4 out of 5

A dash of Bone world-building with some Tin-Tin / Asterix-esque adventuring, dribbled with Trondheim-like kiddie / adult appeal flip-floppery: Atlas & Axis has all good influences, Pau’s figures and comic timing on par with Roger Langridge, and is then shot through with this undertone of innocent commentary and dog-humored quirk that gives Pau his own unique edge amidst all those luminous Others named.

Let’s address some oddities here, though: At four issues, Atlas & Axis’ various adventures – viking raids, hunts for the missing doggie / wolf link – do not conclude; issue 4 leaves us right at the beginning of another tale, which is promising, but sort of a bummer, since we have no idea if this is a series or ending here.  (Or if future books would get translated, anyway.)  There’s also a shift midway through that requires a similar shift in how you read the thing: it starts very much in the adventure vein, with our two doggos off to avenge their fellow villagers, slain by cannibalistic wolves,  and then Pau decides to wrap up what seems to initially be set up as an epic after issue two to give us something more journeyman like – A & A go a’wanderin’ – with social commentary to boot.  Both modes are delightful, but the tone and storytelling style between the two just sort of changes.  After issue two’s resolution made that opening gambit feel rather inconsequential, I was admittedly disappointed, but issues three and four were so, so dang good that it won me well over.  Pau does the Euro comics thing of mixing cartoonish hijinks with sudden dashes of blood or sex; it’s a little light-handed with some of this, though its juxtaposed by constant sights of dogs peeing and many references to butt-sniffing, both in jest and as part of the dog’s-life world building.  The end result of the intermingling of tonal maturities is something very rich and endearing – you buddy up to our two leads very much so.

Dudes like Stan Sakai are rarities.  We need more creators of that type, working within little self-honed worlds. So go buy Atlas & Axis so we encourage Titan to commission more, and to add to the small pile of books that do this anthropomorphic shtick as well as Pau and his peers do.