Review by Karl Verhoven
You know that life you sometimes see at the movies? The one where this incredibly good looking guy’s a magnet for all the chicks? He’s rich as well, and the ultra-cool iteration is some kind of agent with all kinds of astonishing gadgets at his disposal. Add a little drug chic and that’s Casanova Quinn, Agent of E.M.P.I.R.E. Although generated from 1960s archetypes, he’s an aspiration for the bedroom boys of the 21st century.
As was the case in Luxuria, Matt Fraction keeps things moving incredibly fast and throws in multiple conceptual contraptions. You’re not going to have time to wonder why Casanova’s presence is essential to the survival of the multi-quintessence because a blue skinned woman in a goldfish bowl helmet has arrived from the future. “I came from tomorrow to save you from boring. And the end of the world. But mostly from all the boring”, announces Sasa Lisi. And furthermore: “I come from tomorrow so I know all your threats are empty. I already know how I end up”.
While still dressed as a fantasy figure, Sasa at least goes a little way to addressing the secondary roles women had in the first volume, but then along with everything else Fraction’s ramped up the sexual content, and almost every chapter is tits out for the lads. He’s taken the worlds introduced in Luxuria and inflated them further, introducing even more hateful villains, their perfidy this time more easily understood, rather than readers just being told they’re evil. That’s a good thing, as for all the joyous rush of Luxuria, no one really had much idea what was going on. Motivations are clearer here, and there’s a greater emotional depth.
Fábio Moon takes over the art, and is just as fabulous as Gabriel Bá was, delivering a kinetic rush, yet with thoughtful precision. An effect where people seem to have grown extra pairs of arms doesn’t really work, but that’s pretty well the only point at which you’re going to look at the art and find something wrong. Bá, by the way draws a short story in the back that may or may not be a secret origin. Maybe we’ll find out when Casanova continues in Avarita.
Gula picks up two years after the determining statement that closed Luxuria, and for a long time it seems that for a series bearing his name, there’s not much actual Casanova. Fraction has a clever solution to that, and it certainly reconfigures some earlier scenes in an interesting way. As before, influences are worn on Fraction’s sleeve, and there’s a nice Thomas Pynchon joke at the end. In the hardcover edition, which is the one you really want, Fraction comes clean about sources and influences in the process pages after the comics are done. There are a lot of them, Fraction appending notes to what originally appeared in serialised comics ten years previously, including some great interviews with other creators, and confirming that those snatches of song lyrics are no coincidence.
