Isolation And Illusion: Collected Short Stories Of P. Craig Russell
Pretty obviously, there has long been considerable sf and fantasy content in comic books and graphic novels. Just about no comics artist's work, however, is as obviously pretty as Russell's. He has a sinuous line few can match, a refined eye for shading and coloration, a flair for dramatic composition, and figure-drawing skills for days. It is possible to be rewarded simply by paging through his stuff, noting its nods to Mucha, Klimt, Beardsley, Goya, Fragonard, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Michelangelo (all over!); the words of the text can seem just so much accompaniment. With source texts as good, however, as H. P. Lovecraft's vertiginously creepy "From Beyond," O. Henry's Christmas classic "The Gift of the Magi," and the star of this book, a delightful caricatural rendering of Cyrano de Bergerac'sVoyage to the Moon,and with inspirations as daring as traditional Japanese suicide in "Dance on a Razor's Edge" and cracking up in space in "Breakdown in the StarshipRemembrance," Russell produces worthwhile reading as well as spectacular art.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved