| RASL | |
|---|---|
Cover of the first issue. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Cartoon Books (self-published) |
| Schedule | Bimonthly, originally 3 issues annually, typically delayed |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publication date | February 2008 – present |
| Number of issues | 11 (ongoing) |
| Main character(s) | RASL Miles Riley Maya Riley |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Jeff Smith |
| Artist(s) | Jeff Smith |
| Creator(s) | Jeff Smith |
| Collected editions | |
| Volume 1: The Drift | ISBN 9781888963205 |
RASL is an independently published black and white comic book series, written and drawn by Bone creator Jeff Smith. The series showed Smith's "dark side", as it was much more mature than his previous works. The series originally ran with 3 issues a year with repeated delays, but has now been changed to a bimonthly schedule. The series follows the art thief RASL, who jumps to parallel universes in attempts to steal parallel paintings, but soon runs into dangerous scenarios as he is pursued by the government.
RASL is written and drawn as a sci-fi noir. It draws influences from real life events, people and places in addition to Southwestern Native American culture and hardboiled crime fiction. The art style is high contrast black and white and is notably more detailed and "human" than Smith's previous work, Bone. The story follows a central story, but is narrated extensively through RASL's thoughts. Smith also utilizes flashbacks to tell the story of RASL's past.
Contents |
The first issue of the series was released in February 2008. Originally planned for a 3 issues a year at 32 pages, the format has been changed so that the issues (as of Issue #5 onward) are 24 pages (22 pages of comics, and a 2 page letter column titled RASLetters) for less wait in between. According to Jeff Smith's blog, the series will go bi-monthly with Issue #7. Issue #6 was delayed for an extensively long time, from October 2009 to January 2010.
Earlier in the series' production, it was unclear whether RASL was supposed to be a limited series or a standard ongoing series. However, in response to a fan's post on Smith's Facebook page on August 1, 2010, he commented; "I'm not sure how many issues there will be exactly, but you'll probably only have to be collecting RASL for about two more years", confirming that it is in fact an ongoing series and that Smith estimates the series to end somewhere between 2012 to 2013. Smith suggested in the RASLetters section of Issue #10 that either issue 15 or 16 will be the final issue of the series.
The story opens to RASL, a dimension jumping art thief with a tattoo of a woman's name (Maya) on his left arm, wandering in a desert battered and bloody. He recollects his memories on a job where he steals a Picasso painting ("The Old Guitarist") from a house several stories tall during a thunderstorm. After tagging the location of the painting, RASL escapes from the police by using an immersion suit (resembling 4 airplane turbines strapped to his shoulders and legs and an African mask) to enter "The Drift", a place where he is able to travel to other dimensions.
He comes to a seemingly regular world and hides his suit, then visits a bar where he is the only one present. After some drinks and lighting a cigar, he looks through the songs on the jukebox, noticing that Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album is instead credited to Robert Zimmerman, which is Bob Dylan's birthname. He realizes he is in the wrong place. As he is about to leave, an eerie assassin with a lizard like face comes in and shoots at RASL; as he escapes his painting is shot.
Outside the assassin chases him and a fight ensues, to which RASL beats and disarms the man. He finds no I.D. and is startled to see a small rectangle block in the man’s wrist. Hearing sirens, he decides to go find a quiet place to meditate for a couple of hours (to be put in a more zen-like state of purity so he may enter the Drift again) thinking to himself about how he knew someone could "figure it out eventually". His final lines as he meditates in the light of the moon are "You can fix this. It’s never too late to fix it." The story then cuts back to him one last time wandering in the desert.
RASL drives back into town after having returned to the real world. He comes to his client's house (a prostitute named Annie). Inviting him in, she notices RASL is in bad shape, and asks if he was "time traveling again". He corrects her by explaining that he jumps dimensions using "thermo-magnetic engines to bend the space" around him. Annie notices the painting was shot in the foot and she can never show it to anyone. During a conversation RASL asks if Annie has seen the lizard face assassin (mentioning he was from "The Compound. Deep Black.") We also learn that under his wrist was a security chip. She has not seen the man. RASL is frustrated that "they" are unable to control him, so they sent an assassin.
Annie shows him a medallion depicting "The Man in the Maze" (a nickname for the I'itoi) which represents the journey of life and its turning points. During the conversation we see his point of view as he travels dimensions, mentioning while he is in the void, there are portals, and he goes through the one he sees. Annie believes that worlds also choose him. Later the two have sex and fall asleep. RASL wakes up later worried he felt something wrong (nervous he might be in the wrong place). However, Bob Dylan exists in this world and RASL decides to go out to a strip club and drink.
