In all the excitement over manga from Japan and bandes dessinées 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 Mårdøn 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 Søren Mosdal and Jacob Ørsted’s meticulously delineated and colored nightmare yarn “Dog God” to Zven Balslev’s slashing, black and white, Panter-esque “Cadarul Zombie.” Vibe Bredahl, Jan Solheim, Maria Isenbecker, Signe Parkins, Zven Balslev and G.R. Mantard round out the list of contributors to this smorgasbord (OK, that's actually Swedish) of exuberantly creative graphic narratives by Denmark's premier comics artists.
