Customer Reviews

Casanova, Vol. 1: Luxuria

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I can't begin to tell you how cool this comic is. That's really the best way to describe it, absolutely. Freaking Cool.

Alright. It's tangentially in the spy genre, more in the vein of Jerry Cornelius (although much less 'modernistic,' maybe) than James Bond, with generous helping of minty fresh Jim Steranko in there as well. The story? Well, the protagonist, Casanova Quinn, is mixed up between several super-agencies with acronyms for names, and he's also from another dimension or timeline or something. It's a little science-fiction, but not in that "thinky," irritating, way.

To express how cool the series is, in the first issue, Casanova fights like a giant floating head in a floating casino. Only, the giant floating head is actually three guys, fused together by crazy Buddhism. Casanova and said head then engage in a titanic floating staring contest. Later, Casanova sets a town ablaze through orgone overdose, steals a god, and has a kung fu battle in the head of a giant robot.

And not only is the book filled with crazy, mind-bending set pieces, but the characterization is strong, albeit sparse. Most importantly for a work as, uh, inspired as this, Casanova feels like an authentic person.

The dialog is perpetually hilarious and the art sings on the page. It's dynamic and it's in one color, like the old-school Barbarella comics.

I think, of all the hundreds of comics I read every year, this is my favorite probably as far back as I can remember. This particular edition is beautifully over-sized and well-designed. I totally recommend it, especially if you haven't already read the book.

Umm, in summation, the writer is Matt Fraction and the artist is Gabriel Ba. The book is cool. Yes.

Casanova follows Cassanova Quinn: international thief. He is the son of Cornelius Quinn, who runs E.M.P.I.R.E. (Extra-Military Police, Intelligence, Rescue, and Espionage), and the brother of Zeph, and exemplary agent of E.M.P.I.R.E. After Zeph is killed in action, Casanova is brought in by his father, has a fight with him, and eventually jumps out of a flying casino to escape certain death (and a gambling debt). On the way down, he accidentally breaches space-time to an alternate reality where he is the one who died in service of E.M.P.I.R.E. and Zeph works for Newman Xeno, hedonistic leader of W.A.S.T.E. (only Xeno's terrible mind and blackest heart knows what that stands for). Casanova teams up with Xeno and Zeph to infiltrate E.M.P.I.R.E. And that's just the first issue!

Matt Fraction takes the concept of a James Bond spy story to a whole new level. Fraction takes all the old spy standby traditions of cool gadgets, double- and triple-crosses, sexy femme fatales, and suave secret agents. To this he adds copious sci-fi elements, psychic battles, and pop-culture references. Casanova was put out during Image's experiment with 22 page comics (16 pages of actual content), so the story moves at a fast pace, but Fraction manages to pack in an incredible amount of details. He doesn't spell anything out for the reader, so the book demands full attention to keep track of all the twists and turns.

Gabriel Bă's artwork reminds me of Mignola's, but with more stylish lines and sexier figures. He draws in stark monochrome accented by green shading.

Casanova is best enjoyed like a good song; first take in the rhythm and flow of the words and images, then go back and take in the meanings of the words. The density rewards second and third readings. Though demanding, it's well worth the ride.

With Casanova, Matt Fraction presents a trippy, energetic sci-fi spy thriller that spans the breadth of the space-time continuum with awesome results. Casanova Quinn is the black sheep of the family: a freelance thief whose hated father runs a global paramilitary espionage agency called EMPIRE. His heavily favored twin sister is the agency's star spy until she is murdered while investigating a temporal breach.

Everything starts to go sideways for Quinn when he is abducted into a parallel universe by Newman Xeno, the leader of a terror network hell-bent on the destruction of EMPIRE. In this alternate reality, Quinn is the superstar agent of EMPIRE, while his sister is alive but corrupted by Xeno. Working under Xeno's behest, he is given counter-missions to conduct during his assigned operations in order to undermine the goals of EMPIRE. Both Xeno and EMPIRE have one mutual interest, if not similar desires: the destruction of Sabine Seychelle's criminal empire. In a series of double- and triple-crosses, Quinn struggles to stay one step ahead of everybody in order to survive.

