DRAWN & QUARTERLY SHOWCASE: Book One

For this first volume in Drawn and Quarterly's ambitious program to spotlight young talent in a long-form showcase, the artists each use a different two-color palette and tell stories linked by their emphasis on the visual poetry possible in comics. Huizenga's three interlocking short stories focus on the daydreams of Glenn Ganges, a man deeply preoccupied with conceiving a child with his wife. In a Midwestern suburban landscape, Ganges wonders about refugees from the Sudan and pesky birds and goes on a quest for an ogre's feathers. Huizenga uses a clean cartoon style related to the delineations of Gasoline Alley , combining articulate ideas about love and worry with humorous asides and a knack for moments of stunning visual beauty, as when he devotes a page to the flight of a flock of birds. Robel's half is a single surreal story done in hues of green and red. More vague and angst-ridden than Huizenga's work, it follows a woman through a mansion and into her dreams and nightmares, blurring the line between life and fantasy. It's an entertaining romp, visually arresting, and suggests future promise for Robel, even if it doesn't pack quite the punch of Huizenga's more direct and fully formed work. The anthology is a successful idea and important for comics' future. Giving young artists space to stretch out and develop in book form is necessary, and by taking a chance on new talent, Drawn and Quarterly again proves it's one of today's most adventurous and important comics publishers. (Oct.)