ARC from Netgalley.
This second (and final Volume? Why? This is a great title!) Volume continues the social commentary and hilarity of the first Volume, this time focusing heavy on politics. Some gems:
- Gazoo makes his observations about the human race
- Fred deals with both unemployment and PTSD
- Clod, a mindless barbarian, is elected to Bedrock mayor and though he has the huge support of the people at the beginning, they soon realize how bad he is for them and their society, sticking him on a movie set so that he thinks he is still working (First off, does this remind you of anything? LOL Maybe the way to deal with our idiot of a President is just to put him in a fake White House and have him keep working! LOL I love this idea! Plus, maybe we could finally start progressing as a country again... ok, political rant over...)
- Clod feels like society needs more Dinosaur armor and closes the Children's Hospital to get the funding. (LOL I said I was done, so I'll leave this one go... but watch out.... this could be next)
- When Fred gets a new bowling ball, Vacuum Cleaner and Coat Rack go in search of the old Bowling Ball (I always loved the living household tools and appliances)
- The men begin to sneak off the movie theater to watch movies that help them understand women
- Hipsters move into town and take offense with a statue of Fred and Barney that Barney made to honor their friendship (The hipsters are hilarious! I'd love to see this animated!)
- When the bowling tournament finals take place, Fred's new Bowling Ball (an armadillo) decides to protest on the last shot, causing the Quarry boys the game.

Both Volumes of this comic were excellent! Absolute must-reads for modern comic readers. Who would have thought that The Flintstones would be the strongest social commentary?!

While I can appreciate the dark social commentary, Mark Russell and Steve Pugh has given us, the last thing I need to be reminded of is how humanity seems to be headed to oblivion, especially in Trump's America. I don't need a social satire set in Bedrock to open my eyes to what I see every day. It made this a bit of a slog to get through. The one bright spot in the book were Bowling Ball and Vacuum Cleaner. Yeah the story got very dark in places, but their story ends on a heart warming note.

Fred, Wilma, Betty, Barney, and company are all adjusting to 'civilization' in Bedrock - with varying degrees of success. It's astonishing to see that a classic cartoon from my childhood has become a poignant social commentary, exploring the value and impact of such important topics as religion and art.

Bedlam is a good description of this volume. You have closing of hospitals, attempted war on the lizard people, a galaxy neighborhood association visit, Fred's birthday party plus bowling to get through. But if you enjoy the updated hi-jinks of Fred, Barny, Betty, and Wilma plus Pebbles and Bam-Bam's science explorations, you are likely to enjoy Bedrock Bedlam.

I was excited to see this as an ARC and looked forward to reading it (I did not read the first volume). Once I did read it, I realized this wasn't like the Flintstones that I grew up with. This book had things about aliens and such....it didn't seem too much like the cartoon. I expected this to be like the cartoon but maybe the author is going for something else. I didn't finish the book because I was disappointed and didn't see much reason to finish.

Another great, whimsy edition to the flintstones series, full of humour and heart

Flintstones were my favourite cartoon. Reading this story brings back my old memories.......

I grew up watching The Flintstones and then bought the seasons on DVD as an adult. I love everything about it - the characters, the storylines, the catchphrases, the prehistoric household appliances. Needless to say, I was all yabba dabba doo at the chance to read The Flintstones Vol. 2: Bedrock Bedlam.

I tried so hard to love this one but unfortunately my get up and go just got up and went. I didn't find it funny and never connected with the characters. Maybe it was a case of my expectations being too high for a childhood favourite but it never really felt like I was reading about my favourite modern Stone Age family. I'm so sad to say that it never lived up to the Hanna-Barbera cartoons for me.

I received a copy of this graphic novel from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and DC Entertainment for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

I have trouble finding the words to express how much I LOVE The Flintstones reboot comics. “Bedrock Bedlam” is an even stronger follow-up to the first volume. The art is beautiful and the satire is biting. They definitely are not the Flintstones of your childhood (or the childhood of your parents).

Continuing and alas concluding the fabulous black comedy take on the prehistoric everyman family - though if there was one thing I found slightly unsatisfactory in this volume, it was the way that rather than being a proto-Homer Simpson, Fred would often be the one delivering the stark moral of the stories. Still, everyone else tends to ignore him and carry on doing stupid human things, so at least there's that. Reflected concerns of our own times include gentrification, drone warfare and people's love of electing manifestly terrible political leaders. And honestly, it near makes me weep to think of all the people out there reading clunking, self-satisfied state-of-the-nation novels and not getting half the insight into our travails which they could be getting here - plus, this has dinosaurs! On which note, the subplot about the bowling ball and the vacuum cleaner...oh man. Think Toy Story, without the happy ending.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2129396187?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I was a little hesitant requesting this Flintstones comic. I loved the original and was concerned because of prior experience with remakes. The storyline is quite bizarre from the first page. Unfortunately, this comic falls short by trying to reinvent the Flintstones for a new audience while still capitalising on the name of the Flintstones. Third page in and the marauders are calling Fred and Wilma 'suckers' and then they're using the word 'newbie' and it just doesn't feel like the Flinstones at all. There's clever little bits throughout, but it would have been a far better story had they used a generic family rather than 'update' something that has always worked well.

