The self-sustaining nature of Beanworld showcases a world that works together to support itself. And Marder’s storytelling is systematic but it’s never impersonal or stilted. It’s the beauty of a system that it needs conflict in order to evolve. Marder’s ecosystem develops and changes because he keeps breaking it and then has to create a new and evolved status quo from the system he just broke. To grow the system, Marder has to break it by introducing uncertainty into it. There’s a system to Beanworld which is fairly self-regulating but Marder knows that this “perfect” system doesn’t require the characters to grow at all so he throws conflict at the characters, whether it’s an injury like what happens to one of the Chow Sol’jers or the idea of forces outside of Beanworld like the flighty Dreamishness’s brothers who are introduced in this book. And this gets to the heart of Marder’s Beanworld stories. This kicks off a series of events that introduces uncertainty into this fairly staid circle of life. The cycle is broken when one of the Chow Sol’jers injures his arm during the raid.

But that’s merely a self-perpetuating cycle and Beanworld is about growth. Spook leads his Chow Sol’jers into the Hoi-Polloi Ring Herd to get Chow and leave their Sprout-Butt as their way of feeding the cycle of life. Beanworld Volume 4: Hoka Hoka Burb’l Burb’l begins with this harmony. Marder has warriors, scientists, soldiers, and artists all existing in this harmonious encapsulation of reality. The various elements of this world mesh together to feed and provide a purpose for all of these characters.

Beanworld is almost a perfect, self-sustaining cycle. There is a way that Marder’s stories function. Spook, Professor Garbonzo and the quartet of Pod’l’pools, Marder continues to tell his story in this code, expressing spiritual, environmental and existential truths through the simplicity of beans. With his latest peek into the world of Mr. It’s almost like Marder is cartooning in some kind of code, sending out messages to those with the decoder ring that never ended up in my box of Cracker Jacks. To be quite honest, I’m never too sure what I’ve read after finishing any of Larry Marder’s Beanworld books.

Beanworld, Vol. 1 by Larry Marder