Rosetta: A Comics Anthology Volume 1

by Ng Suat Tong (Editor), Marc Bell

Rosetta is a comics anthology of sophisticated works by an international cast of award winning artists. Rosetta is targeted at a mature audience, which views comics as a valid art form equal to any other. Rosetta not only entertains with new stories by over twenty award-winning cartoonists from North America and around the world, but also reveals the creative processes and compromises that occur in the creation of comic art in the form of a sketchbook section.The contributing artists have been set the task to go beyond the boundaries set by their previous works and to push themselves into areas that they consider dangerous to their reputations. Edited by Ng Suat Tong, with Tom Devlin doing Graphic Design, Rosetta is packaged under a phenomenal sequential jam cover and endpaper concept by Dave Cooper, Marc Bell, Miriam Katin and Ron Regé Jr. Under a cover by Dave Cooper, Nick Bertozzi dreams about the sequentiality of Hokusai's prints, Ivan Brunetti muses upon the music of Erik Satie, David Choe examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a trip to the Gaza strip, David Collier discusses the quirks of Islam, Renee French provides an eccentric example of portraiture, Tom Hart explores his literary side, the respected cartoonist Lat retrieves a distant memory of his childhood in Malaysia, Matt Madden produces sequential magic out of old NYC mugshots, Miriam Katin delves into the moral questions surrounding her childhood in Hungary, Megan Kelso provides another chapter in her Artichoke Tales, James Kochalka provides an atypical example of his realism, Ron Regé Jr. philosophizes about consumerism, Katja Tukiainen provides a diary of her trip of India to study yoga and Stefan J H van Dinther tests the boundaries of experimental comics. The creators contributing to this project M. S. Bastian, Marc Bell, Marc Bell, Nick Bertozzi, Ivan Brunetti, David Choe, David Collier, Greg Cook, Dave Cooper, Renee French, Tom Hart, Michael Kupperman, Ulf K., David Lasky, Lat, Matt Madden, Miriam Katin, Megan Kelso, James Kochalkaj, John Porcellino, Ron Regé Jr., Tobias Schalken, Katja Tukiainen, Stefan J. H. van Dinther, Sara Varon & Danijel Zezelj

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

196 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2002

Reviews

[kubby]

i found this at my local library recently. and so i've read all but one piece in this. some i liked a lot. i'm on break and been reading lots of comics in the past half-week or so, many i don't find in the database here. so it gets a little confusing as to what stories are contained in what covers.
overall, i give this an okay rating.

[Jamie Felton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

[Ljubica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This anthology is not "the best" and could have been more carefully edited in my opinion. Many of the comics end rather abruptly and, although visually pleasing, were not great stories.