Radiant Comics

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

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

“The Salon” by Nick Bertozzi

Before reading this I hadn’t read any of Bertozzi’s work in a while. I like his stuff but hadn’t seen any of it in ages. While reading one of my regular comic related websites I read a review of one of his more recent works. Though the reviewer liked the recent work (and I’l probably check it out eventually) he preferred this book from 2007. I then I found this one for cheap on Amazon and decided to check it out.

The story takes place in Paris in 1907 and stars a lot of famous names from the art world. Picasso, Braque, Stein, Satie, and Appollinaire are a few of the names. They weren’t as famous then but they were all friends who made up the modernist Paris art scene.

The story is a strange flight of fancy. It’s generally treated realistically except for the fact that there is a blue women going around and killing some people in the art scene. She’s popping their heads off.

Braque is the person new to the scene who represents us, the readers, and as he is introduced around the Paris art world we learn more about the scene and about the crazy blue woman who is killing people. He also develops a friendship with Picasso. We get a bit of art history with the story as we are shown the two develop Cubism.

The next crazy step in the story is Braque being show that this art group has discovered a secret absinthe drink that allows them to enter the world of a painting. You drink it, look at a painting, and then fall into the painting’s world where everything is blue. They’re pretty sure the killer blue lady escaped from one of the paintings.

So there is a crazy plot. And it was a lot of fun. The art is nice too. It’s a thick ,inky, brush-strokey style that helps the time period come alive. The use of color is interesting too as often different mono- and duo-tones are used to set the mood rather than be illustrative. It’s nice stuff.

The only complaint I have is about the lettering. The book is small and the lettering is hard to read at times. It’s hand lettered in a tall but narrow style and there often isn’t enough negative space in the letters to read comfortably. It’s a bit annoying but I could still read it.

So there you go: Paris, history, fantasy, murder, and famous painters. What more could you want in a story?