Wimbledon Green by Seth

Subtitled 'The Greatest Comic Book Collector in the World', this book cleverly bridges the gap between serious graphic novels and the more mainstream superhero comics tradition by looking seriously at the bizarre adventures of comic book collectors. Wimbledon Green himself is the most fascinating of these, but he's one of a pantheon of driven, backbiting individuals who form a comic collecting elite. Writer and artist 'Seth' never really intended this material to form a book, merely doodling the adventures of various obsessives from time to time, as a fun exercise. Gradually this became more serious, and eventually the many and varied fragments formed into a loose plot, which became this book. In some hands this would be self-indulgent, but thankfully this book retains the zany sense of fun Seth must have had in writing it. The fun comes from the style of the book which is in turn influenced by the old comics Seth and his characters love. The story of Wimbledon Green is told by various parties (mostly rivals) who all have strong opinions about him, and they're all presented as correct opinions too, because Green contains multitudes. Daft multitudes, though: he has an autogyro and a faithful manservant in emulation of his comic heroes. Joyously, Green's tale is fascinating, oddball, and poignant, and often all three - not bad for a funny picture book. [Keir Hind]