Book Review: 'Drawn and Quarterly' (2012)

Drawn and Quarterly, an anthology of foreign and out-of-the-mainstream cartoonists is like an avant-garde multiplex: sometimes pretentious, sometimes revelatory, always interesting. This latest volume, the third, is the most consistently enjoyable yet. ''Dostoyevsky Comics'' by R. Sikoryak recasts Crime and Punishment as a Bob Kane Batman comic — or is it the other way around? Either way, it's a provocative collision. Franco Matticchio's ''The Pillow'' is a surreal charmer about a horny pillow that sneaks off on his half-man/half-cat owner for some late-night nooky. Michel Rabagliati's ''Paul Apprentice Typographer'' is a minor-chord masterpiece, a touching father/son tale that never hits a mawkish note. Only his second work in comics, Rabagliati's briskly paced story brims with quirky touches. Yet the epiphany comes from a tribute to Gasoline Alley creator Frank King. The strips reflect an inventiveness on a par with masters like Winsor McCay and Will Eisner but rarely attempted today. A