Web Exclusive Underground
Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber, Image, $14.99 paper (136p) ISBN 9781607062660
This fun story, set in the Stillwater cave systems beneath Marion, Ky., sets a high-action plot amidst the tensions between business and environmental concerns. A pair of park rangers, female caving expert, Wes, and her love interest, Seth, are pitted against town businessman, Winston Barefoot. While Barefoot wants to turn the cave system into a tourist destination for personal profit, Wes wants to protect the caves. When some of Barefoot’s minions blow up a section of the cave, it sets off a chase between the roughnecks and Wes and Seth. As the title suggests, the chase takes place entirely underground, with Wes leading the way with intrepid spelunking. Full-color pages alternate with dark-toned images portraying what happens inside the cave, and in both cases Lieber tells the visual story in sharp, action-oriented drawings that highlight the suspense with tight close-ups and the shading that depicts menace. A simple story is made interesting by the unusual setting, the characters’ specialized knowledge, and a gratifying ending. Extras include an illustration of how a page of the book is created and the original B&W short story that inspired the graphic novel. (May)
The Night Bookmobile
Audrey Niffenegger, Abrams Comic Arts, $19.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-8109-9617-5
Novelist and visual artist Niffenegger brings the dark dreaminess that characterized her bestselling novels to her first full-length graphic novel. After a fight with her boyfriend one night, Alexandra goes for a walk and comes upon a bookmobile. When she goes inside to look at the books, she discovers that it’s a library of her own reading history; every book she’s ever read, including her diary, is on the shelf. As her life continues, she searches for the bookmobile, but years go by before she finds it again. Meanwhile she becomes a librarian and a loner, eventually deciding that she wants to work in the bookmobile, though the price for doing so is high. Niffenegger’s full-color art has a naïve tone, with sometimes stiff figures, and text written in childlike script. The simplicity of the images contrasts with sophisticated page layouts in which she plays with panels and perspective. The story was originally serialized in the Guardian, and in an afterword, Niffenegger reveals that the book is the first volume in a larger project. At heart this romantic, melancholy tale is a paean to reading and to the life one person lives through books. (Sept.)
Special Exits: My Parents--A Memoir
Joyce Farmer, Fantagraphics, $26.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-60699-381-1
Underground feminist comic artist Farmer’s account of how she looked after her aging parents is a quiet wonder. Lars and Rachel are long retired and don’t venture out much from their South Los Angeles home except to go to the grocery store. Lars reads the paper, and both eagerly look forward to visits from their daughter (named Laura but presumably Farmer’s stand-in) as much as they don’t want to trouble her. Over the course of years that cascade through Farmer’s closely detailed story, Lars and Rachel slowly become needier, but do their best to hide their decrepitude from Laura. As the years pass (the 1992 Rodney King riots threaten to make their existence even more perilous), Laura teases out small facts about her parents that she’d never known--the bags of uranium ore that Lars, an engineer, keeps in the garage, Rachel’s desperately poor Missouri childhood. Farmer renders everything in busy, densely packed black-and-white frames whose cluttered look mimics the dusty house, its surfaces thick with cat hair and memories. The story is stunning for its antisentimental realism, as well as for the glimpses of fantasy (Lars’s hallucination of Hades’ ferryman, Charon, rowing by in the hallway) that flicker by like ghosts. (Sept.)
The Playwright
Daren White and Eddie Campbell, Top Shelf, $14.95 (160p) ISBN 978-1-60309-056-8
This intimate look into the self-isolated existence of a successful middle-aged playwright is told in a dispassionate observational style, with its words perfectly coupled with From Hell artist Campbell’s evocative wash-toned illustrations. Wistful and quite melancholy, this narrative examines the playwright’s world and reveals how his loveless upbringing programmed him for a life marked by self-esteem issues and self-sabotage in his abortive relationships with women. Unexpectedly, when his parents die, the playwright allows his mentally challenged brother to move in and hires a full-time nurse to attend to him. As his brother and the nurse settle in, the playwright encounters a caring family situation for the first time, and his association with the nurse blossoms into a relationship that slowly draws him out of his virtual hermitage while simultaneously replacing the hollowness of his success. But now that he’s coming out of his shell, what will become of his career? At times painful and uncomfortable, this quiet character study details the playwright’s state of “relentless mental narration” and succeeds on several levels, but its most potent component is the clearly recognizable and utterly naked humanity. (July)
Troublemaker, Book One
Janet Evanovich, Alex Evanovich and Joelle Jones, Dark Horse, $17.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-59582-488-2
Bestselling author Evanovich continues her Barnaby series (Metro Girl, Motor Mouth) in graphic novel form with the help of her co-writer daughter and artist Jones (You Have Killed Me). No need to know about the previous adventures of Alex Barnaby and NASCAR driver Sam Hooker, since everyone is clearly introduced for new readers. Old friend Felicia has summoned Alex to Florida because their mutual friend Rosa has been kidnapped by someone practicing voodoo. The art is direct and simply laid out, with no more than four panels to a page and the pictures supporting dialogue and caption exposition. That makes for an easy-to-read starting point for those unfamiliar with comics. The attractive figures and detailed settings also help, and Dan Jackson’s bright colors capture the sun-soaked feel of Miami. Jones gives Barnaby wide-open eyes and an adorable pug nose that makes her appear young and approachable. She’s cute, and that plays well in the action-packed romantic comedy/thriller that follows (including outdated cougar jokes). Jones is also good with the dog, Beans, a slobbery St. Bernard, providing comic relief. For those not already Evanovich fans, it’s rather like a grown-up Scooby Doo; the story’s conclusion is due in Book Two in November. (July)
