I'm not sure exactly how to parse "smart" here. Does it mean super intelligent, like the QED explanation in Ottaviani's Feynman? Because then I'd probably just save myself the trouble and go with Feynman, because it's a pretty safe bet that no comics writer is as brilliant as Richard Feynman, from whose own words Ottaviani adapted that segment of the book.

I could read smart as wildly creative and allusory and just plop in Duncan the Wonder Dog again. Because whatever Adam Hines is, he's obviously firing on all kinds of cylinders here.

Or should I go with clever? That seems like the most interesting choice, so I'll take it. And Matt kindt fits the bill pretty well. Excluding 3 Story, which sticks pretty closely to a linear narrative, Kindt's stories have a tendency to hop all over the place. And they inevitibly do so in ways that make you re-evaluate previous story elements and think "Ohhhhhhhh, that changes everything. How clever."

Here are two excerpts from things I've written about Kindt over the years:

Kindt strikes me as foremost an Idea Man. Everything he's shown us so far paints him as prodigiously imaginative. He has big ideas for his overarching story, for the forms those stories take, and for some of the intricacies of how his pages and panels will lay out. I don't look for any improvement on his part in this area. He has, so far as I'm concerned, arrived. If not perfect for what he's doing, his ideas are close enough that we mere mortals cannot distinguish well enough to complain.

And:

After we read Red Handed earlier in the year, my wife remarked that Matt Kindt must be some kind of genius. I imagine my response must have been something like, "Well, yeah." Because of course he is. Super Spy provided ample evidence and Red Handed nailed that coffin shut tight. Even though it was already being released in monthly format, neither of us had taken the opportunity to read Mind MGMT—even though Matt Kindt is one of a small handful of creators who make up the collection of My Favourite Working Creators.

So yeah. Matt Kindt, everybody.

Read Review of Red Handed.

Read Review of Super Spy.

Read Review of Mind MGMT.