Comics Review

Finally generally available in England (as well as from your usual online sources) is this latest compilation from Xeric-Award winning cartoonist (for The Wiggly Reader) John Kerschbaum who regularly dispatches the strangest and most engrossing cartoon treats from his lair in 21st century Brooklyn.

Combining his unique talents for laconic prose, incisive observation and detailed cartooning with his obvious passion for the darker side of modern history, Rick Geary turns his forensic eye to the last hundred years or so as his ‘Treasury of Victorian Murder’ series of graphic novels examines the landmark global sensation that was the Lindbergh Kidnapping.

This slim tone contains a superb period murder mystery from creators probably best known in the English speaking world for working on Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim’s Dungeon series of fantasy books. Here fin de siècle Paris is being plagued by its very own Jack the Ripper - a knife wielding maniac dubbed “the Butcher of the Dances” because he picks his victims from the lower class girls who frequent suburban Tea-dances where young people gather.

Shun Imai has a little problem. He’s a fairly average high-school boy but a martyr to static electricity. Every time he touches metal there’s a painful flash and spark. It’s a very similar situation whenever he sees pretty classmate Sanari Kurosaki. His other big problem is that he’s been hand-picked by a diminutive Angel named Air to be an “Answerer”, a supernatural warrior dedicated to eradicating the disruptive effects of “Noir” wherever it strikes. Air is a supernatural guardian known as a Nephylym…