Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got five new comics:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

”Rasl” Issues 1-13 by Jeff Smith

“Rasl” is the latest comic book series from “Bone” cartoonist Jeff Smith. The first issue came out back in 2008 and I read the first few issues back then but then missed a couple along the way and though I still bought each issue as it came out didn’t read them until I recently managed to track down the missing ones. Now with all thirteen issues in hand I got to read them all in a row.

Rasl is the name of the lead character. He looks a little beat up and unkempt but as the story unfolds we learn he once was a clean cut scientist. I remember reading the first three issues and my main memory of them was Rasl using some sort of weird dimension traveling technology to become an art thief. Turns out that is just the beginning of the story and a little misleading.

Through flashbacks we are eventually told the story of his scientific career gone wrong and him trying to save the world, and other worlds, from the consequences of his and his partners actions. That’s what the story is basically about. Rasl trying to set things right. Except he really doesn’t know how. He’s on the run from the government agency who was funding his work and he doesn’t know how to escape them or how to put the genie of his work back into the bottle.

Smith’s artwork here is different than the classic Disney-esque bigfoot style of his work in “Bone”. Not that it isn’t “Cartoony” but there is a more realistic edge to it. He establishes that this story takes place in the real world rather than a fantasy setting. He does a nice job of it. His drawing isn’t always spectacular but his storytelling is. He can keep things flowing nicely.

I enjoyed this big chunk of “Rasl” better then when I just read the first few issues of it. Smith takes his time to tell the story and lays out the big picture well all the while throwing in lots of little picture action. Nikola Tesla, the famous scientist, plays a role in the back story as Rasl was working on some ideas that Tesla played around with a hundred years ago. Tesla is an interesting historical figure so I’m always on board with him.

Science, chase scenes, dimension hoping, art thievery, love, betray, death, faked deaths, cover-ups, and fist fights this comic has a lot happening in it. Check it out for yourself.