This second volume absolutely delivers! When I saw The End, I still wanted more! This series has taken classic characters and a setting everyone is familiar with and brought it to 2017. The political commentary in this volume is done so well. Humanity is shown fully, flaws and advantages. This series oddly pairs well with the nonfiction book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

Each chapter has its own focus while still keeping the whole arc moving forward. The church story is great. Economics comes up in this volume. Wilma's mother and her transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer. The heart of this volume though, is in the appliances. I almost cried.

There's also great pop culture references. Stony Danza as a celebrity endorsement was hilarious. Pterodactyl drones attacking innocent people.

This whole series is a great commentary on humanity. There's only two volumes, so you might as well just buy them both! I give this volume a 5/5. It effectively uses a simple story to show complex ideas and makes you question everyday things.

Mark Russell and Steve Pugh’s acclaimed Flintstones series comes to a yabba-dabba-end with this second volume. While Bedrock’s community undergoes numerous changes, Fred’s career at Mr Slate’s Quarry continues to have its ups and downs, Wilma’s still trying to make it as an artist, and Pebbles questions the importance of science and religion.

Like the first book, Russell uses the Flintstones to critique modern Western society. The First Church of Gerald discovers it can make money off its rubes, er, “parishioners” through paid forgiveness of sins, George Slate embraces an Ayn Randian religion but finds material success is hollow, and Clod continues to scare up money for a bizarre war against the nebulous “Lizard People” who’re stealing some guy’s ferns! The comparisons to our world are easy to see.

As clever as it is though, the material doesn’t make for a gripping read and, coupled with the lack of an overall narrative and episodic structure (which I get mirrors the TV show), made it very easy to keep putting down. I was never that wrapped up in what any of the characters were doing and often found my mind wandering.

Ironically, while Russell couldn’t make me care much about the Flintstones themselves, I was shocked at how deeply he affected me with his two new, minor characters: Bowling Ball and Vacuum Cleaner. The Flintstones’ appliances are all living animals who start talking to one another once the humans leave so their stories have a Toy Story-esque vibe to them. And, like Toy Story 3 in particular, without going into spoilers it gets surprisingly dark. The small lives and dreams of Bowling Ball and Vacuum Cleaner are the biggest takeaway for me from this series; beautiful, understated and totally unexpected to find in a Flintstones comic of all things!

I also liked that Russell gave religion a fair shake. The First Church of Gerald is obviously a stand-in for Christianity and, while not religious myself and I’m guessing Russell isn’t either, religion clearly has its place in our society and helps many people so I was pleased to see that acknowledged rather than reading yet another tedious one-sided screed bashing belief.

I appreciated Russell/Pugh’s Flintstones run more than I enjoyed it – the lack of any strong stories probably being my biggest issue - but I can easily see why so many loved it. It’s got heart, brains and humour wrapped in fine art and a smart modern take on an iconic series. And it ends perfectly too: with a bowling match! The Flintstones, Volume 2 isn’t the most compelling read but I think most fans will be delighted with this version of the show.

Mark Russell's re-imagining of The Flintstones not only brings America's favorite prehistoric family into the 21st century, it makes them prescient to the issues of today. "Brilliant" is a term dropped way too often for this sort of thing, but The Flintstones truly deserves it. It's relevant, incredibly well written, smart, funny, and even at time heartbreaking. Easily one of the best ongoing comics series out there.

This is the Flinstones like I’ve never seen them before! Filled with amusing and all-so-true comparisons to modern life, Bedrock has truly become filled with modern stone age families. The book takes on things like the compulsive desires of humans to own more and more, all while having enough money to not work too hard. There is a satirical look at people who try to buy their way into heaven and how women have felt like they were treated no better than animals—sold and forced into labor. Much more is covered here.

I found myself nodding along to all the examples of human folly in our modern life. This book was great!

I am sorry. I just don't get it. I really tried.
What is this, and why is this? I feel like it tries to be so many things that it fails to really connect on any point. The characters are so unlike the classic cartoon, that for me, there was an automatic disconnect that didn't improve much as I read volume 2. Its attempt to be a social commentary, satire etc makes the serious statements uttered by various characters unintentionally soap-box and comedic. I think it was a nice try, but certainly doesn't work for me.
---Ronb

How can one praise Russell's take on this Hanna Barbera classic without repeating what's probably been said so many time already? Through the lens of the iconic modern stone act family, an impressive array of themes are explored in less than two hundred pages. Plus, there's an abundance of satire that is quite on-the-nose in admittedly a very enjoyable fashion, from the literal lumbering doofus of a mayor to the scattered appearances of one of the first economists.

Thanks to Russell, the Flintstones are no longer just a piece of pop culture whose time has past. Even though Fred, Wilma and the others are still living in rock homes amongst dinosaurs, the challenges they face are no different from the ones occupying us today.