Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds was one of 2007’s most acclaimedgraphic novels, a subtle tale of terrorism and familial mendacity. Jamiltiand Other Storiescollects her earlier, shorter works from the late ’90s, originally published byActus Tragicus, a collective of Israeli cartoonists she co-founded in 1995.

The tales are Modan at her best — like Mixed Emotions, her recent series of strips done forthe New York Times,they’re fantastical and familiar; surreal storytelling applied to modernconcerns. Most of the stories mine the same material that would appear later(in a more refined form) in Exit Wounds — bombings, political strife, absentee fathers andparticularly, the tendency to rewrite history in order to salve old pain.

Many of the tales stray into rather dark material, buoyed byModan’s dry humour. Undercurrents of deceit snake through Bygone, where the truth behind a seeminglyaccidental fire is revealed as something much more sinister. Homecoming finds a woman’s long-lost husbandreturning home to her... as a suicide bomber. The King of the Lillies is a gothic horror tale of romanticobsession, like Frankenstein loaded with cosmetic surgery.

Other tales bounce to the hilarious and grotesque, like thebizarre The Panty Killer, following the exploits of a crazed murderer who adorns his victims’heads with pairs of panties. Here, Rodan eschews panels for full-page splashes,with richly coloured images tumbling into one another.

The translations from the Hebrew preserve Modan’s sparse,often blunt prose; a pastoral approach hiding an (often) poisonous humour. Thestories are also gorgeously presented, although the black-and-white in Bygone looks muddled in areas, withrudimentary shading appearing blurry and distorted, as if it’s bleeding out.However, it’s also the best example of Modan’s simple line construction atwork, with exaggerated features and curvy limbs akin to Jean Cocteau’sdelightfully puffy drawings.

Jamilti also provides an intriguing look into Modan’s development asa cartoonist, from the larger muralist-like early works, to the thin delicatelines that have drawn comparisons to Herge. While not as immediatelycaptivating as Exit Wounds, Jamilti is a fantastic grab bag of tales that will invite repeatedreading.