In this week's BEST OF KC issue of Pitch Weekly--

Best Author - MO. (2007)

Matt Fraction

When it comes to genre fiction, we like espionage, science fiction, alternate universes, Thomas Pynchon references and soap-opera intrigue. Matt Fraction layers those elements in a way that's smart, entertaining and completely cool in the graphic novel Luxuria, a collection of the first seven issues of his comic book Casanova, illustrated by Gabriel Bá and published in March by Image Comics. In the work, amoral thief Casanova Quinn, having turned his back on the family business (global espionage), is transported to an alternate reality in which he is supposed to be dead. Then he's blackmailed into war against his own family by an opposing organization called W.A.S.T.E. Fraction's narrative draws from the tropes of science fiction and 1960s spy thrillers, a fabric he embellishes with excellent PowerPoint jokes, gun battles and the dark secret behind the strip-mall colleges that advertise on television. Surprisingly dense, it's so deftly designed that you barely notice, until the wash of detail rises to your neck. Former MK12 animator Fraction might be not only the best fiction writer in Kansas City but also the best new writer in the comics industry, period.

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Thanks, Pitch!