RASL: Pocket Book One GN
Publisher: Cartoon Books
Release Date: November 1, 2010
Price: $17.95
Creator: Jeff Smith
Format: 232 pgs.; B&W; Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-8889-6324-3
Age Rating: Young Adult
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Wildly different from Jeff Smith’s previous work, RASL is dark, gritty science fiction with mad scientists, evil government agents, bars and hookers.

The central character has discovered a way to travel to alternate universes... or are they?  Just how real are these other worlds?  What will the U.S. government do with his discoveries?  Did Nikola Tesla nearly destroy the world?  Where did Homeland Security get a humanoid lizard?

These and other questions tie together mysteries, conspiracies and science covering the last 130 years into a plot that reads the like the mutant offspring of H.G. Wells and Dashiell Hammett, but somehow it works.

The story and its contents are very much for adults, with sex, violence, alcohol and other adult content, but the story showcases the storytelling skills that Smith honed during the creation of Bone.  This story has the potential to be the Bladerunner or Neuromancer of the graphic novel field, with its blend of noir thriller and high tech SF.

Smith’s art is more realistic than in Bone, but maintains a certain sketchiness in backgrounds.  Readers of manga may find some crossover appeal to the art style.

--Nick Smith: Librarian Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.