AfrodisiacJim Rugg and Brian Maruca. AdHouse (www.adhousebooks.com), $14.95 (96p) ISBN 978-1-935233-06-0
From the creators of the excellent Street Angel comes this thoroughly entertaining and utterly nutso pastiche of several eras of late-20th century comics genres and the superbad blaxploitation heroic archetype. The titular hero is a '70s-era bad brutha-man archetype writ hilariously large and depicted in adventures that cross multiple perfectly evoked comics styles (the art's a knockout). Afrodisiac's all-over-the-place exploits provide a frantic cornucopia overflowing with legions of foxy white ladies driven to states of unabashed lubricity by our hero's melanin-rich manliness; space aliens and flying saucers; dinosaurs; funny animals; Richard Nixon; kung fu; Hercules; giant monsters; Dracula; and damn near everything else that made '70s schlock entertainment among the most fun stuff ever concocted by the mind of man. Loads of fun from start to finish, this book's one flaw is that its satirical points may be lost on those not well versed in blaxploitation in particular and '70s trash culture in general, but the disorientation born from such unfamiliarity may end up working in its favor, allowing the novice to perceive it as some malt liquor-fueled, somewhat underground-flavored throwback. (Jan.)
Graphic Classics: Louisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott and various. Eureka (www.graphicclassics.com), $17.95 paper (144p) ISBN 978-0-9787919-8-8
To give readers a broader understanding of classic writers, books in this ongoing series include adaptations of several varied stories. In this case, a highly abridged version of Alcott's most famous work, Little Women, shares the volume with her lesser known tales of bizarre passion and revenge. The March sisters in Little Women enjoy play-acting melodramas, and the stories Jo March begins writing are over-the-top gothics; however, generations of readers have loved the novel for its picture of a warm, supportive family, and that's largely lost in this rushed condensation. Other stories focus on the consequences of frustrated isolation. A lonely girl gushes love for her pet fly. An aging operatic diva takes ghastly revenge on the rival who's supplanted her while also stealing her lover. And in what the atmospheric art by Arnold Arre makes the most impressive of all, in “Whisper in the Dark” a young heiress is locked away in an insane asylum so that her dastardly guardian can steal her fortune after she is driven mad. Despite uneven quality in scripts and art—contributors include Trina Robbins, Anne Timmons, Molly Crabapple, and Shary Flenniken—the collection succeeds in giving a wider view of Alcott's output. (Nov.)
Insomnia CaféM.K. Perker. Dark Horse, $14.95 (80p) ISBN 978-1-59582-357-1
Best known in the U.S. as G. Willow Wilson's collaborator on Air and Cairo, Perker first serialized this book in Turkey, although it's got a distinct New York City setting and flavor. It's a patchwork mutt of a tale—partly a farcical adventure about a chronically tardy rare-book expert named Peter Kolinsky who's caught up in shady doings, partly a Borgesian fantasia involving an archive of not-yet-written books that disappear as soon as someone outside the building writes them. The book's tone keeps shifting, and the gruesome, metafictional final act doesn't quite fit with the whimsical mood of the rest of the story. Perker's finely detailed black-and-white linework holds it all together, however. His characters' features and bodies are exaggerated in the manner of editorial cartoons, with arrowhead noses or elongated skulls, but he imagines them so precisely and consistently that the overall effect is of a groggily misperceived city, where everything seems to be a little smeary. Perker suggests that a lifetime immersed in books can distort a reader's view of the world, and in fact the characters' names (Oblomov, Carlos Muñoz) often allude to his literary or artistic influences. The book's playfulness, referentiality, and stylishness don't quite make up for its wobbly plot. (Nov.)
