Cousin Joseph: A Graphic Novel [Hardcover]

Its classic noir narrative to the bones, with all the required accouterments: the ceiling fans, the shadows, the tough guys, the morally ambiguous protagonist and the femme fatale, all drawn in Feiffers signature dancing scribble. . . . Feiffer skates around characters, circling closer, retreating and returning to them, weaving the plot tighter until the pieces fall into place. This is pulp at its best. The book is subversive in a lot of waysfrom its occasional bursts of unflinchingly awkward content to its neat commentary on the graphic novel form itself, but it embraces popular culture influences without irony or apology. That may be the most subversive thing about it, actually. And the most romantic. . . . Two books in and Feiffers noir graphic novel trilogy is starting to feel like a lifes work. Smart, weird, political, engrossing; its exactly the kind of morally complex story Cousin Joseph would have hated.