By Jeff Smith $13.00 Cartoon Books
 
When people raise the argument that entertainment is bad for you because it serves as an opiate or a distraction and blocks revolution or whatever, why don’t they ever take it a step further and admit that the stuff they like is just as bad?  It must be, right?  Isn’t an hour spent thinking about Spiderman or something just as bad as an hour spent reading Joyce or Proust, since both prevent you from going out and smashing the state? 
 
Maybe it depends on whether or not you think the state needs smashing.  There are those that just want to unwind and spend some time being suitably distracted from the inevitability of their own death, too. 

If you fall into the second group, and I don’t mean that as a bad thing at all, why not check out RASL?  It’s about a dimension-hopping art thief being pursued by a murderous Lizard man wearing a fedora.  As if that’s not enough, it’s written and drawn by Jeff Smith, who last brought us the all time classic, Bone.  The story is fast paced and much more adult then you might expect from Smith, and the illustration is so beautiful and kinetic that you’ll be tempted to put your hands on the page to keep it from leaping right off.  This volume collects the first three issues in what promises to be a long-term story, so you might want to check your state-smashing schedule before you commit.  If you have the time, you won’t be sorry.