Stephen DeStefano is probably best known in comics circles for his late-’80s series ‘Mazing Man, but he’s one of those artists’ artists whose reputation among their peers is high even when they’re not publishing work under their own name. Lucky in Love: A Poor Man’s History, the first of a two-volume project, is his first graphic novel. A collaboration with writer George Chieffet, it’s a tragicomedy about a sex-obsessed young man, longing to do his neighborhood proud, who comes of age during World War II. Visually, it’s a homage to a few schools of old-fashioned, craft-focused cartooning that have just started to come back into print. (The artists whose work DeStefano has mentioned as inspiring the look of Lucky in Love over at his blog include Milt Gross, Cliff Sterrett and Rodlow Willard–not the usual list of influences.) Lucky in Love volume 1 comes out October 4 from Fantagraphics; thanks to them, we’ve got this exclusive preview of a sequence from the middle of the book that begins with Lucky and his pals drunkenly watching strippers at a military club, then morphs into a chilling vision of wartime disaster.
(More on Techland: A Brief History of Wolverine #1s)
