Publisher: Self Made Hero/Abrams

Release Date: March 26, 2013

Price: $24.95

Creator: David B.

Format: 128 pgs., B&W, Hardcover

ISBN: 978-1-9068-3833-1

Age Rating: Mature

ICv2 Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5

 

This is a very literary and very surreal graphic novel, based on an odd period of history.  Thanks to a mixture of historical figures, various popes and Woodrow Wilson, the city of Fiume was an independent buffer state at various points in its history, the last being from 1920-24.  A political hot potato that had various belonged to Austria-Hungary, Italy and the Holy Roman Empire, everyone wanted control of Fiume, but no one really wanted to bother with it.  Thus, at the end of every war, it became a problem.

 

The story takes place during those post-WWI years, and centers on the kind of people who would gravitate to such a weird location in a time of turmoil… free spirits, freebooters and freeloaders, all mixed with ex-soldiers, criminals, artists and idealists.  No two have the same agenda or the same dreams, or even the same form of insanity.  The resulting story is surprisingly coherent, given the period being portrayed, as things slowly fall apart.

The artwork will not be to everyone's tastes, but it gives form to the madness while keeping the reader aware that the story is about chaos. The writing, translated from the French, also serves well, but the overall effect can be like Picasso illustrating a graphic novel of Hemingway. It's often brilliant, but jarring. Sex, violence and drug use aim this one at an adult audience.

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