He returns later to find that Annie has been murdered, and a heart shape ripped from the painting covered in blood on Annie. RASL knows he must go after the assassin and gets his jeep. As he drives past The Compound he narrates about when he first played with magnets and learned Maxwell's equations to make his immersion suit. He asserts that "nothing is certain in the world of quantum physics." He gives an example of this by stating how electrons are not able to be pinned down in an atom. He narrates: "I can’t remember where I heard the theory that these particles were actually leaking into other dimensions. But I can remember the first time I followed one." He then burns the Picasso painting on a mountain top and uses his immersion suit to enter The Drift in a blast of light.
RASL re-enters the world where "Dylan isn't Dylan" on the same abandoned mountain top from Chapter 2 after having counted to 10. With his jeep gone he walks into town. At a bus stop he sees the Man in the Maze symbol used as an ad for a Maze of Life exhibit for a museum. He begins his drive there (during this we learn that he counts while drifting so he can focus and not black out). Blacking out is how he came to the current dimension the first time. Assuming Annie’s killer is following him, he wonders how he got the technology but admits it wouldn't be hard to master. However he mentions that two people saw his (RASL's) complete designs, and that one of them is dead.
The story flashes back to when he worked for The Compound (a military base). He works with a man named Miles and his wife Maya. We learn RASL’s name is Robert, and that he and his partners are working on a "St. George Array" (based on ideas by Nikola Tesla). According to Miles it’s an anti weapon which serves as a barrier against missiles. RASL feels reluctant going through with the plans, but Miles points out that in the past he supported Robert’s teleportation suits (t-suits). At this time, however, they do not function properly. The phone rings and Miles answers the call and tells them the project has now been green-lit and the budget doubled. While he gets a bottle of champagne Maya kisses RASL saying “Even if you could leave him, I know you can’t leave me” (indicating an affair between them). Maya tells Miles Robert won’t back out, leaving Robert himself unsure of the future.
In the museum he meets the curator who looks exactly like Maya who in this dimension doesn’t know him (instead her name is Uma Giles.) After showing her the silver medallion to examine she says it looks like Hopi silverwork, though his “friend” (Annie) was part Pima. He leaves the museum shortly after making plans to meet her again, reeling from the experience. He decides to visit Annie’s house. As RASL is about to leave (after watching a client walk out of her house), the assassin with the lizard like face pulls up in a car to come kill her. RASL enters and sees the man has her hostage and greets him by his first name telling him, "You have something that belongs to us and we want it back."
RASL takes the gun and points it at the assassin but is startled when the assassin says that there are infinitely many different Annie’s but only one of he and Robert. A brutal fight ensues while Annie picks up the gun and aims it at both of them. The assassin runs outside while RASL makes sure Annie is ok. Outside, the assassin (with his own immersion suit) enters The Drift. RASL prepares to do the same telling Annie to get to safety. She asks where he is going, to which he replies “After him!” He enters the Drift, leaving this dimension’s Annie with the gun, in awe and bewildered.
The story opens with RASL declaring himself a liar, in a world filled with liars. And that even a liar can find it difficult to tell what is truth and what is legend. During this, a boat spots a life raft holding a dead (and possibly mutated) sailor. We learn that this is 6 days prior to the Philadelphia Experiment, which is narrated as follows:
In September 1943, a military convoy is leaving from Casablanca bound for Norfolk Virginia via the Atlantic (waters patrolled by German submarines in this era). As the ships pass within 100 miles from Bermuda, an immense flash is seen on the horizon, followed by the muffled sounds of depth charges. A distress call is picked up yet no ships or German subs are seen. 2 days pass and the calls and noises persist. The next day, the dead sailor is found. On the sixth night, a loud succession of explosions is heard and an unknown ship is seen with its stern on fire. Alarm is issued and the traveling boat goes to rescue the other. As they approach, it is gone and not seen nor detected on radar. Going further, the sailors look down into a trench in the shape of a hull. A loud pop of electricity is heard and the sailors look shocked at what is described as "a man-made horror/a travesty of nature." RASL narrates that this incident is the beginning of a series of lies that leads to the current point in his story. A quiet barrio in Tucson.
