GRAPHIC NOVELS

Kid Eternity: The Deluxe Edition

Duncan Fegredo (illus.). Vertigo. 2015. 144p. ISBN 9781401258115. $24.99. Rated: M. F
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In this disturbing tale, first published as a whole in 1991, Morrison (The Multiversity) and Fegredo (MPH) take readers on a graphic decent into Hell. Stand-up comedian Jerry lies on the operating table in the emergency room after a terrible car accident. He experiences a jumble of bizarre and violent events, which may be delusions or may be memories, before "the Kid" arrives to guide Jerry through the Hellish labyrinth. Jerry just wants to go home, but the Kid and the Lords of Chaos he serves have need of Jerry in their eons-old battle with the Lords of Order. Back in the waking world, the demon spirit of Jack the Ripper roams free. Fegredo's art resembles a fever dream or hallucinogenic experience gone horribly wrong. Monstrous images fill the pages with corrupt forms of humanity and otherness at every turn.
VERDICT There are certainly echoes of Dante's Inferno here, down to the division of the work into cantos, but this is not a retelling of the classic. Fans of Neil Gaiman's Sandman and similar fantasy/horror comics are the primary audience for this work.
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