Digital edition available from comiXology

A "Best of the Year 2012" selection of artist Douglas Noble, via Forbidden Planet International

Ranked #4 by Kevin Huizenga in Paste's "Comic Relief: Paste's Favorite Writers & Artists Pick Their Favorite Comics of 2012" survey

Ranked #33 by Greg Burgas in Comic Book Resources: Comics Should Be Good's "Best Comics of 2012"

Chris Wright’s Blacklung is unquestionably one of the most impressive graphic novel debuts in recent years, a sweeping, magisterially conceived, visually startling tale of violence, amorality, fortitude, and redemption, one part Melville, one part Peckinpah. Blacklung is a story that lives up to the term graphic novel, that could only exist in sequential pictures — densely textured, highly stylized, delicately and boldly rendered drawings that is, taken together, wholly original.

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. 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.

Advance Praise:

“I could not have imagined how impressive a work Blacklung would turn out to be. It’s a graphic novel, both in its vernacular term and in a more literal sense, violent and horrible and poetic at the same time – the sort of thing McCarthy might write if he were more interested in pirates than cowboys or Appalachians. Blacklung is a great book; canonically great.” —Chris Schweizer (Crogan’s Adventures)

“A truly organic and interesting way to cartoon, the complete package of verbal cadence and informative visual style.” – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

ERRATUM: Creator Chris Wright explains and apologizes for a production error with this book in cartoon format.

12-page excerpt (download 4.9 MB PDF):

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

You may also be interested in:

Set to Sea $16.99 Add to Cart

Congress of the Animals $19.99 Add to Cart

The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln $24.99 Add to Cart

Barack Hussein Obama $22.99 Add to Cart