From Wonderland with Love: Danish Comics in the Third Millennium

Edgy comics from the country of Lars von Trier and The Raveonettes.

In all the excitement over manga from Japan and bandes dessin es 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 Mardon 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 Soren Mosdal and Jacob Orsted s meticulously delineated and colored nightmare yarn Dog God to Zven Balslev s slashing, black and white, Panter-esque Cadarul Zombie. And more!

Nominated for a 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award (Best Story: "Because I Love You So Much," by Nikoline Werdelin). 66 pages full-color and 110 pages black-and-white