From Wonderland With Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium

In all the excitement over manga from Japan and bandes dessinAces from France, it's easy to forget that other countries have a thriving comics culture all their own. This eye-popping anthology, assembled by Danish publisher/editor/ translator Steffen P. Maarup, introduces adventurous readers to 19 exciting talents, most of whom are taking their first bow on the English-speaking stage.

One centerpiece of the book is Nikoline Werdelin's stunning "Because I Love You So Much," a Doonesbury-style slice-of-life daily strip about a suburban Danish couple who discover their daughter is being molested--is it happening at her daycare center, or, horrifyingly, closer to home? Other major revelations include Julie Nord's elegantly drawn "From Wonderland With Love" (which gives the collection its title), a modernistic riff on Alice in Wonderland, and Ib Kjeldsmark's "Sloth," a riotously punk-inflected day-glo duo-toned road trip.

The book also spotlights the snarky and surreal single-panel work and gags by HuskMitNavn, Christoffer Zieler, and Johan F. Krarup; the visually explosive silent comics of MA?rdA,n Smet and Peter Kielland; cover artist T. Thorhauge's spectacular philosophical piece "M"; and many other stories in a wide variety of styles from the sinister black and white Lynchian surrealism of Simon Bukhave's wooden robot story "All that I Hold in My Hand" to the watercolored animal-fable extravaganza "Tomb of the Rabbit King" by Allan Haverholm, from SA,ren Mosdal and Jacob A~rsted's meticulously delineated and colored nightmare yarn "Dog God" to Zven Balslev's slashing, black and white, Panter-esque "Cadarul Zombie." And more!