WONDERLAND

A look at Wonderland just after the departure of the “Alice Monster.” After clonking the Queen of Hearts on the head in a momentary fit of rage over a spot of soiling, the White Rabbit’s housekeeper, Mary Ann, is forced to flee with her employer into the Tulgey Wood. Avoiding a Bandersnatch, Mary Ann proceeds to fall into a treacle well, rescue the Queen of Spades from sticky exile, stop for a nosh at the Mad Tea Party and then firmly scissor the two Queens and their playing-card courts into confetti. Inconsistently portrayed as obsessively fastidious but then not seeming to mind all that much about being continually covered with mud, treacle, dust and other substances, Mary Ann doesn’t seem either quite zany enough to be a permanent resident of Wonderland nor ordinary enough to be a foil. Still, his color art closer to Disney than Tenniel in style and spirit, Liew shoehorns most of the nonstop chaos into discrete panels of various sizes and so manages to make the headlong plot reasonably easy to follow. Best enjoyed as an aperitif to Alice’s twin outings. (Graphic novel. 10-12)