Order this book together with R.I.P.: Best of 1985-2004 for a great discounted price! Click here to order.

Swiss horror master Thomas Ott returns with the first full-length graphic novel of his career. When clearing up the cell of a prisoner who has been sentenced to death and subsequently executed, a prison guard finds a small piece of paper with a combination of numbers on it.

On the spur of the moment, he puts it into his pocket.

As the guard lives a solitary, monotonous life, the numbers on the paper awake his curiosity. To find out their hidden meaning could add a new meaning to his life as well, so the guard stumbles into situations in which the number or part of it seem to achieve a certain importance and offer him hints and possible solutions. And the numbers signal a radical change in his luck. He gets to know a woman, falls in love with her, and one night, in a casino, he wins a huge amount of money when gambling on these numbers.

But the next morning, the woman and money have disappeared.

The man goes in search of the woman and the money. But from that day on, his luck changes and the numbers bring him only bad luck, sending him inexorably into an abyss that he might not recover from. Thomas Ott's O. Henry-esque plot twists will delight fans of classic horror like The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt, or modern masters like filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan; his hallucinatory, hyper-detailed scratchboard illustrations will haunt you long after you've put the book down.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 20-page PDF excerpt (3.01 MB) containing all of Chapter I.

Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

"From artistic, design, and narrative standpoints, Ott creates a masterpiece of contemporary graphic storytelling that knows no geographical or linguistic boundaries... The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 aptly demonstrates the power of Ott's creative vision, while leaving the reader hungry for more from this unique cartoonist. – The Austin Chronicle

"Superlative... Brilliant stuff." – ComicMix

Online Reviews:
The Comics Reporter
du9
The Austin Chronicle
ComicMix

2008 Critics' Lists:
• The SF Site, Rick Klaw, "Nexus Graphica: Top Ten Graphic Novel or Comics Related Publications" (#2)
• The SF Site, Mark London Williams, "Nexus Graphica: Top Ten Graphic Novel or Comics Related Publications" (#5)

You may also be interested in:

Hwy. 115 $19.95 Add to Cart

R.I.P.: Best of 1985-2004 $28.99 Add to Cart

Cinema Panopticum [Softcover Ed.] $16.99 Add to Cart

Ghosts and Ruins [Pre-Order] $22.99 Add to Cart