RASL #13

writer & artist: Jeff Smith

This is a key issue in the series, probably ties every existing element together in a way that will help readers understand what exactly Jeff Smith has been trying to do with the follow-up to his acclaimed Bone.

Lead character Rob Johnson has been a mysterious since the first issue, the strange man who's been running around the entire series, whether across desert landscapes or jumping to alternate realities, and we've gotten snatches about his motivations and who exactly he's running from, or running toward, partners and opponents that help explain but don't exactly spell out his story. Sporadically, Smith spends time on Nikola Tesla, the genius inventor whose legacy would have been bigger if not for the more accommodating Thomas Edison working at the same time.

This issue we learn that Rob began his own troubles by agreeing to share with the U.S. military his theories about new practical applications for Tesla's old ideas, apparently without himself considering the unfortunate results if miscalculated, as Smith himself had already suggested in earlier issues happening to Tesla back in the day, under exactly the same circumstances. Rob has been frantically trying to undo his own mess, which includes his relationship with Maya, the name that has been tattooed on his arm all this time, but a girl who's been as elusive as just about everything else about this book.

Smith has been minimalist the whole time, purposefully, as if the reader, too, is locked up in Rob's guilt, and his need for redemption, however unlikely and improbable, as if we've been trying to make peace with Tesla, who still, incredibly, has never been publicly redeemed. RASL is a reclamation project, and proof positive of just how complicated it can be.

A book like this doesn't become my favorite because it's easy, but because it's a rewarding challenge, a virtue I value above all.