Charles Burns’ X’ed Out is a rich teaser for what promises to be a compelling graphic vision. Much of the volume is dedicated to table setting, as our title character alternates between art-school striving and an Hergé-inspired exploration of an alien world.

A sewer drain, handfuls of red pills and an unexplained injury ease the passage between the two settings. Burns’ art style signals the changes as well. He adopts a ligne claire technique for his strange new land and a more lifelike, shadowy style for flashbacks here on earth.

Both places hold our interest. Burns parcels out the strangeness of the sewer world, employing a native guide to temper its weirdness. The feral scenesters on earth are also evoked in all their youth—cruel, striving, a little pretentious and maybe a little precocious as well.

Burns ably captures the feel of an artist’s community. He doesn’t deny how seriously the characters take their work, but he folds in the possibility that it may just be an excuse to get drunk and be weird for a while.

The ending draws you to the next volume, as developments on the new world—and the origin of the title character’s injury—are ominously foreshadowed. I look forward to reading the full work—even if it may take a while to be completed.

Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939–1940 has all the virtues of its predecessor: lively adventure, painterly colors and fine-scale detail in action and rest. But where the first volume revolved around Camelot, this installment sees the titular prince roam Europe in search of adventure

Val seems to grow through these pages, replacing a bit of his carefree mayhem with the responsibilities of leadership and loss. He’s still surprising savage to modern eyes and cavalier about his safety as well. He’ll kill for sport and sheath his sword for laughter. Crusades catch him, but none as forcefully as his need for amusement.

These adventures in these pages take him to the doomed castle of Anderkrag and Rome at the height of its decline. The bulk of the story, though, is taken up with a full war against the Huns (of Atilla fame). The full-page vistas give Val sufficient space to display actual strategy and reversals. Graded on the curve of the times, Hal Foster doesn’t dehumanize the Huns too badly, even if they are full villains.

The art seems more assured here. Some of the compositions break the grid to showcase a single stop-and-stare drawing. The action is fun, leavened with heartbreak. And the story ends with an excellent cliffhanger, making me look forward to my third round with the Prince.