(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

I've mentioned here before, how the Chicago public library system here where I live has started making grown-up graphic novels more and more of an acquisitional priority; although I find most graphic novels not intellectually hefty enough to warrant full write-ups here at CCLaP, I do find them excellent bedtime reading, which is why I tear through a ton of them in my personal life but rarely mention it here at the site. I did want to make a mention, though, of Gilbert Hernandez's 2007 collection Chance in Hell, yet another of the ten thousand astonishing publications by graphic-novel gods Fantagraphics; penned by half the creative team behind seminal '80s comics groundbreaker Love and Rockets, this is ultimately a standalone story away from that grand mythos created for that title, although still containing the same dark magical realism of the former. Essentially a post-apocalyptic tale but with an urbane twist, the serial stories tell the long-term tale of a girl left to herself in the anarchic wilds of a post-disaster American suburb; shut off at first from the still-civilized society now only found inside large barricaded cities, the girl learns early of the naked violence and sexual transactions that can save one from destruction in a lawless society with few resources. After being rescued and adopted, then, by one of the urban liberal do-gooders who often make forages to the edges of these lawless suburbs, the last two-thirds of the story is about the girl's struggle throughout puberty inside the enclosed so-called "civilization," a place in her eyes as horrific as the wastelands she just left behind, subject to the same laws of brutality and gender manipulation. Dark, shocking, yet not without its black-humor charms, this is Hernandez's response to September 11th and the Bush administration, exactly what you would expect from a respected middle-aged artist currently at the top of his form. It comes highly recommended to all you existing comics fans. ( )

Really, really dark. More of a short story than a novel, this is perfect for those who find Hernandez's Love and Rockets stories too cheerful and optimistic. ( )