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A review by hypops
Casanova, Vol. 2: Gula by Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon, Matt Fraction
3.0
Writer Matt Fraction aims for Thomas Pynchon by way of Ian Fleming, but hits closer to Tom Robbins by way of Red Dwarf. That’s not meant as a judgment of the book’s quality so much as it is a judgment against its unearned pretense and smarmy tone. It’s a book that is neither as funny nor as “wildly postmodern” as it thinks it is.
Its saving grace is Fabio Moon’s art. Following in his brother’s footsteps (Gabriel Ba did the art for the first volume), Moon brings to Fraction’s script what little life, energy, and wit it does have. And because this volume follows a more legible plot and chronology than the first volume, the art too is more legible and can establish a groove much more in line with the action.
But for all of its self-conscious postmodern-ness (fourth-wall winks, abundant high and low cultural allusions, unstable character identities, etc, etc), Casanova ends up reading like the muted, distant echo of similarly wild—and far more beautifully insane—espionage comics like Michel Fiffe’s Copra, Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT, and even Brandon Graham’s Multiple Warheads.
Its saving grace is Fabio Moon’s art. Following in his brother’s footsteps (Gabriel Ba did the art for the first volume), Moon brings to Fraction’s script what little life, energy, and wit it does have. And because this volume follows a more legible plot and chronology than the first volume, the art too is more legible and can establish a groove much more in line with the action.
But for all of its self-conscious postmodern-ness (fourth-wall winks, abundant high and low cultural allusions, unstable character identities, etc, etc), Casanova ends up reading like the muted, distant echo of similarly wild—and far more beautifully insane—espionage comics like Michel Fiffe’s Copra, Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT, and even Brandon Graham’s Multiple Warheads.