This small book by Toronto artist Tony Baker combines electric illustrations with simple text to relate the story of Vale the Traveller’s escape from an otherworldly city in militaristic lock-down. “Four-year-old boy abstract sci-fi expressionism” is how Baker, rather aptly, describes his visual style. The ever-goggled and -hooded Vale is a determined figure walking through an urban maze populated by fantastical beings, like the anthropomorphized beasts with fangs and militaristic garb who sit in cafés and gossip, or the multi-eyed purple fiends who burst into New New Towne when Vale opens its gates.

Baker includes a backgrounder about the book’s setting, the universe of Expanse, which is torn by an ongoing war between the Gibs and the Nowans. Taken as allegory or as sheer entertainment, Getting Out of New New Towne showcases Baker’s talent as a bard. mRb