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As
improbable as it might sound, Jason Shiga’s comic
rendering of a police investigation into a 19th
century bible stolen from the Oakland Public Library
in 1972 is one of the best reading experiences I’ve
had in some time. Somehow Shiga manages to package a
compelling police procedural with a deadpan style
that is both hysterically funny and gripping.
The
central gag is that our detective, attired in trench
coat with a gruff and laconic style, is, well, a
library police. The book opens with our hero, Agent
Bay, blasting a bullet into his man’s bulletproof
vest, so as to ricochet himself behind a book thief
he is desperate to apprehend. Standing above the
whimpering and vanquished suspect, Bay whispers,
“shhhhhhh.” You might imagine that this gag could get
tired, but the book is so dedicated to the extensive
expertise and knowledge of forensic science, book
arts, library databasing (circa 1970s) that you
almost forget the gag. Instead, as if you were
watching Keifer Sutherland orchestrating a hostage
recovery, you desperately need Agent Bay to apprehend
his culprit. Consequentially, I giggle uncontrollably
while reading “It’s your basic tabby weave dyed
sienna. But look closely. There’s a basic butterfly
knot here and here where the warp thread broke
against the harness. The spacing suggests a double
harness loom.” But when Bay just misses apprehending
his suspect upon tracing her phone call and calls
out, “Damn you Kettle stitch!” I looked down to find
my own fists balled with frustrated rage. Kettle
Stitch is named, of course, after the stitch she has
used to produce her forged version of the bible that
has been stolen. Now I’m laughing again, even as I
write this. Laughing, but also both awestruck and
titillated by Shiga’s mastery of the arcane and
elaborate vocabulary in which his experts speak. Who
knew that the 400s were the least circulated section
of the Dewey Decimal System? Who knew…well, who knew
any of this, and how on earth does Shiga
know?
As with his central gag, his light, doodle-like
drawing style likewise belies the seriously smart
design sense of this book: his framing and focus on
the lines, boxes, catalogues, and shelves of the
public library are a visual treat. Like his hero,
Agent Bay, Shiga deserves to be better known and more
widely circulated than his current publishing
partners will allow (and they deserve all the credit
in the world for bringing this masterful work to the
light of day).
 
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