Rex Libris is a seriously odd comic. 

For one thing, it's a comic within a comic.  Or rather, it's a comic book story within equally fictional comic book packaging.  It's a bit complicated.  Let me explain.

Rex Libris is a mighty librarian.  He guards the store of knowledge in the American public library system.  If you borrow one of his books and don't return it, Rex will come round and sort you out.  If you're an evil demon trying to access the Necronomicon without a borrowing card, he'll thwart you.  That sort of thing.  And, despite the blocky, angular and abstract style of creator James Turner, it's all done as a histrionic Silver Age pastiche.

For many people, the bad-ass librarian schtick would be the joke.  Turner isn't so easily satisfied.  For one thing, the plan for later issues is to take Rex into the books themselves, which opens up plenty more possibilities.  Okay, Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books already do the same gag, but in a very different and much more whimsical tone.

The other part of the joke is that the whole book is meant to be Rex's officially licensed comic, which he's endorsing in the hope of getting more respect for librarians.  Unfortunately, Rex has made a dreadful error of judgment and entrusted his life story to Hermeneutic Press, the hopelessly pretentious imprint of publisher B Barry Horst.  Horst is convinced that he's going to revolutionise the comics industry and become hugely rich.  Like most indie publishers who think that, he's a touch off the mark.  Horst's latest great innovation is ordering readers to consume a coffee and pastry in time with the book.  ("The story is entirely different with wine and cheese, or, say, orange juice and cereal.")

While it might have been better to keep Horst out of the story itself, which includes a scene of Rex arguing over money-chasing rewrites, the two gags dovetail nicely.  A straightforward action librarian comic, if such a thing is conceivable, would probably have worn thin rather quickly, but the two aspects of Rex Libris end up as a funny total package.

Rating: A-

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