Any committee that judges things as subjective as words or pictures will inevitably find itself criticized for what it picks and what it doesn't.  The Xeric Foundation has made many decisions that have made me scratch my head, but they've picked more hits than misses. For every Black Candy they miss, they've funded a Boom Boom or Castle Waiting (or King of Persia, or Manya, or...) - all projects that large publishing houses wouldn't have invested in.  They have a strong record of supporting first-rate books that people can't wait to read once someone else publishes it, and their grant to Jay Hosler and Clan Apis looks to be no exception.

Hosler, a bee neuroethologist at Ohio State University, is perhaps best known in comic book circles for his "in-jokey" "Cow-Boy", which ran for years in Comic Buyers Guide and then appeared as a one shot book a couple years ago. "Cow-Boy" was always well-rendered in an accessible animated style, but in the end that may have been the only thing accessible about it to comics outsiders.  As such, Hosler's decision to retire the weekly strip and add some very non-fannish scientific elements to its comic book version helped move his work to a new level. And it's this level that the Xeric folks have made possible for us to see in Clan Apis.

Three out of five issues into the story of a hive and its denizens, Hosler has created an entertaining and slyly educational look at a very real and very complex society totally unlike our own. The narrative begins with the insect version of the origin-of-life story.  In the process, Dvorah (the storyteller) informs Nyuki that her cushy life as a larva is almost over - her metamorphosis just about to begin, and her friend seals Nyuki into her cell while filling her in on all the gory details of how Nyuki's body will soon rearrange itself into an adult bee. Nyuki doesn't take the news too well but doesn't have much choice, packed as she is in a coffin of wax. In the second issue we follow her through change into a fully formed bee and her entry into the hive's society. Upon joining her hivemates as an adult she learns that the current queen has lost control of her workers and will have to leave the hive (along with roughly half ot it's population) or be killed by the new queen that has hatched.  Dvorah and Nyuki join Queen Hachi's swarm, and both go scouting for a suitable tree for the new hive.

This brings us to the latest (and third) issue, where Nyuki of course runs into trouble in the form of a preying mantis and a crab spider, but makes it back to the swarm wit the help of a dung beetle. Along the way we get a lesson on the interdependence between various species and their environment. It's delivered by the wise and all-knowing beetle, who alleges to have some sort of telepathic link to all its cousins. A little fantastic, perhaps, but since beetles comprise roughly one-third of the entire insect world, and therefore see just about everything that happens on or above land, it's not so hard to swallow in context.

To paraphrase: the lesson is that bees (and beetles and all the rest of us) live in a world red in tooth and claw, and animals and insects do what they do without attaching ethical baggage to their actions. Hardly a revelation, but it's done well - as is the whole series so far.  As Hosler has expanded the narrative to the world outside one beehive, we now see the rich variety even (relatively) simple creatures encounter and create in the course of living their lives. His drawing and writing highlight this, and does so with humor and zest. And there's always a surprise (usually visually) on the next page.  So the obviousness of the moralizing in the third issue aside, I have no idea where the story will go next, or how Hosler will end it. I guess I don't know enough about bees. Judging by the first three issues I'll learn more, and do so with pleasure.

Which leads to s short discussion about technique: The first two issues are set mainly in the hive, an environment rife with...well, not much by way of variety in settings and inhabitants.  Hosler compensates for this with imaginative perspectives, careful spotting of blacks, and bees with distinctive personalities which they express via their actions, body language, antenna and dialogue. The third issue, taking place as it does outside the hive, features more variety in the settings and insects. If the drawing and storytelling in the latest issue reminds me of anything, it's the recent story in Bone, where we've also been treated to a diversity of animals and settings not seen in previous issues. And though not quite at the level of his Ohio counterpart on terms of graphic sophistication and polish, Hosler certainly has more than enough artistic chops to pull of sequences that would be deadly dull in the hands of a less imaginative artist.

If he were to take a cue from Smith, it might be in the writing.  All of the first issues are a little pun heavy for my tastes, but I suppose some of this is no doubt done to distinguish the goofy and naive Nyuki from her sister and foil Dvorah.  A fact-based book on bee society is bound to result in some long-windedness, but shouldn't inevitable lead to strained word play. Speculating about his reasoning behind this, though, it strikes me that Hosler the writer may be over writing a (over)compensation for having so little to work with in terms of distinguishing features among his protagonists.  Or maybe he just likes puns.

Regardless, Jay Hosler's ability to draw readers into an alien society in so short a time is no mean feat. Clan Apis is a great way to introduce people to the world of bees, and I predict it has a future in middle- and high-school classrooms, especially if a trade paperback is in the offing.  Even it it doesn't, it is just the sort of project that the Xeric grant was designed to support, and it raise the I.Q. of 1998 comics by a few points all by itself.

(c) Jim Ottaviani.

Jim is the writer of great comics about science which include the Eisner nominated Two-Fisted Science as well as Dignifying Science. Surf on over to his web site (G.T. Labs) to get yer mits on these super comics.

Read more of Jim's stuff, great interviews with comic pros as well as a whole bunch of new from the world of independent comics in The Comic Journal.