genre. I wanted to give it 4 stars, but there were more stories that I didn't really get into than ones I did. That being said, I have two authors I'm sold on and a couple more I'm intrigued enough by to give another shot. If you are curious about bizarro fiction, the starter kits are the way to go. BUT...be warned, you will encounter violence and pornography in random but liberal schmears. I had to give that caveat because for every friend that woul...

As I did on the other Bizarro Starter Kit, I will write a brief response to each set from an author while reading. Russel Edson: various short prose poems - Some of these are very affecting (I'm looking at you "Ape"), while others are so surreal as to be unreal. While most touch on very strong emotions, the angle we come in at distorts the emotion until it is barely recognizable. A strange choice to open ... but welcome. Athena Villaverde: Clockwork Girl - Blending a heartfelt love story with

This volume seems to have even more variety than the last one I read (orange). There seems to be almost as many different possible varieties of this genre as there are authors. I think I liked these stories overall more than the orange volume, but I think there were one or two in the orange volume that called to me more. Regardless, this seems like a great series for exploring the scope of bizarro.

Something for everyone, assuming you are at least mildly interested in bizarro fiction.

Some of the tales in this bizarro anthology suffer from too many details, too many characters, and a lack of structure. One gets the impression that some authors are weird just for the sake of being weird and don't really have a point. On the other hand, writers Matthew Revert and Cameron Pierce contributed brilliant stories that are tight and intellectually satisfying. Additionally, Jeff Burk's "Cripple Wolf" offers a great mix of over-the-top violence and humor that would just as easily fit in...

The Bizarro Starter Kits are meant to ease people into the Bizarro genre. Me, I bought them because I'm a cheap ass and want to stretch my Bizarro dollars a bit. Here are just some of the wonders Bizarro Starter Kit (Purple) contains:The Clockwork Girl by Athena Villaverde: The Clockwork Girl tells the story of a toy clockwork girl named Puchi who first falls in love with her owner and then is discarded when her owner gets too old. That's about all I can say of the plot without giving too much a...

Does anyone need a reminder of the quality of these kits? I doubt it, but if you are new to the scene these are a great place to start and this version is one of the best I've read.The one story that stuck out to me is Athena Villaverde's. I had never heard of her before but I get the feeling I'll see more from her, Clockwork Girl was very charming and sweet. She brings a really traditionally feminine touch to bizarro.

We return once again to the Bizarro Starter Kit series. This time around, the weirdness is a pleasant blending of the tones of both the BSK (Orange) and the BSK (Blue).  With the work of Russell Edson, Athena Villaverde, David Agranoff, Matthew Revert, Andrew Goldfarb, Jeff Burk, Garrett Cook, Kris Saknussemm, Cody Goodfellow, and Cameron Pierce, we are presented with the ever-evolving face of the Bizarro genre, and the equally developing styles.  Unique to this collection is the inclusion of s

Bizarro Starter Kit Purple was recommended to me by several people as the ‘best’ of the three starter kits. For the price of $10 new, it is a fairly inexpensive way to see if you are interested in this style of writing. The one page biopic and notes preceding the work of each of the ten authors was most helpful to me. It is good to know the predilections of the person I am reading. I needed all the help I could get in understanding and appreciating their work. As you will see from my brief comme...

Fantastic! The best collection of stories to date and a great introduction to the genre.

This is definitely the broadest, most diverse starter kit of the three. I consider myself well-read in the bizarro genre and the pieces in this book represent it really well. The pieces span from Russell Edson's prose poetry to Andrew Goldfarb's legendary comics. Even the seven novellas show a huge breadth of talent and interest within the bizarro genre. Athena Villaverde's novella, Clockwork Girl, plays so innocently with the classic trope of artificial intelligence that by the end of the story...

I love bizarro and I hate bizarro. I love it because many of the writers explore strange ideas in a fascinating way that is just very rare to find in any other genre. I hate it because it also attracts people who think that putting nothing but weirdness and shock value into a story magically makes for good writing in this genre. This collection has more of the latter category than I would have liked, but the good stuff more than made up for it.Before I was even through the 2nd page of Russel Eds...

I have to acknowledge that I have a story in this collection--and am proud to be amongst these strange authors.I'm most familiar with the work of Matt Revert, who appears in this anthology. It's interesting to check out his evolution, but I'm quite enjoying the other material.I find this "movement" (and I think it meets all criteria to be described so) is a huge breath of fresh air in today's fiction scene.As horrific, disgusting and nightmarish as some of the work can be, there's a crazy joy to...

I would have loved this when I was in high school.

Full Review HereI can’t recommend The Bizarro Starter Kit (Purple) highly enough. It’s a strong collection of strange works in fiction, poetry and comics. It will introduce you to some great, lesser known author. Fans of speculative fiction are guaranteed to get a lot out of this anthology. Plus, it gives you a lot of content for the price of the book. Really, I recommend all three editions of the Starter Kits for the same reason.