Perramus

Perramus: The City and Oblivion by Alberto Breccia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perramus: The City and Oblivion collects the four Perramus graphic novels but Alberto Breccia and Juan Sasturain.

After reading Mort Cinder and The Eternaut, I'm all in on whatever Fantagraphics wants to reprint featuring Alberto Breccia's art so this one was an obvious choice.

Perramus, the title character, is a man who has forgotten his name and past, taking his name from a label on his raincoat. Along with his friend Canaloes and The Enemy, he explores an Argentina clutched in the iron fist of a dictator and the skull faced Marshals.

The stories are way more complicated than that but it's hard to work Borges, a quest involving collecting the missing teeth of a singer, an island whose economy is based on bird shit and a dick measuring contest judged by Frank Sintra into a coherent teaser.

Alberto Breccia's art is at its most experimental yet, a blend of charcoal, ink washes, collages, ink spatters, and all kinds of other techniques. His figures are grotesque caricatures wandering a dreamlike world with flashes of realism. There are some panels that look like photo collages and others where I'm sure he simply drew something with a photo reference.

The stories are bizarre and nightmarish, as befits the art. I lost track of the plot on numerous occasions and just enjoyed the art until I found the trail again. Lots of crazy things happen. I have to think a lot of Vertigo writers were inspired in part by the craziness of Perramus.

With phantasmagorical art and the bizarre plot, I can say I recognize that Perramus is a great work but I'm not exactly sure I actually enjoyed it. Four out of five teeth.

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