GRAPHIC NOVELS

Joe Galaxy

Fantagraphics. Nov. 2024. 196p. tr. from Italian by Jamie Richards & Adrian Nathan West. ISBN 9781683969945. pap. $34.99. SF
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A wisecracking adventurer zigzags across the galaxy in this long-awaited, first English-language collection of underground comics legend Mattioli’s (Squeak the Mouse) irreverent magnum opus, which first appeared in Italy in the 1970s. Joe Galaxy is half-duck, half-eagle and always on the lookout for opportunities to make money. He’s a gambler, an interstellar smuggler of illicit merchandise, and an occasional private eye with a weakness for femmes fatales harboring secrets and ulterior motives. Mattioli blends an array of influences, including the novels of Philip K. Dick, Merrie Melodies cartoons, early American newspaper comic strips, the work of European cartoonist Moebius, countless films and music icons, and the work of fine artists like Magritte and Lichtenstein, to create a visually stunning, dynamically composed world inhabited by characters driven to raucous misbehavior due to being stuck in a perpetual state of overstimulation.
VERDICT Whether he’s foiling an invasion by the Empire of Lizards, fighting sandworms in Antares to work off his debts, or matching wits against a race of butterfly- and onion-eating Icemen, Joe’s hardboiled attitude and penchant for swashbuckling make every page of this volume a captivating and thrillingly absurd adventure in itself.
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