RASL #2
Original Storytelling, Great Art and Mature Themes Come Together In Jeff Smith's RASL
RASL #2
June 20th, 2008 - OK, let's cut to the chase. Plain and simple, RASL is one of the best and most original comics currently on the market. It's only two issues in, but there are so many good things taking place on in this book that the possibilities ahead are very exciting.
Going in, you know you're dealing with a master storyteller. Jeff Smith has only a couple of comic titles to his credit, but one of them, Bone, happens to be a 1,300 page fantasy epic produced over more than a decade; it is a modern literary and artistic masterpiece. You know this guy can deliver the goods.
In between the completion of Bone and the beginning of RASL, Smith worked on the DC four issue, limited series Shazam-Monster Society of Evil, which was a fun, entertaining read, with some beautiful art. It was a nice stop-gap for Smith fans before he got back to the serious business of telling a long form tale over the course of what—with RASL—are likely to be many issues.
While the first issue only hinted as to what was going on, issue #2 starts to pick up the pace, but still leaves a lot of open-ended questions.
The story revolves around our protagonist, Rasl, a guy that could pass for the mutant off-spring of John Mellencamp and a cave-woman, and who is some sort of inter-dimensional traveling art thief. He uses thermo-magnetic engines to bend space to achieve his dimension hopping and when he does come through to the other side he is somewhat the worse for wear–disheveled, in pain, and looking like he's been beaten to mashed potatoes.
Issue #1 begins and ends with a seemingly identical scene. We see Rasl walking dazed and out of sorts thru a desert, as he appears to have just come out of The Drift, the name he has given to the area between dimensions. Sandwiched between these scenes we follow him as he is seen stealing the famous Picasso painting “The Old Guitarist,” from the home of a weathly art patron, while a bizarre man whom he says looks like a lizard (he graces the cover of issue #2 but does not appear in it) stakes him out.
Issue #2 finds Rasl appearing at the apartment of Annie, a woman with whom, it seems, he's had relations with before--likely as a call-girl; as payment for her services he gives her the Picasso painting. Later in the night, he wakes up from her embrace, the two of them lying together on the floor, and he has to make sure that he's in the right world, Does she have any Bob Dylan CDs? Does she know who Bob Dylan is? In the last dimension he was in, everything was as it should be, but Dylan wasn't Dylan; he was still Bob Zimmerman.
Calmer now, he relaxes, and the girl takes from her neck an amulet of some kind with a carving of the symbol of a man and a maze. She tells him that she knows he's seen it before and explains to him that as the man gets closer to the center of the maze, the turns come quicker. What is at the center, he asks? Death, puberty, marriage, she answers. The future, it seems, and the past. What exactly is the meaning of this amulet? And who is this girl that she would possess it? We discover that the lizard-faced man is part of an organization called the Compound and they have also discovered the secret of bending time. But why are they after Rasl?
For now, the ideas and characters are very intriguing. What's also interesting is how Smith is really pushing himself into new territories with this story. With Bone, it was a large fantasy world that could be read to children, yet also had deeper meanings and themes, relevant to adults. With RASL, Smith is going directly to the mature themes and doesn't shy away from adult depictions and situations.
The art is excellent and falls along the lines of some of the work to be found in Bone, but there isn't always as clean a line as is found in that book. There is some occasional scratchiness and grittiness to the art. Smith could make all the holding lines thick and bold and smooth if he wanted to, but he chooses a different approach, which works perfectly with the story--there's more of a European flavor to the brushwork. It's also a joy to see Smith back to working in pure black and white. Shazam looked great in color and that worked well for its story, but RASL (and Bone) just feel right in black and white. While Bone had human characters in addition to cartoon ones, so far, RASL is routed in reality. There are modern-day kitchens, jeeps, and appliances, and no swords or dragons to be found. Not that those elements might not show up later on. That's the excitement of the story so far--it may just stay within this sort of everyday world but it feels like it has the opportunity, like Rasl himself, to go in many different directions and take the reader along for a mysterious and sublime ride.
Discuss This Review
For more information please visit Boneville.com