Synopsis: 1990s. Russia. The USSR has ceased to exist. Its dimly remembered promises of utopia have dried up, and amongst the rubble, scavengers and looters abound.

Amongst the vast Russian tundra and decaying Soviet buildings, two such scavengers engage in a rather dubious pastime—getting their hands on all sorts of trinkets that might interest wealthy investors.

Slava, once a promising young painter, has abandoned his career and ideals to scrounge around with a pal from his school days, the consummate conman Lavrin. The future is up for grabs, and in this anything-goes, dog-eat-dog new world order, Lavrin assures Slava anything and everything can be bought and sold.

Review: Pierre-Henry Gomont is a French comic artist with some of his work being previously translated into English. I think one of the parts of this volume came out earlier through another publisher. Either way, this contains all three parts and is the complete story.

As the synopsis states Slava and Lavrin are looting their way across a post Communism Russia. There’s abandoned mansions, empty factories, all sorts of quality stuff that can can be turned for profit if you know the right people. While on the run from one of their escapades they cross paths with a beautiful Russian woman. Along with her father, her and all of the workers at a factory have, quite literally, seized the means of production and have taken over the factory where they worked. They live and work there and want to get it back up and running. Will Slava and Lavrin help or hinder them? The answer of course is a little from column A and a little from column B.

The European model of a couple of long albums, instead of issues grouped together, works really well here. There are multiple story lines, an expanded cast of characters, and a nicely done cohesive depth. It’s a story served well by its over 300 pages. I’m no expert but I would say that Gomont was trying hard to infuse Soviet Land with many of the characteristics that we associate with Russian literature and has succeeded.

It’s a storyline that emerges later in the book but one of the things on full display here is the modern oligarchy and how powerful they are and how they came to be. It’s a storyline that illuminates many news events currently. One characters desire to reach the higher economic level is so thoroughly thwarted it’s a little reminiscent of Stringer Bell in The Wire trying to go legit. Those in power are so good at being in power that by the time you realize you realize what’s happening, it’s over. The formerly big fish realizing they’re now a small fish in real time and the heavy price they pay as a result.

Soviet Land works well as historical fiction and family and personal drama. But it’s also really good crime fiction that intersects with shadow economies, gangsters, state gangsterism, history, and the ultra wealthy. But the story always remains rooted in the four main characters (three of which are on the cover) and their desire to survive and come out just a little ahead and how their connections to each other are the most important thing in their lives, even if it takes too long to realize it..

This is great stuff and I would look for it to rank among the best crime comics of the year.

Rating: positive/highly recommended

Pair With: A good chunk of the book is in and around a decommissioned factory. With that in mind I have two recommendations. The first is the book Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant. The entire book is great but there’s a small section in the middle of the book that I often return to about The Arkansas Boys. So we started with a book partly about the Russian rust belt and went to the rust belt of the US, now let’s go to China. There is a growing body of Chinese rust belt fiction, primarily in film/TV, that is worth exploring. I’ll drop a book, TV, and film recommendation. Moses on the Plain is the third novella in Shuang Xuetao’s collection Rogue Street. For TV, I would check out The Long Season, though be warned about some janky subtitles in some of the episodes. Both of those are crime fiction and while I could mention one of the Chinese neo-noirs that bump up against rust belt settings and stories (Blind Shaft, The Looming Storm, Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, Black Coal Thin Ice…oops I guess I did anyway), the movie I would most recommend for this pairing is the wonderful The Piano in a Factory.

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