Re-emerging from the Drift once more in a new dimension with the assassin, another brutal fight ensues at night in the street in a suburb area. The assassin draws his gun and points it at RASL, warning him to stay put. He looks at RASL, stating he looks nothing like his picture (addressing him by his full name, Robert Joseph Johnson). He notices drifting is killing him. The assassin asks if RASL came to "return the stolen property", but RASL has come only because of Annie's murder. The assassin warns RASL that he is meddling with forces he can't control. We learn RASL subsumes the person who exists as him on other worlds (explaining why he never meets himself). The assassin reveals his name as Sal, that he is working for the Compound, and that they believe RASL has 2 journals stolen from the navy. He offers a truce for the journals in exchange for not killing RASL's "girlfriends" for 48 hours. RASL threatens to kill him first but the assassin teleports away. RASL tries to make a grab for him but falls on the street, when he notices a very eerie (possibly disturbed or mentally deficient girl) who disappears quickly.
He goes to a bar to drink and talk with the bartender (Harley), and collects his thoughts. We learn through this that Nikola Tesla was working on magnetic fields for ships to detect German ships and repel mines during World War I. The assistant secretary of the navy at the time is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR becomes president and discusses the magnetic project with Albert Einstein during the period of the Manhattan Project during World War II. RASL had seen the data of a full scale test in which a ship blinked in and out of existence several times over 6 days; the experiment had horrific results, making the navy want to "close that door". However, RASL says he opened it again 2 years ago.
He walks out of the bar and sees the eerie girl again, who slaps the ground where he appeared and points to Annie's house. Unsure of what to make of this, RASL puts on his suit and returns once more to the dimension with no Bob Dylan. Checking on Annie, he is worried she doesn't know who he is. She addresses him as Robert, assures him and kisses him. As they do this, RASL slowly shuts the door of her house.
The story continues the morning after Anne and RASL have sex with Annie expressing her disbelief and amazement at RASL's explanation of his drifting technology. We learn that his first test was done in a desert of Arizona (where the story takes place) and it took 3 days to realize he was on another world. Knowing that this dimension's Annie saw the suit, Robert plans to leave to pull a new heist to get money while Annie can go somewhere safe. Annie question's RASL about her alternate versions RASL has seen or slept with. Asking why RASL wants to be with her, he simply says it is because they both are there. Keeping in mind that he destroyed The Compound's multi-billion dollar weapons division, he plans to not give the journals to them. Rob leaves, bloody and hurt from Drifting and has a short black out before and during driving.
During the second blackout the story flashes back to Robert coming back in the lab looking ill (we see the mask of his immersion suit hanging on the wall amongst other objects. RASL confesses that he tested a t-suit, that it worked, and expresses his want to postpone the St. George Array test (and shut down the Tesla Division) to analyze the calculations of his trip. Miles expresses his frustration and wonders if anything has to do with Robert and Maya's trip to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Afterward, Miles picks up the phone and tells RASL to stick to a story, and that the head of security is arriving.
After the blackout, he pulls over and starts walking and sees the strange girl from Chapter 4 holding hands with a woman on the sidewalk (this is the second world he has seen her). Shortly, Maya (the Uma version) drives up to give him a ride to the museum to get his necklace (which Annie gave him). She offers him a private tour. During the drive, the story flashes back to Robert and Maya having sex during the Wright Patt trip (confirming Miles' suspicions). Maya confesses she wishes to be with Robert all the time. They discuss their schedule which includes a research meeting and another meeting with H.A.A.R.P. to discuss Maya's bio-theories on low frequencies. RASL plans to go to the archives to check out U.F.O. conspiracies.
The story returns to RASL staring at Maya as she gives a tour, and notices he isn't listening, smiling seductively. The story then flashes back to when RASL meets Alvin Bester, a man who works in the archives. He tells RASL of his reputation he's been building and also reminds him of his desire to shut down the Tesla Division. Bester gives RASL Nikola Tesla's 2 missing journals. RASL has a look of shock and fright upon reading one of the journals. The story flashes back to Maya and RASL embraced, kissing in the museum.
The story continues after the date with Maya with RASL reflecting on his and Miles' fascination with the life of Nikola Tesla and his "electrification" of the world. His exposition includes Tesla's relationship and rivalry with Thomas Edison, which leads into a further explanation of the War of Currents. Half-way through this, we see RASL breaking in to a parallel version of the penthouse from Chapter 1 to obtain a new Old Guitarist painting.
He continues his story of Tesla by emphasizing that he felt electricity was a life force, and made plans to create wireless energy transmissions in a laboratory in the Colorado Rockies. The story then goes back to RASL to show that his job was successful as he receives pay from the owner of a casino (who allows RASL to go and enjoy it). The story jumps back into a further narration of Tesla's competition, specifically Guglielmo Marconi. Meanwhile, the company which Tesla and his partner George Westinghouse ran was in financial trouble, but Tesla temporarily saved it. The story goes to the present in the real world to a scene where RASL brings the painting to his friend Pauly in a casino office. Pauly gives RASL a free pass to enjoy the casino. RASL continues his recollection of Tesla.
