On Your Mark!

One of the most interesting and closely-watched comix events of the year takes place this week when new publisher First Second releases its inaugural lineup of books. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a trade publishing division of the Holtzbrinck Publishing group, First Second will be uniquely dedicated to new works of graphical literature. (Full disclosure: First Second has hired me to edit a book project due in 2008.) Unlike previous ventures into the graphic novel medium by traditional publishers, which tended to be more like timid toe-dips into an unfamiliar pond, First Second has an ambitious and smart lineup of books scheduled for the next three years. Based on the first releases that appear simultaneously this week, if First Second doesn't do well financially, it will at least have published some extremely interesting and admirable books.

Guided by Editorial Director Mark Siegel, First Second's list is ambitious both in volume and content. Siegel seems to be taking something of a shotgun approach, simultaneously releasing clusters of books aimed at different demographics and interests. Six books are on shelves now, and this Fall will see the release of another half dozen, with plans to release up to 15 titles a year for at least another two years. They plan on establishing a brand through content, design and price. All the books will be paperbacks of a uniform "cargo-pocket" size. They all run at about 100 pages, printed in full color on glossy paper. Best of all, the price point never exceeds $20.

Even more importantly, the quality of the work is high. The initial releases, from creators both international and domestic and aimed at most age groups, offer a worthy book for almost anyone. Here is the rundown of First Second's inaugural list:

A.L.I.E.E.N. by Lewis Trondheim is the strangest of the group. Presented as a reprint of a comic book from another planet, it includes (minimal) dialogue in some untranslatable language. Anyone familiar with the bizarre works of Jim Woodring, who specializes in creating mute, inexplicable worlds of beauty and danger, will immediately see kinship between the two authors. The book looks, at arm's length, like something for kids, with cute characters akin to Pokemon, interacting in a colorful environment. But a closer read reveals a cruel world of domination and subjugation that often involves weird forms of violence. "Why is the purple guy having his skin torn off by the orange one," may be a typically unwanted and unanswerable question for a parent. Those without such concerns, however, will enjoy the schadenfreude humor and wild imagination of A.L.I.E.E.N.

Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by Jean-Philippe Stassen, a Belgian who lives in Rwanda, makes the greatest impression of this first round of books. First there is its setting, modern Rwanda, just after the ethnic massacres of 1994 that left 800,000 people dead in 100 days. Rich in authentic cultural and environmental detail, the book's authority is established within a few pages, putting you in a world never seen before in the medium. A harrowing tale about a madman, Deogratias, who imagines himself a dog, the story moves back and forth in time before and after the massacre, revealing the horrifying source of Deogratias' lunacy. Expertly drawn in a clear, European-style that uses thick lines and striking colors, the graphics alone would set the book apart. That it also tells a powerfully humane story set against the madness of hate, racial bigotry and the legacy of colonialism, makes Deogratias a book not to missed.

The Fate of the Artist by Eddie Campbell, of From Hell fame, continues the author's recent interest in alternate forms of autobiography (see Alec: How to Be an Artist.) A bold, Pirandellian book, Fate is structured like a detective story, but the missing character is the author himself. Fusing text, traditional comic pages, gag strips, and photos, the book's form reflects its fractured content as it swings from detective pastiche to domestic anecdotes to meditations on the role of art. Through it all, Campbell maintains a sharp eye, strong wit and stimulating intelligence. Though not entirely coherent, Campbell's big thinking and sense of humor make The Fate of the Artist well worth enduring the brief moments of head scratching.

The Lost Colony: The Snodgrass Conspiracy by Grady Klein, the most uncategorizable of the First Second books, reads like something you would expect to find on the home-made desk of the local eccentric after he died. This first in a multi-volume series (aren't they all?), introduces a sui generis world of oddballs who live on a mysterious island, presumably somewhere off the Atlantic coast of the U.S., sometime prior to the Civil War. The premise of the first book has Bertha Snodgrass, the grade-school-age daughter of the island's governor, deciding to buy a slave on the mainland and bring him back to do her chores. You can't fault Grady for a lack of daring. But the book's bizarre conflation of the horror of human slavery mixed with childish whimsy, including magical candy, a giant robot and little rock creatures, leaves the tone of the book a hopeless confusion. Produced entirely by digital means, The Lost Colony may be most notable as one of the few such books that actually makes you wonder if it wasn't hand-done. Klein has a special vision that seems worthy of exploration, so here's hoping subsequent volumes are a little more focused.

Sardine in Outer Space by Emmanuel Guilbert & Joann Sfar will also be a multi-volume series, but aimed at young readers. The book collects short, silly stories that feature Sardine, a little girl who dresses like a witch, travels around in space with her pirate uncle and trouble-making cousin Little Louie, and gets into goofy adventures battling Supermuscleman, a comical bad guy who wants to capture all the children of the universe. As a comic for very young readers, it has plenty of funny visuals and easy plots. In one, the group has to win a dance contest on Planet Discoball in order secure gasoline. But its episodic nature keeps the characters from changing or growing, which will likely try the patience of the Harry Potter set. As an early My-First-Comic, though, Sardine in Outer Space has enough cute art and goofy humor to teach the basics of comic literacy in an entertaining way.

Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar ought to be the break-out hit for First Second. If the filmmakers Eric Rohmer (Pauline at the Beach) and Tim Burton (The Corpse Bride) ever teamed up on a graphic novel, it might well resemble this funny take on the complex love life of a sensitive vampire ("I bite with one tooth so that it looks like a mosquito bite") and his friends. Sfar imagines a world being shared with our own, but made up of ghosts, monsters and witches who do things like rent cruise ships so they can be with their own kind and get caught up in lots of emotional drama. (Could it be a subtle parody of gay culture?) The story centers around Ferdinand's various rebound relationships after his girlfriend dumps him. In a sub-plot his friend Tree-man (who looks like a tree but acts like a lovesick French student) has an unreciprocated yearning for Ferdinand's ex. "If I hug you too long then I'll want to kiss you and then it'll all be a big mess and we won't just be friends anymore," she says, in a typical bit of dialogue. Sfar's endlessly inventive and funny variations on the supernatural theme — e.g. the werewolf changing back to human only if a girl kisses him, "but with a wolf's face it's not gonna be a cakewalk" — add fresh comedic blood to the otherwise wane romantic Vampire genre. Funny, truthful and clever, Vampire Loves is one of the best comix of the year so far.