A Shroud For Waldo

'A Shroud For Waldo!'

Fantagraphics Books, 1992, 64 pages

Written and Illustrated by Kim Deitch

The art is amazing, at once completely nonrepresentational and realistic to the last detail. The plot reveals the origin of Waldo: he is Judas Iscariot, reincarnated as a demon who looks like a cat. Waldo liberates Jesus from the cross while visiting the detox ward of a hospital ("So, you finally came back, huh?" Waldo asks), while an orderly discovers the Turin-like shroud of the title, with Waldo's image on it. The orderly is in fact a man who condemned Jesus at Gethsemane, and who has wandered immortal ever since; Waldo/Judas has been reincarnated to help redeem the orderly.