So a dictionary that I have says that art is beauty. Thus, Scott Morse's THE BAREFOOT SERPENT from Top Shelf Productions must be a work of art. Readers of indie fare certainly know of Morse's work, but the people who can only read superhero comics will soon discover him when DC publishes his painted project, BATMAN: ROOMFUL OF STRANGERS.

Serpent is the story of a little girl vacationing in Hawaii with her parents. The family is still grieving the apparent death (apparent suicide?) of a beloved and missed son. Morse juxtaposes the girl's adventure on the island with a native boy with a short tale of the life of Akira Kurosawa, the famed Japanese filmmaker whose name is often reference by those wanting to appear film literate.

Serpent is a ghost story and a story about people willfully hanging onto the ghosts and not letting go of the past. If art is also about communication, Morse's loudest communiqué is that hope is it's own reward. Hope makes it easier to relinquish the past. Read this sad, bittersweet, and sadly sweet tale and you cannot help but think, "Damn, hope is good!"

This is an odd little tome - part children's storybook, part comic strip, part single panel comic. Morse draws the girl's story in lush, angular black and white tonal art and tells the Kurosawa story in a series of brightly colored paintings. The girl's spiritual or symbolic connection to the famed director may be a bit of a stretch or maybe just makes more sense to the author, but The Barefoot Serpent still delightfully expands the language of comic book storytelling.