Smokin'

"Fumetto" is Italian for "a little puff of smoke" and thus, for the bubble that conveys the thoughts of a cartoon's character. It's also the title of a new exhibit at ArtsWestchester in White Plains that celebrates the joys of storytelling.

Truth in advertising: Since this blog is a partnership with ArtsWestchester, I approached reviewing its latest exhibit — featuring environmental comic strips that were part of the 2008 Fumetto International Comix-Festival sponsored by Armonk-associated Swiss Re — with some trepidation. Hate the exhibit, you displease your partner. Praise it, and your critique looks suspicious.

I've been at this long enough to know, however, that you must follow the truth where it leads you, and let the chips fall where they may. The truth about "Fumetto" — the third in a trio of environmental-art shows by ArtsWestchester — is that it is an exhibit of strengths and weaknesses.

If like me you're not a great fan of comics, cartoons and sociopolitical art, you'll notice the weaknesses right away. Global warming, the theme of several of the strips represented here, is a complex subject, perhaps too large for this medium. Having piano-playing polar bears float on the ice doesn't do it justice. It doesn't explain, for example, the role that ocean currents or nature's cycles play in climate change. Environmental malfeasance is just one factor in global warming.

Then, too, some of the comic-strip figures aren't particularly well-drawn. They don't invite you in the way, say, the characters in a New Yorker cartoon does before it zings you with the punch line.

What ultimately saves "Fumetto" is the quality of the storytelling in some of these strips. Two of the strongest are from artists out of South Africa. Nicolene Louw's "Taiwan" considers her adventures, and misadventures teaching English in Taiwan. Louw really captures the culture shock that is often the downside of making money in a foreign country.

What makes Louw's strip work is that it is about something larger than a political viewpoint. That also holds for countrywoman Catherine Clarke's "Capetown," which recounts the kind of magical summer vacation we all had, or wanted to have, as children. Having taken place in the title Southern Hemisphere city, Clarke's enchanted summer includes Christmas at the beach and a child who is barely aware of the poverty and racial oppression beyond her privileged life.

It ends as all summer idylls must. Fall arrives, and with it, a grownup sense that the world is not a place of infinite possibilities. Never again will summer be that open road stretching out endlessly before you.

Still it's nice to think so, isn't it?

"Fumetto" is at ArtsWestchester through Nov. 10. For more information, call 914-428-4220, ext. 223 or log on to artswestchester.org.