Back to Berlin

After an eight-year gap, Jason Lutes (Jar of Fools) provides the second act of his exquisite and ambitious historical fiction that explores life in Berlin during the twilight of the Weimar Republic. As tensions rise between communists and nationalists in the wake of the 1929 May Day massacre, Berlin's nightlife heats up considerably with the arrival of American jazz band The Cocoa Kids, providing a distraction - and potential division - for idealistic young lovers Marthe and Kurt. Lutes's artwork is gorgeous stuff - remarkable not only for its consistency but also for creating beautiful vistas that are suffused with a pervading sense of anxiety and doom.

Danny Graydon