Nicolas Wild, a graphic artist based in Paris, was 28 when he did something few people in his part of the world would consider doing -- he moved to Afghanistan. It wasn't exactly tourist season, considering how years of war had left the country unstable. Wild went because he was offered a rather unusual, if temporary, job: He had to create a comic book for children, explaining to them the Afghan constitution.

From that shaky start grew a sort of love affair between the Western expatriate and the colourful city of Kabul. Wild decided to use his medium of choice to document a country ostensibly on the road to recovery. The result was Kabul Disco -- the first in a trilogy that aims to show us a country quite unlike the one usually seen on television.

The book sticks to the black-and-white style much favoured by French artists like Pierre-Franu00e7ois David Beauchard (Epileptic). Its title comes from a CD compilation created for expatriate parties and, if it works, it is because Wild has a dry humour that comes through on every page. There is no informed commentary on why Afghanistan is the way it is, but one suspects the artist simply decided to leave political insights to the many journalists still in the country. Not a bad idea at all.