Renegade Arts Entertainment, 128 pages, $21.99 It’s hard to explain but should be seen, and it’s very clever indeed. She mostly uses a single-colour wash art style, but builds a complex approach to colour and panel layouts over time. So does Ayuyang’s absolutely gorgeous approach to illustration. It may centre, as is customary in noir, on a “dame,” but the story of Bobot’s obsessive quest takes the genre in new directions. But, as the Depression maintains its grip, enter our protagonist Bobot, a migrant worker from the Philippines forced to work as a fruit picker despite having a law degree, who swipes a loud suit and heads to find his missing wife. Here, the setting may be familiar - the dive bars and broken dreams of California in 1929. It might seem tough to come up with a new way to tell noir fiction stories, but Rina Ayuyang’s done it, and beautifully. Squire and Knight should be on your coffee table. And his storytelling skill shows clearly in the pacing, leading us neatly through a plot peopled with all manner of fantastical creatures to a satisfying ending. It’s beautifully realized, as we would expect from a Chantler book. Coming across an apparently cursed village that’s been plagued by a dragon, Sir Kelton grabs his sword and rushes in, while Squire ponders the problem and looks for another way. This is the story of a clever squire to a boorish knight, following the literary tradition of using a lower-class protagonist to poke fun at authority. Chantler’s past work, especially near-silent masterpiece “Bix,” makes any new release impossible to ignore, and this one’s a treat however young its intended audience, it suits all ages. Scott Chantler, Stratford, Ontario’s quietly accomplished graphic novelist, returns with a gripping mystery aimed at younger readers.
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