Stroke of Evil: Don't forget to enter!

I just wanted to remind everyone that I'm having a little contest here at Great Caesar's Post in honor of the wacky fun that is the Beard Hunter!

Remember, a copy of Doom Patrol Vol. 4: Musclebound is up for grabs, so be sure to enter. And in case you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, you can find out everything you need to know about Grant Morrison's story of beard-centric vigilantism by reading the GCP series of posts!

Here are the details: Send me a picture of yourself stroking your own evil beard in an evil manner (as the bearded evilly do), and the best one will get a copy of the Doom Patrol Vol. 4: Musclebound paperback, featuring the story of the Beard Hunter! And since fake beards are allowed, nobody gets left out — just be creative!

You can enter by posting your photo to your blog and sending me a link in the comments section of this post, or e-mail your photo to maxoromero [at] gmail [dot] com: A winner will be announced Wednesday, February 27, featuring the winning picture. Good luck!

WTF Wednesday: The Beard Hunter takes it on the chin!

I hope you're lathered up and ready to go, Stubbles — it's time for the fourth and final installment of ...

WTF Wednesday Presents:
The Beard Hunter!

As we know from the last episode, the Beard Hunter has been pulled from his lonely ... oh, so lonely ... war on facial hair to take down a specific target — leader of the Doom Patrol, Niles Caulder! Having so far dodged the Beard Hunter in the aisles of the grocery store he was ambushed in, Caulder is on the run from the mighty Razor of Vengeance.

Meanwhile, the Beard Hunter's earlier escapades haven't escaped notice, and the cops are on his trail! Yes, cops ... with mustaches.


That guy looks like Stalin! At least his mom will stick up for this troubled and complex man, right? And at last someone will be able to shed some light on the five 'o clock shadow of his soul!


Uh ... aaaanyway, if you think our hero would be bothered to hear this, think again! As he trails the scraggly Caulder through the store, Ernest Franklin is already making plans for the blood money he'll be receiving from the Bearded Gentlemen's Club of Metropolis. Plans so nefarious, they're almost inhuman — self-publishing!


Caulder has been up to his own plans though, laying a devious trap composed of exposed wiring, aluminum foil and corn flakes. Finally, the Beard Hunter has Caulder in his sights, closing in for the kill and then, in an act of bitter irony ...

EXTREME ELECTROLYSIS!

As the curtain closes on the Beard Hunter, he has time to reflect and ponders how many volts that was, anyway (his guess? "A lot."), and laments the fact that he never got around to dating. And then, a bright light and he sees the face of his heavenly reward.

And thus, the running gag comes home ...

Sonuva ...

Turn your shaving mugs over, my friends, and join me in honoring this bane of the bristled, our fallen warrior ... the Beard Hunter!


A CLOSER SHAVE!

And now, a rare look inside the rat's nest that is the Bearded Gentlemen's Club of Metropolis:

Click to see Moore!

Heeeey ... that dude in the middle looks familiar ...

HOLY CRAP! A CONTEST!!

I had so much fun with this series, I want to share it! Send me a picture of yourself stroking your own evil beard in an evil manner (as the bearded evilly do), and the best one will get a copy of the Doom Patrol Vol. 4: Musclebound paperback, featuring the story of the Beard Hunter! And don't feel left out, ladies! Fake beards are allowed (the better to infiltrate the BGCM) — just be creative!

You can enter by posting your photo to your blog and sending me a link in the comments section of this post, or e-mail your photo to maxoromero [at] gmail [dot] com: A winner will be announced next Wednesday, February 27, featuring the winning picture! Good luck!

Panels from Doom Patrol #45
Grant Morrison, writer; Vince Giarrano, penciller; Malcolm Jones III, inker

WTF Wednesday: The Beard Hunter feels the burn!

Hey everyone! Put down that stubble-filled Hemingway and pick up your aftershave, it's time for the third installment of ...

WTF Wednesday Presents:
The Beard Hunter!

