Casanova by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá

This is a new title that I thought was going to follow the same format as Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith's Fell -- 16 pages for $1.99. The first issue is only $1.99, but it features 28 pages of story. I don't know if this is a special introductory page count, or if every issue will be this many pages, but even with 12 fewer pages it would be well worth the two bucks.

Picking up the recompressed storytelling style that Ellis used to reinvigorate the monthly pamphlet, this issue is packed dense with story. If the authors did nothing more than bring up the panel-to-page ratio, any comics writer could bring the feel of weight back to an issue of any monthly. Fraction and Ellis, however, seem to be writing the scripts to help the artists comply with the format. Gabriel Bá on this title, for example, could easily draw many of the action packed panels at double or even triple the size they appear here, but Fraction has written each page as a single entity, paying close attention, as a comics writer should to the breaks in flow that panel transitions both force and allow. There are no splash pages here, and the half splashes are used appropriately and expand the action or the emotion in a scene.

Bá uses a single olive-green tone throughout the book, giving it a feel of color without creating the extra expense or time of full color work. He uses this to his distinct advantage with the art, using his skill at spotting blacks to build up the base with the line art and delineate an added layer with the color. I only first saw Bá's artwork just a few weeks ago when the collection of stories by him and his brother Fabio Moon, DE:Tales, was released by Dark Horse Comics. I didn't make the connection until I Googled his name doing research for this post. I knew the name and art were familiar, but couldn't picture where I'd seen it. Reading this, I was simply struck by the talent I was seeing. Storytelling, inking, character design, the aforementioned tone work and beautifully designed covers, attractive all.

Matt Fraction is an unknown to me. I'm familiar with the CBR column he collaborated on, but as far as comic scripts, he was from out of nowhere. Somehow I'd always been vaguely turned off by the name. It very well might be his given name, but it seemed to me like a cyberpunk affectation, and I've no interest in cyberpunk. This book however, not only held my interest, but left me wanting more. I got a little bit lost in the second or third plot twist, but the overall package was more than enough to sell me on the second installment. Superspy meets sci-fi meets noir meets action adventure. I'm sold.