Fantagraphics

Beta Testing the Apocalypse

13 November 2012

MOME omnipresent cartoonist, teacher and  Uncivilized Books founder Tom Kaczynski is back to the market with a new piece of civilization-system discussion  out next month on Fantagraphics: Beta testing the Apocalypse.

Beta Testing the Apocalypse by Tom Kaczynski - front cover (image via Fantagraphics)
Beta Testing the Apocalypse by Tom Kaczynski – front cover (image via Fantagraphics)

BTTA compiles most of Tom’s work from MOME but as most of his work was in b&w BTTA has a colored flavor being  printed in two-colors throughout with a different Pantone color for each story. Plus,  “The New,” a fresh story created expressly for this book which also happens to be his longest story to date.

Beta Testing the Apocalypse by Tom Kaczynski - page2 (image via Fantagraphics)
Beta Testing the Apocalypse by Tom Kaczynski – page (image via Fantagraphics)

“The New” is set in an unnamed third-world megalopolis, the city creaks under the pressure of explosive growth. Whole districts are built in a week. The story follows an internationally renowned starchitect as he struggles to impose his vision on the metropolis. A vision threatened by the massive dispossessed slum-proletariat inhabiting the slums and favelas on the edges of the city. From the fetid ferment of garbage dumps and shanties emerges a new feral architecture.

All the architectural & political love from Tom to question a few things and praise others. More info and pre-order this way… a few more images this other way.

Beta Testing the Apocalypse

  share news item

BlackLung

28 August 2012

October 19th is the chosen date by Fantagraphics to publish Chris Wright’s second book and first graphic novel “BlackLung which he’ll fully unveil at next month’s Small Press Expo.

Black Lung cover
Black Lung cover

BlackLung is his graphic novel debut bringing us a  tale of violence, amorality, fortitude, and redemption, one part Melville, one part Peckinpah.

In a night of piratical treachery when an arrogant school teacher is accidentally shanghaied aboard the frigate Hand, his fate becomes inextricably fettered to that of a sardonic gangster. Dependent on one another for survival in their strange and dangerous new home, the two form an unlikely alliance as they alternately elude or confront the thieves and cutthroats that bad luck has made their companions and captors.

BL promo
BL promo 

After an act of terrible violence, the teacher is brought before the ship’s captain and instructed to use his literary skills to aid him in writing his memoirs. He is to serve as scribe for a man who, in his remaining years, has made it his mission to commit as many acts of evil as possible in order to ensure that he meet his dead wife in hell. As the captain’s protected confidant, finding his only comfort in the few books afforded him, the teacher bears witness to monstrous brutality, relentless cruelty, strange wisdom, and a journey of redemption through loss of faith. 

BL Promo 2
BL Promo 2

One anticipated release we shall wait for while reading this 12-page excerpt and that can be pre-ordered on the FG page.

  share news item

Love and Rockets New Stories #5

16 June 2012

Keeping a 30-year-old comic revolution alive isn’t easy, well with an annual release it’s certainly easier than during the 80s, but still, not easy.  Making such annual release to be considered and named year after year the best graphic novel by most critics and renown publications is a miracle… and a lot of hardwork.

Love and rockets 5
Love and rockets #5

L&R: New Series is back with their annual release next September which on one side will provide Jaimie Hernandez switching focus to Ray’s ex: “Frogmouth”. Jaimie’s second story “Crime Raiders International Mobsters and Executioners,” will bring Tonta, the Frogmouth’s half-sister, visiting for a weekend…

Jaime Hernandez is hard at work inking his pages for Love and Rockets - New Stories #5
Jaime Hernandez is hard at work inking his pages for Love and Rockets – New Stories #5

On the other-brother side, Gilbert Hernandez celebrates the 30th anniversary by bringing one of his current characters (“Killer,” granddaughter to the legendary Luba) into the Palomar milieu in a story that showcases a fictionalized “movie” Palomar …

… a must have for many of us, and released under Fantagraphics as usual.

  share news item