7-30-05

History on Acid

This review is almost completely meaningless.  For one thing, Diana Sasse's Antique White House:  The Kennedy Tales isn't an original comic:  It's a series of web-based translations of Sasse's already-successful French (and German) ink-and-paper comics—translated by the author, by the way, so it loses none of its sauciness (I assume the originals are saucy, because the English version certainly is).  The other thing that makes this review meaningless is the enormity of trying to describe Sasse's rich, alternate world in the mere five hundred or so words to which I try to limit myself.
          Antique White House takes place in an impossible world.  Sasse has combined so many anachronisms and alternate probabilities in her tale that any justification of the many disparate elements would be as futile as explaining chess to a muffin.  The thing is, it works.  Sasse has taken her many characters, loosely based on historical figures, and placed them in a patchwork world where Christianity never got more than a toe-hold, and it works!  It takes a while to get oriented in the story, but once you do, you can't turn away.
          As the title suggests, AWH centers on the life and adventures of an alternate John F. Kennedy.  Kennedy is, in this world, a Celtic Pagan with (I think—at this writing some of her side-pages are showing error 404, including her cast page) four wives and two husbands.  He is also the vibrant and athletic Kennedy of the old Harvard photos, not the aging President whose back was so destroyed that he needed a brace most days.  The action occurs because this Kennedy has trouble delegating security matters to the Secret Service.  In the premiere episode, Kennedy and his family, on vacation in Germany for the Saturnalia (technically a Roman holiday, but we Celts are nothing if not accommodating about holidays...especially if it involves a piss-up), when Kennedy's youngest husband, an alternate dimension (yes another one) elf named Mondlicht, gets abducted by nationalists from some dirtbag Russian fiefdom.  Kennedy takes it on himself to rescue the boy.  There are other things going on, including some crazed Englishmen with a love of explosions and an exploration of the practical difficulties of Anorexia.  There is, in fact, so much going on, that a capsule summary is impossible.
          The writing is spot on.  Sasse handles the many disparate characters and wildly divergent plot elements with such skill and subtlety that, while it can't be encapsulated, the comic works and flows with very little confusion.  The translation is brilliant.  Sasse does most of it herself, but runs it past a friend of hers (a native English speaker) for correction and refinement.
          The art has a water-color look, so reminiscent of old French story books like Babar and Madeleine that I keep expecting the text to be written in cursive.  In a word, it's beautiful.  Her portrayals of historical figures are accurate in that best-features way that stamp and coin portraits always display.  Her horses and her landscapes are fantastic.
          AWH really is everything a comic should be.  Sasse sacrifices nothing and creates a delicate fusion of amazing artwork and excellent story-telling.  Go read it.  Right now!

Updates:  MWF
Caveats:  Some Nudity, Paganism, orgies, anachronism
Rating: