I’m not going to review Berlin #20 here, because who starts a 22-part series at this point? I did want to take a moment, though, to say congratulations to Jason Lutes for sticking with the series.
Berlin began in spring 1996 from Black Eye books (another Canadian publisher who also put out work by Jay Stephens, Ed Brubaker, and Dylan Horrocks). The first third of the story was collected in 2000 as Berlin: City of Stones; the second part, Berlin: City of Smoke, made it out in 2008.
It’s the story of the city pre-World war II, from 1928-1933 (which means, like the M*A*S*H* TV series, the fiction has run much longer than the events it aims to capture). That’s the end of the Weimar Republic, the pre-Hitler German state, although the Fuhrer appears in the first pages of this issue.
The reason to read Berlin, in my opinion, the amazingly comprehensive draftsmanship of Lutes. The fine linework and confident use of black spaces establish a substantial feel of the presence of this particular time and space. Yet Lutes drops all that comprehensive background away when required to emphasize certain moments and statements.
Even not knowing these characters, I could relate to particular moments portrayed. The Jews are being harassed, officially, so we see some trying to take comfort in religion, some mourning a fellow resistance fighter, and some trying to make decisions about their daily life in this environment. Lutes also includes Yeats’ “The second Coming”, which I always appreciate hearing. (The publisher offered a review copy.)
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