Maher Ghanem Ghanem itibaren Koranga Mal, Chhattisgarh, Hindistan itibaren Koranga Mal, Chhattisgarh, Hindistan

Ragmop is a crazy romp through conspiracy theories, bizarre religious speculation, and quantum hocus-pocus. Walton's art is like a cross between old Looney Tunes cartoons and 1960's Marvel comics. I first encountered Ragmop when it was serialized in comic book form back in 1994 and was very disappointed when Walton announced in the back of issue 12 that he was forced to cancel the series due to low sales. Browsing online one day I was pleased to discover that not only had the series been collected in a graphic novel but Walton had completed the story as well. Reading the collection I was surprised to find that Walton had rewritten parts to bring it up to date to a post-9/11 world. I have to question the wisdom of the rewriting. Imagine the Smothers Brothers taking episodes of their old TV series and dubbing over jokes about Richard Nixon with jokes about George W. Bush. Topical humor does not age well, but like George Lucas' continued fiddling with Star Wars, attempts to update just serve to lessen the whole. I'm giving the collection 4 stars for how much I loved it 15 years ago. The intervening years have lessen my enjoyment of conspiracy theories and all the nonsense about quantum theory meaning "anything can happen at anytime" just irritates me.

I skipped a few of the essays, but the ones I did read were excellent.

I liked this book, but didn't really feel I got to know any of the characters until it was ending, which is probably why I want the sequel! I love love love all Demille books (exception being The Cathedral). Though, I have to say (SPOILER ALERT)I'm usually a fan of the happy ever after, stick together through it all endings...not so here.