There is a lot going on in Luxuria, the first volume of a proposed seven-part series, and readers will be rewarded for paying close attention. Fraction juggles time-bending alternate realities with spy shenanigans, as Quinn visits exotic locales to grapple with traitors, assassins, sexbots, and ancient military hardware that could destroy the world. Fraction's writing is smooth, filled with smart dashes of humor that occasionally break the fourth wall. Characters, sometimes God Himself, narrate events directly to the reader, bringing them up to speed on the storyline's various threads. Interspersed are a few moments of ironic self-awareness amongst the book's characters that are entertaining, such as an early scene where Xeno is compared to a deranged comic book villain. The plotting is tight across the story arc and the characters are well-defined to the point where an earlier bit of funny, innocuous dialogue reflecting Casanova's speech patterns is later repeated with an "oh, no" sinking feeling. Casanova is a fun ride, but further enriched with a story that, at its heart, is just as much about family and overcoming the old wounds that only those we truly love can inflict upon us.

Gabriel Bá's artwork is nicely stylized and exhibits a strong use and sense of space, especially with small moments where an element of scenery, like a mirror or a knife, can provide a reflection for him to cleverly spin the artwork in a different direction. His close-up portraits are illustrated particularly well, the action scenes are deftly crafted and fluid, and the panels are packed with important detail. Bá has a cinematic style to his framing, working with establishing wide-angle shots that demand attention and inspection, before moving in with closer views that keep the visual element of the book moving swiftly. The illustrations are a terrific marriage with Fraction's script, as the imagery is every bit as cool and evocative as the written element.

Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá imbue Casanova with an old-style sense of cool, molding their futuristic story with the atmosphere of a bygone era. Filled with action and sexuality, it has a kind of 1960s spy story vibe to it, with a bit of European slick for good measure, which adult readers should find entertaining and rewarding. Combining the sexy panache and action of Sean Connery's James Bond with thrilling, oftentimes crazy, elements, it is among the best sci-fi offerings to come along in recent years.


-- Michael Hicks

This book rocks your socks off. Business socks, sweat socks, which ever you happen to be wearing at the time. And if I'm not wearing socks, you ask?! Well then it rocks the skin right of your feet. This hardbound collection comes in a smooth and shiny cover, packed with story and art literally bursting off every page. The creators intentionally made this comic for the pressed for cash fan, so every issue reads and feels like 2 or 3 of the "other guy's" stuff. You just can't go wrong with Fraction and Ba. Just buy this book if you ever want to feel what it's like to be cool. ever.

Don't ask yourself what the hell is happening, enjoy the ride, among spies, double crosses, conspirators and corporations with strange names, bamboozling babes and tricephalous being, a roller-coaster ride of strangeness, shooting and wisecracks! I love the cold, acid colors and the superb scenery! My fave in this books is the mission on an island inhabited by "the last palaeolithic humans on Earth": it has to be read to be believed!

I got lost reading this book, I'll be honest. The story is great, long, confusing and well worth a read. The art is fantastic, Gabriel Ba' amazes with his art style.

"The shortest, write-it-on-the-back-of-a-business-card pitch for Casanova is "the world's greatest thief gets blackmailed into being a pawn and double agent in a global game of super-espionage." There are more keywords and PowerPoint topics, like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Diabolik, Jim Steranko, Jerry Cornelius, Nick Fury, and Our Man Flint.

"Then I do a little interpretive dance."
-Matt Fraction

The most important thing to know before reading this book is that Luxuria was originally published as monthly comic books. They were meant to be dense, stylish little blasts of cool that'd satisfy a reader for the weeks and weeks between issues. So I'd recommend trying to take a pause between each chapter to appreciate and absorb them individually.

Other than that, if you enjoyed some of the weirder, frantic, and fun elements of The Immortal Iron Fist, which Fraction co-wrote with Ed Brubaker, then buckle in, because that was the mass-consumption model.

This is the pure, uncut stuff.

***

Casanova Quinn... imagine James Bond playing the role of a happily morally-corrupt master thief. His twin sister, Zephyr, is the finest agent of E.M.P.I.R.E., the law-enforcement intelligence agency of their world that is run by their father Cornelius.

