Toxic Planet

This French comic strip satirizing ecological disaster previously ran on Yen's Web site in an example of global comic coordination. The simple art style and fine-line figures are enlivened by lovely, subtle coloring, often in browns and grays. All the characters wear gas masks at all times. That's the joke—the air is unbreathable, the water dark brown, food genetically modified and removed from any connection to the earth. The strips range from four panels to full pages, with more of the latter appearing as the book continues. The punch lines are simple, at first—no one recognizes each other under the masks—but grow in complexity, continuity and sharpness as the book goes on, involving what people expect as “natural,” fake terrorists to manipulate the public and fear of green growing things. The puny, stupid United Global States president is also the butt of humor. The whole thing is unexpectedly entertaining, especially to those with green concerns who fear the path we're on but can view it with black humor. The French origin is still visible in some of the assumptions and more obviously in the untranslated signs (with English footnotes). (Aug.)