REX LIBRIS #1 REVIEW

[Andrea Speed]

Reviewer: Andrea Speed andy@comixtreme.com
Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: I, Librarian

Rex is the world’s toughest librarian - so you’d better bring that overdue book back, or face his wrath.

<a href="http://www.comixtreme.com/gallery/data/media/10/rexl1.jpg"target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixtreme.com/gallery/data/thumbnails/10/rexl1.jpg"align="right" border="0"> </a>Writer & Artist: James Turner
Cover Art: James Turner
Publisher: Slave Labor Graphics



Review: What a strange comic this is.

I mean strange in the best sense, and while you’re probably expecting this to be a humor comic with the description above, it’s not actually a laugh riot. It’s amusing, but in ways you’d never expect.

Yes, the central conceit - a librarian who fights demons, zombies, aliens, and anything else that doesn’t return a book on time or otherwise disobeys the rules of the library - is pretty funny. But this is a “meta” comic, a comic within a comic, which pokes fun at certain types of comic publishers while telling its off kilter but generally serious story. This comic is supposedly Rex’s story in comic form, a type of biography put out by Hermeneutics Press, an indie comic company run by the bombastic B. Barry Horst. He’s a highly pretentious, short sighted man who sees comics as a way of making money (in the movie rights and subsequent merchandising, of course), and he even has a “column” on the inside of the cover where he explains his “vision“, as well as tells readers how to enjoy “Visicomboics, something this issue supposedly has. (It’s all terrific bull.) This issue also has “DVD commentary” on the bottom of each page, rambling and strange conversations between Barry and “Juame”, who is supposedly turning Rex’s biography into this print form. It’s a story within a story, already giving this issue an ambitious level of complexity. Horst shows up in the middle of the story to talk with Rex about “jazzing up” his rather incredible story - Horst’s ideas involve making him a superhero with a sidekick, having an unlikely romance, changing his sexual orientation, and possibly addiction or autism on Rex‘s part, perhaps a terminal illness. These are his ideas of “hooks” that sell. (Perhaps this tells you what a cretin Horst is, and what segment of the comic community Turner is commenting on.) All Rex wants to gain through this endeavor is more respect for librarians; it seems he has made a terrible error in judgment.

As for Rex himself, he’s a two fisted librarian with weapons and knowledge at his disposal, an ageless man who serves the Egyptian god Thoth, the “great administrator”, a sacred duty. After all, if knowledge is power, than having a great amount of books is a lot of power, and that is what Rex ultimately serves - knowledge. In a time where “nobody reads anymore” (a comment in the “DVD commentary” of this issue, in fact), that’s a refreshing message, even if it is secondary to all the general oddity here. It also seems like Rex can go anywhere, including inside books themselves, or so it is promised for future issues. Yes, that’s currently being done in the “Thursday Next” stories by Jasper Fforde (a prose writer, not a comic writer), but it’s still an interesting concept, and should be a lot more darker in this series.

Funny thing is, this also seems to have much in common with older comics. It’s extremely verbose, filled with lots of Rex’s narration, and if you decide to read the inane DVD commentary at the bottom of the page, it’ll take you a good hour to read this comic cover to cover - perhaps longer. It’s never tedious, but it is often weird. (The “Cladogram of the Dadapod” at the end - what the hell? But I loved this description of one of them:“Limbless, this species would have been at a distinct disadvantage were it not for its law degree.”)

The art is very blocky and abstract, highly stylized. And I have to admit now that it’s not going to everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s a clean, almost austere style that excels in giving this book an even more strange sensibility. There’s no doubt you’re in a very different world here, and his renderings of the Sphinx and Thoth are very arresting. The Dadopods are weird, but rather cute.

So at once, this issue is a dry, absurdist comedy about a librarian fighting evil one book at a time, a fantasy about what fallen gods get up to once they’re relegated to mythology, and a satire about publishers whose heads are so far up their tuccus that they think they’re going to “reinvent” comics by doing the same damn thing everyone else has done. If you’re looking for a meaty, unusual comic, seek this one out.




Ratings:

Story:
Art:
Overall: