The Book I Want to Buy:
Petrogr
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by Philip Gelatt and Tyler Crook; Oni Press, $29.99
A nice thick hardcover book about a British spy plotting to kill Rasputin, the ‘mad monk’ who sort of ran things in the waning days of the rule of the Romanoff family in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Rasputin was always an interesting figure, what with allegations of his using black magic and potions to get his wishes fulfilled, and is a natural topic for a graphic novel. Plus, anything set around the WWI era gets my attention.
The art on this book is by Tyler Crook, who impressed me with the last issue of BPRD. This is his first work, and I’m curious to see how he handles a long historical piece. The writer, Philip Gelatt, is only known to me through his Labor Day, which I didn’t really like, but I’m willing to give him another chance based on the subject matter here alone.
The Book I Think You Should Buy:
Meta 4
by Ted McKeever; Image, $14.99
So I’m telling you to go and buy this, but there are a bunch of disclaimers that I need to make before you do that and get all angry with me. Ted McKeever is not for everyone. And this book is not for every Ted McKeever fan. He takes his work to a new level of obscurity and obtuseness with Meta 4, and I’m sure I only understood a fraction of what was going on.
On the surface, this book is about a man who wakes up in an astronaut costume in Coney Island, with no memory of how he got there or who he is. He meets a gigantic woman in a Santa suit who is a tattoo artist who only speaks in symbol. They go on a trip together. Also, there’s a kid who speaks with a lisp, and bullets that are broadcasting a police band where a hostage situation is being described. Like I said, it’s a weird book.
McKeever has this style of drawing that is so ugly that it’s beautiful, and this is easily his most beautiful book yet. I do recommend it, and figure that it will read much better in trade than it did in a series of sporadically released comics.
So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?
