Once upon a time there was a fallen knight, who believed that saving a princess would allow him to atone for his crimes. Once upon a time there was a dark princess, who believed that it was up to her to atone for the crimes of her parents...
Banished for a fault that forever taints his reputation, Arzhur wanders from tavern to field of battle in search of the next contract which will fill his purse. One night, three mysterious old women offer him to regain honor and fortune if he frees the daughter of a neighboring king, held captive in the ruins of an abandoned castle. But Islen is not the damsel in distress that he expected to save...
Magnified by the virtuoso art of Vincent Mallié, Hubert questions the weight of family heritage and delivers, under the finery of a tale, an intimate reflection on our inner monsters.
Darkly She Goes is an ode to redemption where determinism and free will clash, carried by two masters of the fantasy genre.
"Darkly She Goes is an exciting, engaging, and emotional grand graphic novel fantasy about self-discovery, romance, and redemption."
-Foreword, starred review
9x12, 160 pp. full color HC, $29.99, ISBN 9781681123134
e-book $19.99, ISBN 9781681123141
PUBLICATION DATE: July 4, 2023
JUNE
Darkly She Goes
Beauty
Hubert, Kerascoet
When the repulsively ugly Coddie unintentionally saves a fairy from a spell, she does not understand the poisonous nature of the wish granted her by the fairy.
The village folk no longer see her as repulsive and stinking of fish—they now perceive her as magnetically beautiful—which does not help her in her village. A young local lord saves her, but it soon becomes apparent that Coddie's destiny may be far greater than anyone ever imagined.
Caustic and flamboyant, this fairy tale offers grownups an engrossing take on the nature and corrupting power of beauty, in our age of obsession with it.
8 ½ x 11, 152pp. full color pb, $19.9
ISBN 9781681123158
PUBLICATION DATE: July 4, 2023
AUGUST
Mingus
Squaz, Flavio Massarutto
"I play what I am. I play Mingus." This comics biography tells the troubled life, the battles against racism, the brilliant music of a master who has left an indelible mark on the jazz scene and beyond.
From his beginnings in Los Angeles in the 1940s to his heartbreaking end in Mexico, the story of a man of indomitable and rebellious talent who crossed styles while always remaining himself, in perpetual struggle against a society that wanted him marginalized and subordinated.
Bass player and pianist, composer and band leader, Charles Mingus is universally recognized as one of the greatest musicians in the history of jazz. An overflowing talent, who experienced the last fires of the swing age, the Be Bop revolution, the experimental seasons of Third Stream and Jazz Poetry up to Free Jazz. But he was also a tormented and angry soul, a man who, due to his mestizo origins, always had to deal with the hostility of American society.
Journalist Flavio Massarutto and artist Squaz (Pasquale Todisco) retrace the stages of Mingus's journey, giving life to a non-canonical biography, which proceeds in paginated episodes like a succession of passages that form a musical suite: fragments of existence told by fishing from interviews, writings, testimonies and historical facts. The portrait of a musician who is the mirror of an era comes out, of a brilliant composer who was also one of the most clearly committed artists in denouncing racism, with real manifesto pieces such as the famous Fable of Faubus denouncing the segregationist governor of Arkansas.
In the words of Massarutto and in the evocative art of Squaz, which also reinterpret some of the famous covers of Mingus records, we relive the burning parable of a restless man, always in search of perfection, in constant struggle with himself and with the world: a master capable of leaving an indelible mark on the musical and cultural panorama of the twentieth century.
7x10, 160pp., full color HC, $29.99, ISBN 9781681123097
e-book: $19.99, ISBN 9781681123103
PUBLICATION DATE: August 22, 2023
SEPTEMBER
PRINCE in Comics
Tony Lourenco, Nicolas Finet
Prince Rogers Nelson aka Prince was a complete artist, all at once author, composer, performer, multi-instrumentalist and producer.
A real showman on stage, songs like "1999" or "Purple Rain," made him an international star. With his tormented life, sulfurous relationships, sex and drugs, he was above all a genius artist with a very distinctive original style who sold more than 80 million records around the world.
Here is his extraordinary destiny in a mix of colorfully illustrated articles and comics!
168pp., 7 ½ x 10", full-color hardcover, $27.99
ISBN 9781681123219
Ebook, $16.99; ISBN 9781681123226
PUBLICATION DATE: September 12, 2023
OCTOBER
DUNGEON Zenith, Vol. 5
Fog & Tears
Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, Boulet
The valiant duck Herbert and Isis, his beautiful and belligerent Kochaque companion's son is born. As much as the young parents are delighted with this new arrival, tensions are not long in rising. Isis wants to submit her baby to the traditional Kochaque rite of passage. Herbert, judging it far too dangerous, tries to dissuade her. Unable to convince her, he finally decides to kidnap the infant.
