The J. M. DeMatteis who wrote this book, the first of four volumes in a story, is also the John Mare DeMatteis, who wrote 'The Compleat Moonshadow', which I reviewed late last year. This is a much smaller book, even factoring in that it's only a quarter of it. It's a much smaller format for a start, a little shorter than a typical trade paperback, and, while there are no page numbers, the count is not particularly high. The artist this time out is Glenn Barr, who I believe is new to me.

It's actually Barr's work that struck me here more than DeMatteis's, because of how he chose to interpret the story and that ties into the introduction, which is far more important than it seems initially to be.

The story is about Vincent Carl Santini's senior year in high school but it's not told by senior year Santini. It's told by the adult Santini trying to remember what happened from the perspective of his younger self. Crucially, we have absolutely no idea how successful he is, not because Santini is an unreliable narrator, but because he's trying to be honest while being acutely aware of what he calls "limited perception" and "faulty memory". In other words, the details he remembers may or may not be true but they add up to a true story.

And Barr tackles this with abandon. He doesn't illustrate these details in a consistent manner, as your typical graphic novel artist would. He interprets them in a number of ways, like the depth of the memory or Santini's age in a particular moment, then draws what he sees. Therefore, some of the panels are painted beautifully because they're clear memories. Others are basic cartoons and even half drawings to highlight that a particular memory is very faint. Still more are caricatures to show that the effect of a moment is far more important than the moment itself.

For instance, one major thread in this first quarter of the story revolves around a dog that Santini had for a very brief moment. It's a stray dog that sits down next to him on the steps of his building, Pilgrim Court, and gazes at him until a connection is made. He calls it Bilbo and it moves in and his dad's happy because he had a dog when he was young and this is clearly a continuation. However, his mum can't deal and so off Bilbo goes to doggie Auschwitz, a.k.a. the A.S.P.C.A. to probably get euthanised after nobody adopts him. It's all leading up to a rare bonding moment with his dad as they both feel the loss.

However, we don't know what Bilbo looks like because Santini can't remember. So Barr interprets his ramblings through cartoonish joy, half memories and occasional detail in watercolour. He also goes way gratuitously over the top illustrating a monstrous beast from a much earlier childhood trauma, because the detail has gone with time and only the horror remains. In a way, the lack of apparent substance in the memories is a gift to Barr, who can truly dive into his own imagination in a way few graphic novel artists ever can and trawl in all sorts of different approaches.

Right now, it's hard to tell how coherent the overall story will be, given that this is only a quarter of it and emphatically not a complete one in itself. It's a rambling story, introduced almost like an old Twilight Zone episode with Vincent Carl Santini strolling through its introduction just like Rod Serling. It jumps around in time, supposedly focusing on his senior year in high school but leaping back to his childhood if a particular memory sparks an earlier one. In fact, it's so jumpy that it's a stream of consciousness story, not something written down coherently but something poured out of Santini's head in a single flow.

And, other than him, there's absolutely no focus. Of course, we get introduced to his family, with whom he lives in a multi-racial neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York. His dad is Italian, Dominick Santini, but not the Ernest Borgnine character from Airwolf, and he's frequently drawn as a hairy caveman. His mum is Jewish, Esther Santini, usually drawn as thin and neurotic. They have a lot of huge arguments, some of which are clearly traumatic to the young Santini, but the most obvious example is apparently forgotten about that same evening. Maybe not, of course, but for now.

In the meantime, it's all about the dog. Except when it's about when he gets arrested, something that doesn't even happen in this volume, frustratingly so. Or when that trauma happens, which is surely going to resonate later. There's a lot of trauma here, not least the detail that Vincent Carl Santini thought his name was Carl Vincent Santini until he was eleven years old, because the two sides of his family warred over cultural impact. There are moments of sympathy for Dominick and Esther, but more for their daughter Phyllis and, of course, for her brother Vincent/Carl.

I'm interested in where this is going and indeed if it's going anywhere. I presume it is, but that's a tenuous presumption based on this volume. I'm still going to review the four books separately, as indeed they were published, but I have to wonder why Paradox Press took that approach. It seems like this should only ever be one larger volume containing one story rather than four small ones that contain a quarter of it each. And that impression is fully formed after only one quarter. Let's see how it develops over the other three. ~~ Hal C F Astell

For more titles by J.M. Dematteis click here
For more titles by Glenn Barr click here