---
Guido Palmano has spent the past 17 years as a mobster in the US, and is about to return home to the UK. He doesn't make it - a rival mobster kills him on his way to the airport.
An alien spacecraft crash lands in the heart of the US and its occupant taken prisoner - his spacesuit is breached to get him out and nothing happens...bar a gaseous lifeform escaping.
Guido Palmano returns home and his family barely recognise him - he's friendly, he's scientifically savvy, he has little interest in politics - it's almost as if the original Guido has been replaced by an alien lifeform...er, hang on a minute...
---
This story was written and drawn almost ten years go, with no expectation of publication. Originally intended to be serialised in the Dark Horse Presents anthology, the concept was rejected yet writer Robinson and artist Elliott carried on regardless. The holdover from the original intention is the story appearing in eight chapters of (roughly) ten pages each - each chapter kicking off with a second-page splash and finishing with a neat wrap-up, almost making each one self-contained. This lends the book a novel-like feel - and makes this format all the more essential. The story was eventually published by Kitchen Sink Press in one form or another, and finally appears here as a neat trade courtesy of Dark Horse.
The cover is somewhat misleading in promising a sort of Blue Monday or Deadenders feel - Guido is on a Union Jack moped, decked out in Mod gear and ready to roll - which doesn't really happen in the book. The story is set in 1963 and onwards, and someone else does admittedly end up in Brighton in the midst of a Mod vs. Rockers scrap, but into the mix come the Mafia, the KGB, the CIA, the British Secret Service, and one man and his dog, or so it seems. This latter part of the book gets a bit confused - everyone is after Guido, they've realised the mobster Guido is not the same man as this gentle genius Guido we follow in the first two-thirds of the book - and it is rather difficult to keep track of who is after whom and for what reason.
This aside, the build-up (and conclusion) are well written by Robinson and drawn by Elliott (his splash pages are a treat, the incidental details in the background much appreciated to give flavour to the setting - check out the Laundromat early on for an example), and you just know it's all going to end in tears. Alien-Guido may not be able to stick around for long on Earth, but he does leave many lives changed for the better in his wake - leading to an enjoyably touching final scene for the everyman we are really supposed to be identifying with; we see him grow up throughout the book, and can easily draw parallels with our own growing experiences...oh, for a mentor like Guido.
8