Hands down: The next Marcel Dzama. Toronto-based comic artist Ryan Solski makes hundreds of comics, ones that open a door to fantastical and futuristic lives past lived. He is a quiet guy but far from silent, and scribbles like mad. The recent OCAD grad infuses dreamscapes with the pop culture and paraphernalia of the present: contorted Transformeresque superheroes swing a medieval swagger, Where’s Waldo dwarves peek past magical cats and pages of maps hint at secret clues to finding the hidden portals in our lives (some may involve stepping through pizza boxes). There is absolutely no cohesion to this book–it is as if you ware walking through a smoky, dreamy theme park called Ryan’s Brain– each second a new fey character is catapulted your way, grumbling wild jabbering gibberish, then gobbling the speech bubble they just spoke from. A bit of Chris Ware, a dash of Apak, and with the manic obsessive inner world of the Royal Art Lodge, here is a comic leader who is inventive, relentless and dares to be our tour guide through the incomprehensible. Often, he leaves the comic boxes that line the page way behind. Each photocopied page is done with utmost care, though, it doesn’t seem like Solski cares if we get it or not. Maybe not getting it is all there is to get. Stand back while it glimmers. Grade A succulence. (Nadja Sayej)
Comic zine, Ryan Solski, issue 1, $10, www.ryansolski.com