Former CIA agent Felix Leiter, who lost
two of his limbs when he was thrown into
a shark tank, now sports a cybernetic arm
and leg, gifts from Bond. This story takes
Felix to Japan, where he is tracking
ex-KGB agent Alena Davoff for CIRO
(the Japanese CIA), led by his friend
“Tiger” Tanaka, who suspects Alena of
aiding a cult leader with ties to North
Korea. Alena gives Felix the slip, and
before he can track her down a dirty bomb
goes off in Tokyo, killing hundreds. The
chase is on as Felix and Tiger team up to
find Alena and those responsible for the
bombing. Felix is no James Bond—in fact
he says so, repeatedly. Felix was obviously
a good CIA agent, but his trauma and
insecurity make him semi-effective and
filled with low self-esteem. The colors,
line work, and even facial expressions are
dark, serving as a metaphor for Felix’s
entire outlook on life. This spin-off to the
Bond oeuvre offers a welcome dose of
character development. (Nov.)
★ Fütchi Perf
Kevin Czap. Uncivilized (Consortium, dist.),
$15.95 trade paper (88p) ISBN 978-1-941250-
21-1
Czap presents a loving, optimistic
look at the future through the lens of a
near-utopian Cleveland and a brave new
type of popular culture. The slim volume
offers up a series of vignettes, each zeroing
in on a part of Czap’s world, in which the
massively influential think tank Kid
Mind links youth of all demographics
together in an egalitarian melting pot of
music, language, and communal
growth. Czap’s Cleveland has plenty of
infrastructure and arts funding; thriving,
colorful neighborhoods; accessible local
elections. Making all this work requires a
bit of future-tech handwaving, but plau-sibility isn’t what Czap is going for—it’s
the idea of a different kind of world,
expressionistically rendered in soft curves
and luminous, two-toned hues. With
introspective ruminations on self-actualization and the beauty of radical love,
Czap begs the reader to imagine another
kind of existence in which capitalist power
structures have given way to something
more emotionally and tangibly just. The
final line is an exhortation: “Get here.”
One can only hope. (Oct.)
badgers, and in beastly gags like a pair of
gangster crayfish called the Cray Brothers
and, inevitably, a cameo by slimy piscine
pulp writer Byron Turbot. It’s a rousing
finish to a series that displays Talbot’s
fertile imagination at its best. (Nov.)
★ Satania
Kerascoet and Fabien Vehlmann. NBM,
$24.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-68112-143-7
The team behind the acclaimed Beautiful
Darkness upends readers’ expectations
with subversive force. Things start off as a
jaunty hollow-earth adventure tale, with
shades of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules
Verne. An arrogant scientist and a gruff
village priest are joined by a flame-haired
young woman, Charlie, in exploring
underground caverns to find her beloved
brother, Christopher, who has gone
missing trying
to prove his
outré theories
about the world
below. While
the priest and
scientist bicker
over the inter-
section of the-
ology and sci-
ence, the team
descends ever closer to an unbelievable
inferno, uncovering one deadly wonder
after another. Kerascoet’s art transitions
from the wide-eyed cartoonishness of
young adult graphic novels to a more
intricate, gruesomely beautiful style as
the ever-smaller expedition comes closer
to discovering not only Christopher’s fate
but possibly the secret of the afterlife and
hell itself. Vehlmann’s writing is refresh-
ingly willing to tangle with philosophical
subjects in a highly NSFW manner. This
bruising, antiromantic odyssey to the
heart of darkness still manages to locate a
glimmer of light amidst all the hellish-
ness. (Nov.)
James Bond: Felix Leiter
James Robinson and Aaron Campbell.
Dynamite, $24.99 (152p) ISBN 978-1-5241-
0470-2
The Bond sidekick gets his first ever
solo outing from Robinson (Starman)
and artist Campbell (Green Hornet, The
Shadow), and it’s a nice change of pace
from the supremely confident Bond.
Jerusalem Rising: Adah’s Journey
Barbara M. Britton. Pelican, $14.99 trade
paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-6111-6940-9
Britton (Building Benjamin) continues her
Tribes of Israel series in this fine retelling of
a Bible story, this time that of the rebuilding
of Jerusalem’s wall. Adah is the daughter of
Shallum, who rules half of Jerusalem. When
she finds out that Nehemiah, the governor
of Judea, plans to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall,
she volunteers her family to help. The prospect of an aging father, a blind mother, and
two daughters working on the wall makes
the family the butt of many jokes, emboldening Rephaiah, her father’s co-ruler, to
vocalize his contempt for Shallum’s family
in order to seize control of Jerusalem for
himself. Nevertheless, Adah remains determined that her family be memorialized as
one of those that helped to rebuild the wall.
As Judea’s neighboring territories try to stop
the building of the wall, Adah’s strength
and courage make a friend and ally out of
Nehemiah. Despite the opposition and the
challenges Adah and Nehemiah face, they
continue with the task that God has called
them to do. Britton’s story transcends a
simple biblical retelling thanks to the feisty,
unshakable Adah. (Dec.)
Comics
Grandville: Force Majeure
Bryan Talbot. Dark Horse, $24.99 (176p)
ISBN 978-1-5067-0380-0
The lively final installment in Talbot’s
Grandville series is set in an alternate
19th century in which England is under
French rule, steampunk technology proliferates, and, oh yes, everyone is an
anthropomorphic animal. Grandville is
named after a classical French caricaturist
but is perhaps more directly influenced
by the French/Spanish Blacksad series.
In this volume, hero Archie LeBrock, a
police detective with the deduction skills
of Sherlock Holmes and the tenacity of a
badger (which he is), takes on an international reptile crime organization that puts
his family in jeopardy. The convoluted
story takes a while to pick up steam, but
the action-packed climax resolves mystery
after mystery with panache. Half the pleasure of the series is in Talbot’s carefully
drawn menagerie of animal characters,
from horned toads to baboons to honey
