The debut volume of Bone
creator Smith’s new series is distinctly not for kids, but its gripping images and swift pacing are as impressive as anything he’s done. In its first two chapters we meet Rasl, an art thief who’s mixed up in some very weird circumstances: to make his getaways, he passes (painfully) through a sort of other-dimensional warp called the Drift, and sometimes he doesn’t end up on the right version of Earth. He’s also got a mysterious gunman following him, a mysterious tattoo on his arm and a prostitute girlfriend with a mysterious necklace that displays a “symbol of emergence.” More even than Bone
, Rasl
is built around a few indelible images, like the agonized appearance of Rasl emerging from the Drift and the sinister grin of the strange-faced man who’s following him; it’s a pretty minimal story so far (the book was reviewed from an incomplete galley), and Smith clearly knows more about the world he’s building than he lets on. Still, his scrubby, rough-edged brushwork (showcased nicely by the book’s oversized format) gets across the story’s foreboding, quiet moments as well as its chaotic chase scenes, and his knack for character design is always a treat. (Dec.)
