The Placebo Man
by Tomer Hanuka
Alternative Comics, 134 pp., $14.95
Twin brothers Tomer and Asaf Hanuka are an especially bright binary star system in the firmament of comics and illustration, and AC’s Jeff Mason has spared little expense in amplifying their light through a pair of solo collections this year. Tomer’s book comprises his strange and compelling stories from Alternative’s Bipolar #1-5 and the Johnny Weissmuller tribute, “Elephant Graveyard,” from the Jim Higgins-helmed New Thing: Identity anthology. Most of these black-and-white narratives are as realistic as a mouthful of bloody asphalt, yet flavored by elements (the talking cats in “Time Strips,” the low-rent Trevanian conceit of “Zina & Me,” the superheroic backstory of “Aquaflesh”) of a transcendent surreality; each of the stories benefits from the artist’s fine-line draftsmanship and sharp sense of timing; each of them will do interesting things to the inside of your head.This article appears in December 8 • 2006.