Monsieur Leotard's flying circus

Eddie Campbell's scratchy, impressionistic pen and ink illustrations were already hugely compelling when showcased in the epic From Hell (his signature collaboration with Alan Moore). Given an added sheen of watercolour paint, they become even more beguiling. Dan Best's whimsical tale – about a young circus acrobat in 1930s America who faces the tricky proposition of replacing his famous uncle, "The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard" – finds Campbell on superb form, marvellously capturing the feel of a bygone age. The book is also a meta-fictional delight, with little homages to the circus's influence on the superhero genre, from a company's name ("Le Quartette Fantastique") to two Jewish boys in 1932 Ohio sketching a strongman wearing a red cape.