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Raisin Pie #3

By LJ Douresseau
September 25, 2004 - 15:38

Husband and wife cartoonists, Ariel Bordeaux & Rick Altergott share a comic entitled RAISIN PIE, which recently reached its third issue. In addition to the main features, one serial by each cartoonist, Ms. Bordeaux and Altergott treat readers to a few short strips. Altergott's, as usual, feature his unique brand of deadpan vulgarity, while Ariel's are short treats featuring frantic, but earnest characters.

Issue three sees the continuation of Rick's serial, "Blessed Be." The characters' raw and frank discussion of sex is offset by a genuine sense of dread, and the art is pure film noir, making the story a cross between trash cinema and crime fiction. Altergott's art here isn't as tightly executed as it is in his better known "Doofus" cartoons; it is harsh and more grounded in reality.

Ariel's "Maple Valley Public Library" reminds me of the work of Seth. Her line work is clean and retro New Yorker, and she does this illusionary trick in which the characters' faces seem to say something one moment and morph into blandness the next. This adds to the story's wonderful sense of mystery because the characters can't be so easily pegged, and though "Maple Valley" reads well as a serial, it may be even sweeter as a novel. A-

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12