Fires

This haunting, supernatural tale, by an Italian illustrator and fashion designer, displays the artistry of European comics at their very best. The great battleship Anselm II steams into the harbor of a small island, the hills of which inexplicably and continuously blaze with fires. The ship has come to explore the island and investigate a series of missing vessels in the vicinity. Lieutenant Absinthe, a young naval officer leading the reconnaissance, discovers that this enigmatic place is inhabited by even more inscrutable creatures and that he has been selected, by two chimerical cherubs, to be the island's defender. After deserting his command, the lieutenant, possessed and hallucinating, proceeds to destroy his shipmates. Mattotti's color drawingsvivid, brooding and rigorously composedcombine masterfully with a narrative of great sensitivity and lyrical mystery. The artwork has the conceptual depth and textural richness of paintings and propels the eye through this finely crafted, gripping story of mystic possession, psychic delirium and explosive, fiery retribution. (August)