Decoding Cass

This week saw the re-release of Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá's CASANOVA, now in FULL COLOR!!! When I think about it, this is probably one of my favorite series of all time, though I would never venture so far as to say I love it as much as Raph does.

In the first issue there's a prolonged scene of dialogue where Cass, our anti-hero, chats with a damsel in French. One of the tenants of the series is that the creators don't talk down to their readers (Fraction points out in the backmatter that he was struck with this notion when reading Howard Chaykin's AMERICAN FLAGG for the first time), so there's no translation. Like with BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM, I'll serve as your Rosetta Stone with no thanks to Grammy Mattinson and the 3 years of French I took in high school.

PAGE 17

PANEL 4

GIRL: Oh, thank you god...

CASANOVA: Come on!

PANEL 5

CASANOVA: What's happening?

GIRL: It's horrible --the American sex zombies are everywhere. They attack the men and ravage all of the women--

CASANOVA: --Pardon me-- but would you like wine?

PANEL 6

GIRL: Sure. I am French, eh?

PAGE 18

PANEL 1

GIRL: If you pull me from this horror, I will cook for you for the rest of my life...without clothes, whatever...

PANEL 2

CASANOVA: God in the @$$!

PANEL 3

CASANOVA: Oh, crap.

PANEL 4

CASANOVA: What did you say? I don't understand English. A French woman just offered to cook for me, and I can't imagine what else. What's happening?

Yeah, I had to double check "God in the @$$", too.

Location:Casa de Ewing