A western world

In the story that opens the latest collection of boundary-pushing comics by DeForge (Big Kids), "Living Hell," a group of friends imagine living in the same house, perhaps even sharing a single room where they abandon all privacy and defend themselves from the outside world. This surreal scene sets the tone for this volume in which the ordinary rubs shoulders with the bizarre and bodies, minds, and identities are infinitely permeable. Humans are reborn into incomprehensible alien lives in "Mostly Saturn" in "A Softness," which feels like a folk tale from another species, a colony of soft creatures is threatened by spiky things that can't help poking holes into them; and "About Kissing" weaves a creation myth that describes life as the interaction of orifices. Some stories flirt with social commentary, like "Placeholders," the tale of a tech startup that fills a city with massive "soft storage" devices, ominous data-storage growths that loom up in neighborhoods. Deforge switches up the art, scribbling stringy characters in loose settings, constructing geometric compositions suggestive of Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti, or transforming figures into abstract patterns. But no matter what style he adopts, there's a distancing effect to his art, an affinity for the cool language of symbols, logos, and graphs. The lengthy final piece, "Rhode Island Me," dares to get a little more human with a horror-tinged tale about friends trying to reconnect on a cabin trip. Taken together, the arc of the collection follows an inventive cartoonist breaking the form down to its basics and building it back up again. DeForge has been a darling of the comics community, and, while esoteric, this volume is a showcase of his sui generis talent. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Prolific cartoonist DeForge (Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero) returns with a new collection of short stories that highlight his distinct vision and voice as one of the silliest, most sentimental, and darkest creators working today. In "Mostly Saturn," the U.S. vice president learns that all deceased Americans are -reincarnated on Saturn, before being faced with an impossible choice when Saturn launches an attack against Earth. "The Prime Minister of Canada" presents the bitingly funny inner monolog of the titular world leader as he goes about a typical day. "Margot Airplane" begins with a premise fit for a children's book-a girl transforms herself into an airplane-before suddenly segueing into a graphic sex scene and then back again. Several stories, such as "Talking Sweat" and "Quicksand," offer meditations on a subject that, thrillingly, leave all scientific fact and rational thought behind as DeForge explores spaces and streams of thought much more intriguing than verisimilitude might allow. DeForge's artwork is sometimes abstract, sometimes beautifully rendered, and always brilliantly designed, laid out, and colored. VERDICT The 15 stories here present 15 new opportunities to commune with a truly inspired mind; not to be missed.-TB © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.