"Luna Park" will haunt you.
A graphic novel by bestselling author Kevin Baker ("Dreamland") and artist Daniel Zezelj ("Loveless"), "Luna Park" (Vertigo, $25) begins as a noir crime thriller but expands into historical fiction and dreamlike scenarios, stretching through centuries of Russian and New York history.
The principal characters are Alik Strelnikov, a deserter from the Russian army and enforcer for a sliver of the Brooklyn mob, and Marina, a sex slave and fortuneteller. Both are addicted to heroin, both are haunted by demons (Alik the horrors of Chechnya; Marina her kidnapped child and forced prostitution) and both live in the shadows of crumbling Coney Island, a festering, rusting rat's maze that bitterly hints of better times.
As it turns out, Marina's fortunetelling ability is real. Or maybe Alik and Marina are experiencing shared dreams. Or maybe it's the smack. At any rate, our heroes begin to relive similar circumstances in earlier times, both in Russia and Coney Island. Their past lives overlap with each other and their present lives in an endless echo of betrayal and loss.
All of which is masterfully brought to life by Zezelj, whose characters seem to breathe despair and radiate sadness. His women, although beautiful, are especially poignant, mysterious and mournful. And many artists would get lost in the increasingly surreal story line, but Zezelj manages a dreamlike quality that is still rooted in the hard nuts and bolts of good, clean storytelling.
"Luna Park" isn't perfect. The interlinked, cyclical stories are superbly crafted until near the end, when the narrative seemed to jump the tracks to nonparallel scenarios that seemed out of place. But others might interpret that differently, and it wasn't jarring enough to ruin the seductive, soul-numbing world Zezelj has crafted.
Yes, "Luna Park" makes use of dream logic and feelings. But it will leave you with nightmares.
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