Black Paths

Young love is overwhelmed by post-WWI angst in this striking French graphic novel set against a bizarre historical episode. In the social chaos following the war, the Adriatic port city of Fiume has a short-lived independence under the eccentric leadership of nationalist poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, while rival mobs struggle for loot. The beautiful singer Mina and the talented writer Lauriano come together briefly—but she is primarily concerned with becoming a famous entertainer while he publishes his work anonymously and is haunted by the ghosts of unburied WWI soldiers. His happiest memory is of being trapped alone for days in a shell hole in the middle of No Man’s Landduring the battle of Piave. . David B. draws with the chaotic, high-contrast style he used in his best-known work, Epileptic, to capture the distressed, surreal mood of artists struggling to run the world. The characters’ bodies elongate and twist to express their emotions, street riots become full-page mosaics of struggling bodies and angry masks, and inanimate objects become all-consuming designs. The result is a gloomy, sadly impressive portrait of foiled idealism. (Mar.)