My favorite comic is back.
I’m not gonna lie: I hold my breath a little when I start to read a new volume of Casanova. I don’t know if it’s the best comic book, but it’s my favorite. It’s as difficult to describe, but reading it gives me the sensation which I’ve always imagined really good drugs would provide. It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s literally (for me, at least) mind-blowing.
When I saw the first one-page ad for the new volume, Acedia, my expectations went through the roof. Not only was Fabio Moon doing the art, but Gabriel Ba was working with Michael freakin’ Chabon on the back-up story. Now, this had the potential to be a supergroup-type of problem, did it not? Supergroups very seldom produce music as good as you’d expect given the all-star (geez, I’m wearing out the ‘-‘ key tonight, aren’t I?) lineups. I’m not sure exactly why it seldom works, but, c’mon: Blind Faith. Need I say more?
It turns out I had no reason to worry. The whole thing is a delight from start to finish. Even if I wanted to try to describe it, and even if I were a Writer of Some Note trying to describe it*, I don’t think that description would be especially useful to anyone. So, instead, I’ll just say “You really ought to be reading this book.” I will add one caveat, though: If you’re new to Casanova, you can start with Acedia, but I would strongly recommend you go back and read the other volumes first. The book is admirably self-contained for a fourth volume, but you’ll be missing a lot of the fun if you don’t know the back story. Hell, just getting to know the back story is a lot of fun.
Now go away. I need to read it again.
* I’d like to mention that I just spent five minutes trying to remember** the expression ding an sich and then trying to remember precisely what it meant as I thought I could use it in explaining why I couldn’t properly describe Acedia 1. Unfortunately, this time spent re-learning something I learned three decades ago, while worthwhile, did not yield a term which described why I couldn’t describe something. You’d think there would be a German expression for that, wouldn’t you?
** My memory didn’t get there. Fortunately, as residents of The Future, we have access to Wikipedia articles like this one.