The sudden death (by, like, page 4) of Zephyr knocks Casanova's world out of whack, and is the event that precipitates his being sucked OUT of his world ( timeline 909) into an alternate timeline (919) by Newman Xeno, a bandaged super-genius hedonist running an evil organization called W.A.S.T.E.

In the 919 timeline, Casanova is the star secret agent and his evil sister Zephyr is an agent of W.A.S.T.E. The finest agent of E.M.P.I.R.E. (in this case, the 919 version of Casanova) has been W.A.S.T.E.d and the master thief (909 Casanova) is blackmailed by Xeno into taking his place within E.M.P.I.R.E. as a double-agent. Clearly, this book can get a bit complicated.

Luxuria follows Casanova on missions as he tries to serve both of his masters and still survive. It has roots in the superspy genre, but mixes in a healthy dose of sci-fi and fantasy that allow the story's trippier elements free reign to go wherever they like.

This can also be a negative. The book, at its best, has a great, sexy "just come with me for a ride" energy like an excited child tugging at your sleeve and which totally sucked me in. Sometimes, however, that enthusiasm drowns out clarity in the story, which is a bit egregious a flaw when Luxuria tries to deal with the mechanics of double-crosses in tight spy-story plotting. It's clear Fraction is more interested in thematic resonance, style, and tone.

To this end, Luxuria works best for me at points like chapter three, where a simple story's narrative tension is maintained by how Fraction and Ba reveal information to the reader, or in the "Islander" (chapter 5?) story where Casanova and the reader are together in the discovery of big secrets That Change Everything (in that issue).

***

Fraction said he looked to shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it came to structuring this as a series of stand-alone adventures that could be read independently or build up to a greater whole, and for the most part, it succeeds as little details accumulate in each issue that become relevant for the climactic finale.

Fraction has imagined the entirety of Casanova to be seven collections of seven-issue `seasons' of the comic book, each one named for the seven deadly sins. Luxuria, collects issues #1-7. Issues 8-14 will be collected under the title Gula sometime in 2009.

This is a trippy, DENSE book with fantastic art by Gabriel Ba (also artist of The Umbrella Academy Volume 1 (Umbrella Academy), a fantastic artist that I haven't said enough about, but the book owes so much to him), zippy dialogue, hip posturing, and a supreme sense of style, fun, and craziness. It's a book I want people to read because I want to keep reading it. I hope you'll try it, and feel the same way.

At first a little manic and off the wall however as you progress you begin to enjoy these seemingly random adventures of Casanova.

Fraction's artwork is highly suited to this title. Overall a good read for something different from your main stream DC and Marvel titles.

Avocado green on Acid and a psychedelic post post modern physics plot and visual sensibility makes for an exciting read, visual stimulation and flashbacks to the future in the multiverse. Plus I liked that they tackled that whole brother sister love taboo with such style and grace.

I like a lot of things. Family Circus is one of those things. It is a circle with some drawings in it, and it appears in my newspaper six times a week. On Sundays, it is not a circle, and I don't like that very much, so I pretend it is not real.

This book is also one of those things I like. It is not a circle, but there are circles in it. It is about a lot of things, so for me to say it is about one or two of those things is bad, because I will leave out things that it is also about, and you will not think it is about those things because I did not mention them here, and that would be a failure on my part. So, to avoid such a soul-crushing defeat, I will not try to tell you what it is about. But I will tell you some things that are in this book: a giant robot, a nurse, beards, beverages.

Matt Fraction wrote this book while on vacation from being a cop. Gabriel Ba drew it, but not while he was on vacation from anything - drawing is his real job. Fraction might not really be a cop, I'm not really sure what he does. Maybe he sells vacuums, or maybe he does something else. Ba, I'm pretty sure, draws all the time, but he might also sell vacuums, but only as a hobby or for snack money.

You should buy this book and read it. If you are sad, it will make you happy. If you are happy, well then good for you. You should also buy other books by both Fraction and Ba; because you need to make it to $25 for free shipping.

THANK YOU GOOD NIGHT.