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Written by Byron Kerman Thursday, 18 June 2009 17:00

Sexually-charged short stories from Israeli cartoonist Koren Shadmi.

145 pgs. B&W; $14.95 Softcover

(W / A: Koren Shadmi)

What a delight In the Flesh is. This collection of graphic short stories by Israeli illustrator and comics artist Koren Shadmi offers a meaty, literary satisfaction, and the art is top-notch.

One tale, "The Fun Lawn," is a sickeningly wonderful look at modern internet-aided perversions. A lonely guy is asked out by a hot girl. Turns out she's not so much interested in him as she is in the dog costume he wears on a noted children's TV show, "The Fun Lawn." It's as funny and weird as it sounds, with an unexpected darkness, too. In "Antoinette," another twisted tale of sex and dating, a guy finds himself alone with a certain headless gal who carries around her own decapitated head in her hands. A panel depicting her hands pouring booze into her mouth (the head is an alcoholic; the body just sort of follows along) will stay with you. (And the sex interlude is a  depraved riposte to the cunnilingus scene that made the film Re-Animator so much fun).

If these stories were merely sick, with touches of sick humor, they'd be worth savoring, but Shadmi does something more. He excels at toying with dark impulses from the subconscious, and using metaphor to stir things up. A man's desire to have sex with a stranger is undeterred by the fact that her head sits on the pillow disconnected from her body. Such is the power of lust. Similarly, in "Radioactive Girlfriend," a man is willing to lose all his strength and hair for the right to date the dangerous woman of the title. "Grandpa Minolta," one of the standouts here, imagines a creepy old man as a body with a camera instead of a head. His lascivious looks at underage girls become actual snapshots—it's perfect for the Age of Porn in which we find ourselves.

There's plenty of sex, and Shadmi's art captures it tastefully and unerringly. His line drawings have a reserved quality, and his knack for capturing expressions, anatomy, perspective, and so on is really something. Like the storytelling, the art serves his deeper aims without fail. It would be easy to imagine his lyrical, sensitive style in the Top Shelf stable, but In the Flesh is published by Villard, a Random House imprint.

Some may group Shadmi's work with short-story writer of the moment Etgar Keret, because they both plumb the surreal, they're both Israeli, and Keret has dabbled in the graphic form.

Shadmi, though, is a bona fide double threat. His stories have real literary punch and his art is no betrayal of his storytelling skills. Very highly recommended. | Byron Kerman

Visit Koren Shadmi's personal website at http://www.korenshadmi.com/, and click here to read an excerpt courtesy of Random House.