In the second story, the fight to recover the Dungeon from the hands of the big bad Delacourt still keeps our heroes busy... While Horus has been trying for days to hypnotize the spirits of Terra Amata freed from the Vault of Souls by Delacourt, the Guardian calls on Marvin to come to the thaumaturge's aid. But to get there, he will have to, willy-nilly, make an alliance with a former classmate of his new wife.
8 ½ x 11, 96pp., full-color trade paperback. $17.99
ISBN 9781681123165
PUBLICATION DATE: October 17, 2023
NOVEMBER
Red Harvest
The Terror Famine In Soviet Ukraine
Michael Cherkas
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin waged a brutal war against the Soviet peasantry leading to the Holodomor, the terror-famine that killed at least 4 million Ukrainians during the fall and winter of 1932-33.
Red Harvest is based on the tragic events that took place in Soviet Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1933. Stalin and the ruling Communist Party began their program of forced large-scale collectivization of individual farms and farmers, including the seizure of livestock, farm implements, crops, seed stock, and other property.
Red Harvest is the fictional story, based on true stories as related to the Ukranian-Canadian author, of Mykola Kovalenko, a Ukrainian immigrant to Canada, who was the only member of his family to have survived the famine. Through his memories, we witness the horrors of what happened to his family and fellow villagers in the "breadbasket of Europe" as they struggled—not only to make sense of the war that was being waged against them—but, ultimately, to survive.
6x9, 144pp, B&W hardcover, $19.99
ISBN 9781681123202
Ebook, $9.99; ISBN 9781681123233
PUBLICATION DATE: November 14, 2023
DECEMBER
ZOMBILLENIUM, vols. 5 & 6
Black Friday / Sabbath Grand Derby
Arthur de Pins
The day after "Black Friday" at Zombillenium, the employees have carte blanche to devour the visitors, encouraged by management who intends to profit from these gains in new souls. To thwart Charlotte and Aurelian's sinister plans with her resistance network, Gretchen must first settle accounts with her past..
And in the last culminating episode, The Zombillenium amusement park, which still keeps dozens of visitors prisoner, is coveted by many demons, each eager to become a majority shareholder. The only method of arbitration accepted by all: the Sabbath Grand Derby, a sporting event as violent as it is inventive in which five witches compete against each other and will be fed to visitors to the park...
Among the candidates, a certain Gretchen, determined to play her best since she cannot count on the help of Aurelian-Baphomet... The spectators of the Sabbath Grand Derby, broadcast like an ordinary reality TV program, will get an eyeful! As for Gretchen, she's facing a handful!
The most spectacular of the Zombillenium volumes awaits you, for an apotheosis of a finale, where the action takes nothing away from the emotion or the social criticism.
This series won the Angouleme Best Comics for Youth Prize in 2012. A bestselling series in France with over a quarter million copies sold.
9x12, 96pp., color hardc
over, $24.99
ISBN 9781681123172
e-book: $9.99
ISBN 9781681123189
PUBLICATION DATE: December 12, 2023
ZOMBILLENIUM Set, vols. 3 & 4
Control Freaks / Royal Witchcraft
Arthur de Pins
The set combining volumes 3 and 4 at a special price!
In the third story, there's excitement in the Zombillenium horror themed park run by actual monsters. Brought in by Behemoth himself, the vampire Bohemond Jaggar de Rochambeau IIII is brought in to consult, his mission: to increase return on investment for the shareholders, but for Behemoth that return has to be in souls.
In the 4th chapter, the park has never been better: its popularity has peaked following demonic reforms by Behemoth, who then decides to play his property in a very special competition... A witches' Sabbath!Gretchen, Aurelian and Von Bloodt, meanwhile, have set up an underground escape network in order to offer the damned the chance for reconversion, far from the nine circles of Hell, a dangerous secret operation not appreciated by the park's board of directors. Determined to clean this out, they hire the services of a formidable enchantress who will turn into an arch-rival of Gretchen. Underground as in the air, the fight promises to be epic! Will the undead succeed in asserting their rights? Who will be the future happy owner of the Zombillenium Park? Not to be missed!
9x12, 96pp., color hardcover 2 book set, $24.99
ISBN 9781681123196
PUBLICATION DATE: December 12, 2023
