EDWARD GAUVIN

SelfMadeHero is pleased to announce the publication of MAGRITTE: THIS IS NOT A BIOGRAPHY, a hallucinatory journey through fact, fiction, and the imagination of the landmark Surrealist from the creative team of Belgian writer Vincent Zabus and Italian artist Thomas Campi.

When Charles Singular anticipates promotion by buying a bowler hat, one that was once owned by surrealist Rene Magritte, he find himself transported into the artist’s eccentric world. This is the latest in SelfMadeHero’s acclaimed Art Masters that includes Pablo, Baudoin’s Dalí, Gauguin: The Other World (all translated by yours truly), Munch, and Vincent.

I’ve done a number of biographies for SelfMadeHero now, and the unorthodox approach here made it one of my personal favorites. As  Joe Gordon notes at the Forbidden Planet blog,

This is an approach that wouldn’t really work in a prose biography, but the comics medium can do beautifully; the Ninth Art exploring the world of the fine arts visually, as Charles literally finds himself in the artist’s work. Yes, perhaps cinema could do this visually too, but in comics form we can pause, a still image, just like the paintings, lingering over some panels, allowing ideas and notions to spark against one another in our head as we take it in. This is the sort of work which the comics medium can do better than any other, and here Zabus and Campi clearly understand that, and use it to wonderful effect to explore Magritte’s ouevre.

Lots of lovely preview pages there. Do give it a look!

The Walking Dead, but with werewolves: people in a devastated world band together, trying to find reasons to go on… This series in love with all things American hails from Soleil’s new French Comics imprint, with page layouts and panel designs more like American floppies, resulting in pacing that’s less like traditional Francophone bande dessinée. Written by Jean-Luc Istin, with B&W art by Kyko Duarte and grayscale by Ellem. The conclusion to the second arc, Once a Man, Now a Wolf, is now available as a digital exclusive from Soleil at Comixology.

The Renaissance meets the X-Files in this series by Raule, with art by Juan Luis Landa. Three agents trained by renowned sage and scholar Nostradamus travel the land, exposing hoaxes and solving occult crimes.

France, 1565. Charles IX reigns with an aging Nostradamus as his advisor, but unrest is afoot in the land. The Black Plague, believed to be under control, rears its head anew. Superstition vies with newly born science in the people’s hearts and minds. Through a countryside riven by religious and political rivalries travel Nostradamus’ three young disciples, Arthus Trivium, Angelica Obscura, and Angulus Dante, solving mysteries with wits, weapons, and the erudition their master has imparted. But soon they are drawn into the web of a well-laid plot against Nostradamus’ family, which may threaten the life of the king himself.

The Angels of Nostradamus, the first volume of this ongoing series, is now available as a digital exclusive from EuropeComics on a number of platforms (Izneo, Kindle, Kobo, Google Play, and Comixology).

Up for a dose of classic ligne claire and adventure comics, Euro-style? Well, look no further! Welcome to the world of Tramp: maritime noir with exotic locales, insurance intrigue, shipowner skullduggery, and the titular steamer, a rusty bucket on trade routes of the mid-20th century. Jean-Charles Kraehn’s meticulous research is backed up by Patrick Jusseaume’s art in this loving ‘90s tribute to the long-running serials from the heyday of bande-dessinée.

In the chilly gray port town of Rouen, De Trichère, a man who’s made his fortune in shipping, is dying of cancer. He lost his wife to bombing during the war, and his daughter lost the use of her legs. Now the wheelchair-bound girl is all he has left, and he’s willing to go to any lengths to secure her future. Cozying up to a former first mate with a reputation for sadism? Check. Insurance fraud on a massive scale? Check. Sending over fifty sailors to certain doom, sure, but even… murdering his own secretary when she finds out?

The Trap, the kickoff volume to this ongoing series, is now available as a digital exclusive from EuropeComics on a number of platforms (Izneo, Kindle, Kobo, Google Play, and Comixology).

The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University has awarded Charif Majdalani the Khayrallah Prize for his novel Moving the Palace from New Vessel Press. In its third year, the Khayrallah Prize identifies, awards and publicly honors those whose original artistic productions and projects capture the experiences of Lebanese immigrants, their relationship to Lebanon and their new homes, their communities and peregrinations.

“The Khayrallah Prize has a special resonance because it is conferred by an esteemed research center at the heart of a great university,” Majdalani said of the award.

Khayrallah Center Director Akram Khater says Moving the Palace stands out “because of its rich details and eloquence in exploring an unusual and unexplored part of the Lebanese diasporic experience. Its richness is leavened with humor, with self-deprecating asides and post-modern reminders that this is an imagined history.”

H.V. Chao’s “Raymond Chandler”, the short story as a supercut of a national obsession, is this Friday’s Fiction Feature at The Saturday Evening Post!

For International Translation Day this year, artist Claire Stephens and I created a comic strip! A short Borgesian fable about the strangeness of gradual intimacy with a foreign tongue: “Going Native”! And you can find it at that online cornerstone of international letters, Words Without Borders, where it is proudly sponsored by Amazon Crossing, Amazon’s world literature imprint.

The pitch for this series could not have been simpler: Highlander, with a hot babe. It’s written by Christophe “License to Print Money” Arleston, superstar of French epic fantasy comics with his Lanfeust universe, and drawn by Thierry Labrosse. Fair warning: kids and progressives, keep a wide berth. The fourt volume of the ongoing series Morea, A Whiff of Eternity, is now available as a digital exclusive from Soleil at Comixology.

Morea, the immortal, has finally come back to the Earth after her forced stay in space… And on Mars! She knows now that the fight between the Dragons and Angels began on the red planet and will end on the blue one.

But if, as she looks for a way to end this war, Morea hopes to take advantage of her immense fortune, she is in for a shock. Her enemies are ready to attack her on all fronts, including from within the DWC!

This well-meaning and, on the whole, fairly innocent kids’ entertainment inspired by the City Palace in Udaipur nevertheless bungles its treatment of social themes (from the caste system to drug legalization) and fails to avoid, in its lightly fantasized exotic setting, some icky issues of cultural appropriation. Prolific and bestselling scripter Eric Corbeyran (now in charge of Assassin’s Creed) collaborates with Melvil, who draws a cute cow, to bring us a colorful and briskly paced two-parter with mythological overtones, based loosely on the short life of Princess Krishna Kumari, who at the tender age of 16 martyred herself to secure her people peace.

This second and final volume of the Natty adventure picks up where the last left off: Natty is alone in the underworld fighting for her survival while her family up above engages in a wild search for her. Sami manages to escape from prison, and with agility, willpower, and a dose of good luck, he and Natty make their way back to the palace. After some initial difficulties, Natty is recognized by her parents as the Princess, and she and Sami live happily ever after. They even find a way to bring sunlight to the lower levels of the kingdom.

Eighty pages of story are now yours for the taking as a digital exclusive from EuropeComics on a number of platforms (Izneo, Kindle, Kobo, Google Play, and Comixology).