Ultimately the residents in the area of Tesla's lab grew tired of the thunder being emitted, and he left to go meet J.P. Morgan. After working for Morgan, he is abandoned for Marconi (being that he became the first to transmit signals over the Atlantic Ocean). RASL for a moment sympathizes with Tesla but let's his story serve as a cautionary tale as he sits at a poker table with a drink. Sal approaches him from behind to confront him, questioning him as to why he does not have the journals. After realizing the casino set him up (because security isn't called to his aide), RASL tries to fight Sal drunk, but is smashed over the head with the butt of his gun.
The story continues with RASL narrating The Tunguska Event, expressing his belief that Nikola Tesla's attempt at putting his world system on line was the cause. The story then flashes back to The Compound. Robert and Miles' friendship has fallen apart with Robert having left the St. George project but persistent in advising Miles not to test the weapon. Miles is skeptical at RASL's advisions, seeing that he had, without authorization, taken the t-suit and accidentally discovered other worlds. During an exchange, RASL reveals his knowledge of the existence of Tesla's journals. Miles, infuriated that RASL had kept them secret, throws a laptop through a window. Ranting in an almost madness-driven manner. Maya comes in worried to break up the fight, to which Miles (reading Robert and Maya's faces) realizes their affair. RASL is taken out of the building by security, stating that after seven years of research, his time at The Compound was done. Three days before the St. George test, however, Robert returns to take his t-suit and drifts, conscious of it for the first time (and jamming the array in the process). Because of the electromagnetic effects drifting and a guilty conscience, RASL develops a drinking habit.
He wakes up in the present after the confrontation with Sal in the casino office from Chapter 6 (located in Las Vegas). Present in the room is Sal, along with Kalani Adams, the security head of the compound. Sal's full name is revealed as Salvador Crow, and that he has undergone training under the authority of The Department of Homeland Security. Also - that he is part of a "watchdog group" created by the Patriot Act. In conversation with Kalani, it is learned the department considers the new worlds (if real) a potential security risk. RASL expresses that they are real, to which Sal is disgusted by the thought of considering that so. We also learn that the St. George array is being rebuilt. RASL reveals his t-suit works because energy is shared in all the universes and that energy is transferred. In addition he states the barrier is thin and trying to create the St. George weapon is ill-advised, because an energy gusher could be opened up causing devastating consequences. Choosing to see this as a way to convince RASL to bring her the journals, Kalani offers an ultimatum to bring them in 24 hours or be locked away.
RASL is taken away by Sal and tossed out on the edge of town, telling him that he is still seeking out Annie. RASL's narration of the past is further revealed as he states that three days after jamming the weapon, he drifted back to Tucson and rented a jeep, knowledgeable of where he hid the journals. After driving out of town, he recalls seeing a flash in the mirror, and witnesses (along with other drivers who had gotten out of their cars) a devastating explosion from The Compound. The story flashes back to the present one last time with RASL standing in the desert where Sal left him, with the eerie girl he'd met earlier right behind him.
RASL has been collected into the following oversized (10" by 12") trade paperbacks:
| # | Title | Release date | Collected material | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Drift | January 7, 2009 | RASL #1–3 | 978-1-888-96320-5 |
| 2 | The Fire of St. George | April 28, 2010 | RASL #4–7 | 978-1-888-96322-9 |
| 3 | Romance at the Speed of Light | November 30, 2011 | RASL #8–11 | 978-1-888-96333-5 |
The collection of The Drift has been released in a limited edition hardcover (ISBN 978-1888963212),[3] printing only a mere 3000 copies. The collection of The Drift also features extra story pages along with bonus material.
The series is also being released in "Pocket Book" format (measuring 8.9 by 6.4 by 0.6 inches).[4] Due to the release of these, the previous oversized collected editions were renamed the RASL Giant Artist Editions. It has been confirmed that despite the release of the pocket books, the RASL Giant Artist Editions will be kept in print and continued.[5] Smith said in the RASLetters of Issue #10 that there would be either one or two more RASL Giant Artist Editions (if one, then the one would contain more pages than usual, while if two, they may contain less pages than usual), while there will be one more RASL Pocket Book Edition:
| # | Title | Release date | Collected material | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pocket Book One | November 1, 2010 | RASL #1–7 | 978-1-888-96324-3 |
RASL has been optioned for a film by Lionel Wigram.[6]