RASL

by Jeff Smith (Illustrator)

Overview

Winner of the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album

472 page hardcover in full color! A New York Times Bestseller, RASL is Jeff Smith's follow up to his epic fantasy BONE. A tightly wound mixture of science fiction, noir and conspiracy theories, RASL is a gritty, hard-boiled tale of an inter-dimensional art thief caught between dark government forces and the mysterious powers of the universe itself.

When Rasl, a thief and ex-military engineer, discovers the lost journals of Nikola Tesla, he bridges the gap between modern physics and history's most notorious scientist. But his breakthrough comes at a great personal price. In this twisting tale of intrigue and betrayal, Rasl finds himself in possession of humankind's deepest, most dangerous secret.

Originally serialized in black & white comic books and graphic novels, the award winning completed novel is embellished with muted, smoky color by Steve Hamaker and Jeff Smith. Praised by The Village Voice, USA Today, NPR, Physics Today, Booklist, The Onion/AV Club, Paste, Publishers Weekly and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781888963373
Publisher:	Cartoon Books
Publication date:	09/17/2013
Series:	RASL
Pages:	472
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Jeff Smith is the author/cartoonist of the BONE graphic novels which won numerous awards around the world, including 11 Eisner Awards & 9 Harvey Awards, the Alph Art for Best Foreign Book in France, as well as awards in Spain, Germany, and Italy before being chosen to launch the first graphic novel imprint for children by Scholastic in 2005. In 2009 Smith was the subject of an Emmy Award winning documentary called The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, BONE, and the Changing Face of Comics. Most recently, Smith was Guest Editor of The Best American Comics 2013.

Editorial Reviews

The complete run of Smith’s (Bone; Shazaam: The Monster Society of Evil) previously serialized black-and-white noir SF adventure is collected in full color for the first time. Dr. Robert Joseph Johnson, an experimental physicist and Tesla fan, has discovered the secret to leaping in and out of parallel dimensions—something he uses to become art thief RASL when his partners and governmental employers endanger the multiverse with their experiments. Tracked by a lizard-faced government agent, RASL has to navigate multiple worlds to determine just what is worth saving. The subdued tone of the full-color sections perfectly fits the gritty style of the story. Wordless action sequences show Smith’s mastery of pacing, while his witty dialogue and quieter art reveal the fully human side of his protagonists. RASL is a brilliant antihero, at once hard to love and deeply worthy of empathy. As in his earlier work, Smith uses symbolism and mythology—as well as the legendlike history of real-world scientist Nikolai Tesla—to drive a personal story of love and vengeance into a deeper tale of heroism and self-sacrifice. And it’s Smith’s greatest skill that he makes us care so much about everything in the story. (Reviewed from an incomplete galley.) (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her
“RASL is like nothing you’ve ever read—it’s electric, eerie and riveting;and as close as you get to a masterpiece. Smith is simply peerless.”

Booklist STARRED REVIEW
“Smith is a unique talent in the world of comics who’s not afraid to take risks and knows how to pull them off...fascinating.”

Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW
“Stunning visual narrative that impresses with its originality, sophistication, and complexity.”

John Geddes, USA Today
"Smith is awesome. There’s really no other way to put it...RASL reads like one long, dust-filled, sci-fi,blood-stained, crime noir chase scene.

Onion/AV Club
...”dazzling...demonstrates the same knack for arresting character design that made Smith’s Bone such a rewarding read...”

Village Voice
“...briskly paced hardboiled sci-fi hybrid...an inventive mix...”

Paste Magazine
“...audacious...a concentrated thrill.”

Portland Mercury
“RASL is gorgeous, creepy, grim, and crammed with action, history, sex, booze, science, and psuedo-science...a hell of a ride.”

Multiversity Comics
“...there is one simple truth in comic life: you must read Jeff Smith’s comics. It’s just the reality of the situation.”

Bill Baker, ForeWord Reviews
"Jeff Smith is perhaps the most accomplished cartoonist and storyteller of his generation, no small praise for an artist whose contemporaries include the likes of Alison Bechdel (Fun Home) and Chris Ware(Acme Library)... [RASL] offers universe-spanning adventure even as it explores those tender and terrible territories within the human heart."

From the Publisher

09/15/2013
Famed for his all-ages "Bone" series, creator Smith leaps into a gripping adult adventure in the same way his shady antihero leaps among worlds. Military physicist Robert Johnson helps develop technologies to bend space and enter parallel universes, drawing on the electromagnetic work of Nicola Tesla for a classified defense project. But becoming horrified by the likely implications, he goes rogue to destroy the equipment and escapes across universes under the persona "Rasl." Unfortunately, the military and their lizard-faced goon run him down while he steals art from the other galaxies to raise cash. Wild chases, desperate fights, time/space switchbacks, narrative twists, and semibaked technobabble keep the tension high in this hard-boiled tale of corruption and cutting-edge physics—Smith has said he wanted to write an Arthur C. Clarke book with Dashiell Hammett characters. Featuring material that was originally released in black-and-white installments, this expanded omnibus is colored by "Bone" artist Steve Hamaker. VERDICT With its sophisticated yet fringy premise, complex plot involving a high-tech romantic triangle, and well-contextualized violence and sexual situations, this graphic novel, with its expert action sequences, provides intellectual as well as visceral kicks.—M.C.

Library Journal