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Off the Cape: RASL

By | July 11th, 2012
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Welcome to the reboot edition of Multiversity’s weekly column, Off the Cape!  In American comics, superhero titles get a lot of attention, and rightly so. Many of the best and most influential comics in America were written in the superhero genre. However, there have also been many great comics without superpowers and costumes, and the focus on superheroes and the Big Two can make it tough for those great books to shine through all the bright lights at DC and Marvel. I hear it all the time from superhero fans: “Well, I tried reading a few indie books once, but they just weren’t that good.” Off the Cape is Multiversity Comics’ weekly spotlight on all the GOOD indie books out there. I sift through all the riff-raff so you don’t have to!

You all should be familiar with Jeff Smith’s epic series “Bone,” a smash indie hit, winner of many awards, and previously featured on Off the Cape in Matt Meylikhov’s column, “5 Graphic Novels Everyone Should Own.” His new series, “RASL,” is a much different book, and a much harder sell: It’s the story of a dimension-travelling ex-physicist-turned-art-thief named Dr. Robert “Rasl” Johnson. Formerly employed in a top-secret military weapons lab known as The Compound, Rasl went rogue after sabotaging their ultimate project: the St. George Array, a plant capable both of delivering unlimited free energy or massive devastation to anywhere on the planet. Using a stolen T-Suit, a device he designed for The Compound as a battlefield teleportation unit, he is able to travel to parallel dimensions. Pursued by a psychotic government agent known as Salvador Crow, Rasl is on the run, trying to protect parallel incarnations of the women he once loved. The more he uses his T-Suit, the more he begins to feel reality slipping away from him.

As a story, “RASL” works on many levels. On the surface, it’s an action-packed sci-fi/noir tale of a man on the run from his past. It’s full of sex, violence, revenge, love and some of the character-driven drama Jeff Smith became famous for in Bone. There are love triangles, a psychotic secret agent, government conspiracies and mad scientists. But underneath this visceral exterior is a level of sophistication lacking in some supposedly “mature” stories on the market today.

On an intellectual level, it’s also a tribute to Nikola Tesla, the “original mad scientist” on whom the modern film version of Dr. Frankenstein was modeled. This is very much a hard science fiction book, and all of the technology involved is within theoretical possibility and inspired by Tesla’s research. Jeff Smith did a lot of research before writing “RASL,” and even includes a bibliography in the back of the trade paperbacks. One of the most interesting aspects of this layer of the story is that Tesla’s work is associated with many conspiracy theories — about HAARP and weather control, UFO’s and alien invaders, the Bermuda Triangle and military cloaking/teleportation experiments. Smith takes the time to tie all of these into his story in a way that is informative but never tedious.

On an ethical level, it’s also a cautionary tale about the dangers involved in going to far — in love, in science, and in trying to escape from your past. Rasl is an incredibly flawed character: he is sleeping with his best friend’s wife, steals paintings to support his lifestyle of whoring and drinking, and half the time chooses to run from his mistakes rather than face the consequences of his actions. While ultimately he tries to do the right thing by shutting down the St. George Array, he participated in developing it and his dimension-traveling T-Suit. Both technologies can only be used at great cost — the Array can potentially destroy universes, and the T-Suit is slowly tearing Rasl apart physically, mentally and spiritually.

Jeff Smith handles all of the art duties as well as the writing.  It’s in a slightly more realistic style than “Bone,” but still somewhat cartoony and black-and-white. His drawings make great use of negative space, never showing you more detail than is necessary to advance the plot.  The sparsity of detail enhances your perception of what Smith is willing to show you: fierce, emotional expressions, rings of intense heat radiating from a desert sun, the black silhouette of Salvador Crow’s distinctive shadow, the faint outline of a security chip imbedded in Crow’s arm.  It’s amazing what a talented artist like Smith can show you with a handful of dots and lines.

Continued below

“RASL” is a story that was made for the graphic novel format.  Jeff Smith had originally hoped to print the individual issues of “RASL” in an oversized 10 in. by 12 in. format, but decided against it due to increased difficulty and cost in printing, shipping and storing such large single issues.  The collected trades are in the originally intended oversize format.  The third volume, ‘Romance at the Speed of Light,’ also contains a bonus Appendix with behind-the-scenes sketches, roughs, thumbnails and more from the making of the comic.

The first three volumes are currently available, while the fourth, ‘The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla,’ debuts at SDCC with a Limited Edition signed and numbered (out of 200) available at the Cartoon Books table, although sadly Jeff Smith himself will not be in attendance.  If anyone feels like picking one up for me, I will gladly reimburse the cost of the book and shipping to New Jersey!

Jeff Smith is one of those masters of the comics medium that superhero fans tend to miss out on, as he’s worked almost exclusively on his own independent titles (except for one Captain Marvel mini, “Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil”).  Don’t be one of them!  Pick up a copy of “RASL” (or “Bone”), you won’t be disappointed!


//TAGS | Off the Cape

Nathanial Perkins

Nathanial "Ned" Perkins is an aspiring writer living in New Jersey. His passions include science fiction, history, nature, and a good read. He's always on the lookout for artists to collaborate with on his own comics projects. You can follow him on Tumblr or shoot him an e-mail.

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