Jeff Smith, whose
sable brushes brought us Bone, has a new collected epic to
burden your bookshelf with: RASL.
Smith’s work is a genuine labour of love. A self-publisher
from the very beginning, he crafts the sorts of stories he’d like to see — something
recognizable if not immediately familiar, but also recognizably different, and
pleasantly so. His characters are easily identifiable “types” — heroes,
antiheroes, put-upon secondary cast members, etc. — he invests with subtle call-and-response
flourishes rarely seen in the comics industry. Those of us who retrieved the Bone books off our kids’ bedroom floors
were astonished to see the sensibilities of Carl Barks and Walt Kelly
merging seamlessly within a Lord Of The Rings epic cycle.*
Bone: all this, and "Good Girl" art, too! |
RASL is similarly
cracked: “a gritty, hard-boiled tale of an inter-dimensional art thief caught
between dark government forces and the mysterious powers of the universe
itself,” according to Smith’s own press kit. I’m not sure “gritty” applies — other
than Will Eisner, whose depiction of
NYC’s litter-strewn alleys evoked genuine stink, you’d have to go deep
Underground to find “gritty” — but “hard-boiled” seems about right.
During the early chapters of RASL I was reminded of my first reading of Frank Miller’s original “Marvin” storyline in what became the Sin
City franchise. Dark Horse
publishers had clearly given Miller the go-ahead to do whatever he wanted, and
what followed was a parade of, “You mean I can do this?” followed by, “And how about this?” and guttural guffawing ever after. Smith seems similarly
energized, giving himself, for example, the freedom to explore the female form
and the desire it elicits.
Unlike Miller, Smith is disinclined to settle for a
surface exploration of noir tropes,
but instead uses them to launch into some physical and even metaphysical
questions with unusual depth.
I’ll get into some of that in my next post — but forewarning,
there will be spoilers. Nothing I say would have ruined my read of the book,
had I known about them in advance. But to each their own. Proceed at your own
discretion, when posted.
RASL is an
advancement of ability for Smith, and a recommended read. My only caveat: holy
cow, what a (physical) monster. I do not have room for that on my shelves (I
gratefully borrowed a copy from the local library), and look forward to a day
when I can purchase the digital edition.
More anon. Smith offers a RASL preview, here.
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