Posted in: Comics | Tagged: peter pan, rasl

Big Books Monday – Peter Pan, Rasl, Spumco And A Futurama Pizza

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqhCH474Wok[/youtube]

I hope my mum doesn't see this. She'll get angry about my lack of hairbrush this morning.

Anyway, three big books to look at and talk about.

First up is Peter Pan by Regis Losiel, created over fourteen years and completed almost a decade ago, finally translated into English and published by Soaring Penguin Press on one thick, rich, gorgeous volume.

Losiel has worked for Disney on films such as Mulan. But I don't think he'd ever be asked to work on a remake of Peter Pan for the mouse, after this work. Closer to Dickens, it tells the story of a street kid , in a world full of pain, shit, alcohol and sex – it's Gin Lane. And Peter is the baby being dropped by the pained mother. Peter longs to see and believe the best in all but is continually let down by reality. No wonder he turns to fantasy, when he encounters Tinkerbell. But a trip to Wonderland doesn't offer some innocent alternative, the pirates, the sirens, the Red Indians, everything is caricatured up with a Victorian eye, including the sole black pirate, all played in a bawdy, broad fashion. But the social interplay between them all is fascinating and engaging, with love, death, sex and politics all wildly at play.

The book is beautifully produced and is a step up from the small British publisher Soaring Penguin, alongside the likes of Blank Slate and Self Made Hero. And the cover? Replica crocodile skin. Lovely.

Rasl by Jeff Smith from Cartoon Books is collecting the series previously mostly seen in black and white, and was from the get-go a seeming attempt of Smith not to be typecast and create something that was very much not-Bone. A slow burn sci-fi story with vagrants, parallel worlds and multiple identities.

This collected version is being colourised and this is a proof of concept, the colours are rich, subtle and dark while breaking out the brightness for the desert scenes. I'm looking forward to buying the final book… Or trying to get someone to buy it for Christmas.

The Spumco Comic Book from John K and IDW collects the Marvel and Dark Horse series, which were oversize single issues, as well as a new Jimmy strip  and what I most notice, compared to the originals, is how much the pages sing with colour.

I remember tha panels being big, gloriously big, unnecessarily so with the wise expanses of colour, though never this vivid, getting across the one vile and disgusting invading a cartoony world. If the male gaze of Peter Pan is unashamedly French, Spumco is all about the shame of the perverted prude. Peter Pan's lewdness attempts to rewrite reality, put you at ease, but Spumco seeks to disturb you at every turn, and this one volume gives you nowhere to escape.

And yes, a Futurama pizza with a Futurama DVD of Series Six. The pizza was disgusting. The pizza box was pretty cool. And the Futurama episodes I know will be fun…

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