Unreal City

Drawn over nearly a decade, the five stories in Bryant’s first collection show a keen eye for sharp angles, crisply lined backgrounds, creeping eroticism, and an attention to noirish detail. They comprise a survey of modern comic styles while retaining Bryant’s unique viewpoint. The influences are flooded throughout: the penchant for alienated young hipsters twisted up in pulpy scenarios of lust and betrayal recalls Daniel Clowes and Raymond Pettibon, there is an explicit call-out to Steve Ditko, and the plot is suffused with a David Lynch-like emphasis on surreal theatricality—everybody is either playing a role, lost in a dream, or being mistaken for somebody else. Each story has its own merits, particularly the B-movie kick of “Evelyn Dalton-Hoyt.” But the concluding piece, “Objet D’Art,” is the standout, threading a Paul Auster-esque roundelay of role-playing and personality shifts into a relationship drama studded with angst-ridden kink and unexpectedly potent romanticism. (Aug.)