When we last saw our anti-hero, he was nursing his wounded pride (thanks, mom) with body-building magazines, hunting knives and body oil, but after receiving a cryptic letter from The Bearded Gentlemen's Club of Metropolis we find The Beard Hunter deep in enemy territory!

What could lure The Beard Hunter into the headquarters of an organization that would paint beards on their mirrors to "teach beardless visitors the error of their ways," and which once tried to dump beard tonic into the reservoirs to create a bearded city? Ernest Franklin keeps his lunch down long enough to learn that The Bearded Gentlemen have contacted him because they have a common foe; leader of the Doom Patrol, Niles Caulder!

Caulder should have known better than to defy the will of the BGCM! When he "lost the use of his beard," it made perfect sense that the group would want to buy his orphaned follicles — to refuse was a slap in the club's whiskery face!

Soon, The Beard Hunter is ... er, on the hunt, catching up to Caulder in a supermarket. It's on now!

Have I mentioned that Niles Caulder is confined to a wheelchair? It doesn't seem to matter much as the wily beardo manages to avoid The Beard Hunter's wildly spraying Uzi and lays a trap of sunflower oil that sends the vigilante on his ass and into a display of canned goods. And even worse, Caulder adds insult to injury by using The Beard Hunter's own weaponry against him!

But even as Caulder makes his escape, The Beard Hunter is confident he will catch his prey. In fact, he's so confident he stops to make preparations for the end-game with a ritual observed and venerated by vigilantes everywhere.

Click for more Wessonality!

Next week: Dénouement! Or — Is this the end for The Beard Hunter?!

Panels from Doom Patrol #45
Grant Morrison, writer; Vince Giarrano, penciller; Malcolm Jones III, inker

WTF Wednesday: The Beard Hunter - on the razor's edge!

Welcome back, fans of the weird, to the clean-shaven oddity that is ...

WTF Wednesday Presents:
The Beard Hunter!

"Beard Hunter?" you might ask — "What the hell's a Beard Hunter?"

"THE Beard Hunter" (thank you very much) is the sort of satire only Grant Morrison could've cooked up during his warped run on Doom Patrol, and it's one of the crazier characters he came up with — which, if you've read his Doom Patrol stories, is saying something.

In this stand-alone story, vigilante Ernest Franklin is an urban hunter, a misunderstood soldier waging a lonely war — against facial hair. Why? Why target the bearded, the mustachioed, even (or maybe especially) the goateed? Because those guys are obviously assholes, that's why.

After shooting a comic shop patron from a nearby rooftop for saying, "Ron McMurray, award-winning writer/artist on 'The Glo Worm' didn't understand the elementary rules of grammar," our anti-hero shaves off his victim's Van Dyke and leaves him silky smooth on the hood of a car. Unfortunately for him, he's also dead.

You'd think that would earn this gritty punisher of evil some respect, but you'd be oh-so-wrong. After getting hassled on the street by some cross-dressing hookers ("They were lucky. No beards.") he goes back to headquarters. Which happens to be his mother's house. Can't a guy just go home to spend time with his stuffed dog and body-building magazines?

Moooom!!! Jeez!!

Next week: Who is the man with the blue beard, and what does he want with The Beard Hunter?!?

Panel from Doom Patrol #45
Grant Morrison, writer; Vince Giarrano, penciller; Malcolm Jones III, inker

WTF Wednesday: Enter: The Beard Hunter!

Are you prepared for the baby-faced terror? Are you braced for the silky smooth feel of freshly shaved menace? Are you ready for ...

The Beard Hunter?!?

Click for a closer shave!

In my mind, Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol is the definitive version of the misfit group of heroes, and the sheer tonnage of pure bat-shit crazy in any given issue is a big part of that. There's so much nuttiness in this one issue that one WTF couldn't contain it! To share this bounty I give you the first installment of WTF Wednesday Presents: The Beard Hunter!

Next week: More Beard Hunter!

Panel from Doom Patrol #45
Grant Morrison, writer; Vince Giarrano, penciller; Malcolm Jones III, inker