Pregnant Bitches of War Review

Possibly Offensive Pregnant BA Woman

During my random searches for new comic books, I sometimes stumble upon some questionable things that may or may not be any good.  I have been quite successful finding great indie comics with my discovery of Hound Comics and the reviews I have done on a few of their titles.  I can add a new company to the list of good indie comic producers: Fried Comics.

I stumbled upon Fried Comics website, friedcomics.com, and felt a swell of pride immediately.  Fried’s homepage had a three scrolling feature of their title right in the front of their page and the first thing my eyes saw was an ad for Pregnant Bitches of War.  I thought to myself PBOW was a seriously good title name and I had to read about the guys or gals behind the idea.

I went up to the top of the website and clicked the “Discover; What is Fried?” so I could get a better understanding of what they were all about.  Fried staff doesn't disappoint with their description of themselves and their product.  The first thing in the section is an introduction to Clay Adams and Alexandre Philippe the two behind Fried but it was what came next that got me hooked.  “FRIED is their collective imagination unleashed, uncensored, and unequivocally unapologetic.”  In the day and age of political correctness and lack of willingness to offend I have found myself yearning for people that say what they feel and are not afraid to put something out there that may or may not offend.  With the statement of uncensored and unapologetic I wanted to see for myself.  The website is easy to navigate with tabs at the top that direct to six places; home, read, buy, discover, connect, and tip.  They let you preview comics, they have shirts and more than just comics for sale, they introduce themselves, and have a section for contacting and question asking.  Overall the site is really well done and easy to navigate.

Fried has three titles under their belt, PBOW, Deadskins!, and Red Xmas.  I went with PBOW, because let’s face it, Pregnant Bitches that are totally BA running around in a war setting just sounds way too cool.  It was more than just the name that caught my attention, there was the description too.

“Plucked from the time-stream by eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla, six pregnant women accidentally kill a young Hitler -- and unleash a nightmare future! With Tesla acting as Charlie to their Angels, they must save the world from a hell of their own creation... and they have to do it all before their water breaks!”

If that synopsis doesn't hook you on the comic then you should stop reading!

The cover sets the tone for what I already suspected to be a crazy ride.  A pregnant woman on a table looking like she is ready to pop out a kid while she holds two smoking guns.  The view is from the knees down so you get the full feel of watching a woman give birth.  Although the cover gets the point across it's not overly graphic, she is still clothed.  The room has comical posters hanging up that fit with pregnancy and the ideas behind having a pregnant woman as the protagonists.  One of the posters said, “Sperm.  It’s all his fault.” With little sperms swimming next to the quote, while another said, “Motherhood is a gift.  A gross, gross gift.”  After reading the posters I noticed the broken mirror and dead guys in the background behind the main character.  The cover is definitely funny and right from the start Fried stays true to the uncensored claim.



Now you may be thinking that the cover isn't really that bad, I have seen worse, but the first page into the comic is the pregnant woman from the cover letting Hitler suck on her boobies.  The first page introduces the character by her narrating Hitler sucking her boobies.  It took me a second to compute the aspects of this and how it related to my sensibilities.  No one likes Hitler but the use of him in the comic and the way that they make no apologies and put him on the first page, I found myself giving a nod to their guts.  Another thing that I found myself respecting was that this page introduced the writers and artists behind it, so they don’t shy away from the controversies and their claim of being uncensored, in fact they embrace it.  Clay Adams and Alexandre O. Philippe are the writers, Dominike “Domo” Stanton is the artist, Ron Riley does the colors, and Charles Pritchett does the letters.

The story starts in the Empire State Building at a focus group called Adventures in Pregnancy.  The main character explains that she was dishonorably discharged and decided to go to New York but was having a hard time paying bills.  As the focus group starts the main character is asked by another pregnant lady how much their getting paid and she replies, “Not enough.”  At this point I already have in my mind that this lady is going to be full on BA but after that comment and the running commentary I get a feel that she will be funny as well.

