Rasl #12

by Jeff Smith

I guess Jeff Smith felt like it was time to finish off his history lesson on Nikola Tesla, as the plot barely advances with this issue, and we are instead treated to a lengthy examination of the latter part of the great inventor's career, including his public disparagement of Einstein, and his final rise to fame after Edison's death.  This stuff is pretty cool - I've always been curious about Tesla but have never taken the time to read a biography or history book that covers his achievements (science makes my head hurt a little), so I can appreciate getting that lesson here - assuming of course that Smith is being accurate in his telling of the story.

The thing is, this comic comes out pretty rarely.  I don't really remember what happened in the eleventh issue, and since there is no recap or letters page, I found myself pretty lost.  I guess that's my fault - I could always dig out the previous issue before I read the new one, but who has the time?  Clearly my memory is starting to go in my advanced age as well, since I can only manage to keep the plots of the multitudes of monthly, bi-monthly, and occasional comics series I'm reading fresh in my mind for about three or four months.

Anyway, this is an interesting comic.  I'm just totally lost right now.  Perhaps when the next issue comes out, Smith will take pity on us and include a little blurb on the inside cover.  I know that there's only about four issues left, so I imagine something big is going to have to happen soon.