The way they set up the focus group is excellent because it gives a chance for exposition and introduction without being blatant.  The group has six pregnant women and an older lady that is supervising the group. All of them tell their names and something that they have given up since being pregnant.  This set up served the story well for more than just introductions to the names of the characters, it also gave a chance to get the personality type of the characters.  A ditzy blonde named Marni, a country girl named Bristol, an Asian girl named Jin, the best friend a black woman named Leslie, and the main character who introduces herself as Birdie Disantos make up the group.

Fried continues their campaign of offense when Birdie reveals that she was carrying the baby of a sergeant that not only raped her but had her kicked out of the army as well.  I tried to warn that it may be offensive but at this point if the boob obsessed Hitler didn't shy you away I’m guessing you're good.



After the rather well set up group scene, it flashes back to the days of Tesla and show him running around his hotel room trying to fix an invention. He seems paranoid at the arrival of a person named Bennett and the next page takes us back to the focus group.  The older lady asks the focus group director why the room they're in is called the Tesla room and she gets upset at the country girl for not knowing who he is.  The anger the older woman feels and the way she starts to explain him to the country girl sets up the next panel of who I expect to be Bennett calling Tesla a fraud.  Since I already have a good feel for the ladies they draw me into the other side with the action of Tesla and how he is racing against the clock to finish his experiment before Bennett catches up to him.

Anyone that knows anything about Tesla knows he is probably one of the most important inventors in history and he delivers with his contraption because the next page is the machine working and dissolving the woman into the past.  Tesla knows that it worked and believed that he was in the future until the Bennett guy busts in to the room with guns to discover Tesla and a focus group of pregnant ladies.  Since they seem to be in danger from the Bennett guy Tesla tries the machine again but this time they end up in a war bunker with a bunch of Germans.  My gut feeling about the main character being funny as well as totally BA was right on the money because she continually taunts the Germans as they search the ladies and probe for intelligence.  The ladies all solidify their personalities through the interaction with the German soldiers, not just Birdie.

As the ladies sit in a jail cell with Tesla they all sort out where they are and how they got there.  Tesla explains how he invented a time machine and overheard a soldier saying where they have stashed it.  As they talk and try to figure out what is going on the German soldiers change the guard and they introduce a young Hitler as a guard.

I was expecting to get an explanation at some point about how Hitler got to suck on Birdies boobs, so seeing him as a guard didn't surprise me.  I have to give Adams and Philippe credit for their writing skills; they have a nice couple of panels about the consequences of altering history before Birdie decides she can get them out of the situation without having to kill Hitler.  Instead of killing him she decides it would be a great idea to just smother him with her boobs.  She ends up smothering him out and stealing his keys before leading them all out of the jail.

As the ladies attempt to escape they kill a guard, not Hitler, and continue their search for the time machine.  They find the time machine in a room full of gold and riches but before they can leave they realize that the ditzy blonde Marni is missing.  Marni expresses several times that she thinks they should kill Hitler and even though they agree altering history is a no no they rush back to the cells where Marni is feverishly assaulting Hitler, and just like that Marni starts to disappear.

As they alter the timeline things start to change as they’re perused by German soldiers.  Tesla gets the time machine working and gets them out of harm’s way but not without losing Marni and injuring Birdie’s best friend Leslie.  They ladies are back to their world but everything is changed.  Instead of the Statue of Liberty it’s a statue of a masked soldier.  The final panel is the five women standing together wondering what is going on and what happened to their timeline.  They set up the hook for the second issue really well with the final panel and the ideas they present in the first issue.

I’m not easily offended and I wasn't offended by anything in the issue.  I feel like Adams and Philippe balance the line between offensive and creative masterfully.  The idea of Hitler being killed is a great idea, no one likes him, but the way they address and use the fact that a timeline would change impresses me.  They deliver with this comic and their website is very fun as well.  They make their titles available and offer good synopsis so the reader knows what’s going on and they feature themselves as a part of the package and I appreciate that a lot.  Part of the reason I enjoy indie comics is because I feel closer to the artists and I feel like Fried Comics hits that mark with Friedcomics.com.