Do ideas of war and enemies hold a people together? Is a culture of conflict too seductive not to be irresistible? These are the questions Cathy Malkasian explores in her second graphic novel, Temperance.
Malkasian creates, as she did in the critically acclaimed Percy Gloom, a fully realized, multi-layered world, inhabited by vividly realized characters. After a brutal injury in battle, Lester has no memory of his prior life. For the next thirty years his wife does everything to keep him from remembering — and re-constructing — a society, Blessedbowl, that elevates him as a hero. Blessedbowl is a cultural convergence of lies, memories, stories, and beliefs. Its people thrive on ideas of persecution, exceptionality, and enemies, convinced that war lurks just outside their walls. They have come to depend on Lester, their greatest war hero, to lead the charge once the Final Battle begins.
What kind of enemy could topple such a people and its walls? Mere memory, it seems, as Lester gradually emerges from his amnesia. Temperance is an eyewitness’s account of recovery and awakening. The graphic novel works on two levels. It considers the concepts of violence, stories, and belief, and their place in holding a culture together, slyly echoing contemporary political issues in a nation at a stressful time currently at war with a ubiquitous enemy. Secondly, the fissures in Lester and Minerva’s marriage is echoed in the greater political upheaval around them.
Malkasian creates a densely textured social context, masterfully conveying the idiosyncratic physical domain with its spiraling structures and quasi-medieval architecture along with intimate yet plastic portraits of her characters in a rich, tonal pencil line. Temperance is a galvanizing work of empathy and violence by one of today’s most thoughtful and accomplished cartoonists.
2008 Eisner Award Winner: Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award — Cathy Malkasian
Download an EXCLUSIVE 16-page PDF excerpt (18.7 MB).
Bonus Savings: Order Cathy Malkasian's Temperance + Percy Gloom together for a discounted price of $33.99 (a savings of about 8 bucks)!
240-page two-color 8" x 10" hardcover • $22.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-323-1
Ships in: June 2010 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now
Do ideas of war and enemies hold a people together? Is a culture of conflict too seductive not to be irresistible? These are the questions Cathy Malkasian explores in her second graphic novel, Temperance.
Malkasian creates, as she did in the critically acclaimed Percy Gloom, a fully realized, multi-layered world, inhabited by vividly realized characters. After a brutal injury in battle, Lester has no memory of his prior life. For the next thirty years his wife does everything to keep him from remembering — and re-constructing — a society, Blessedbowl, that elevates him as a hero. Blessedbowl is a cultural convergence of lies, memories, stories, and beliefs. Its people thrive on ideas of persecution, exceptionality, and enemies, convinced that war lurks just outside their walls. They have come to depend on Lester, their greatest war hero, to lead the charge once the Final Battle begins.
What kind of enemy could topple such a people and its walls? Mere memory, it seems, as Lester gradually emerges from his amnesia. Temperance is an eyewitness’s account of recovery and awakening. The graphic novel works on two levels. It considers the concepts of violence, stories, and belief, and their place in holding a culture together, slyly echoing contemporary political issues in a nation at a stressful time currently at war with a ubiquitous enemy. Secondly, the fissures in Lester and Minerva’s marriage is echoed in the greater political upheaval around them.
Malkasian creates a densely textured social context, masterfully conveying the idiosyncratic physical domain with its spiraling structures and quasi-medieval architecture along with intimate yet plastic portraits of her characters in a rich, tonal pencil line. Temperance is a galvanizing work of empathy and violence by one of today’s most thoughtful and accomplished cartoonists.
2008 Eisner Award Winner: Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award — Cathy Malkasian
Download an EXCLUSIVE 16-page PDF excerpt (18.7 MB).
Once again we're bringing you an advance sneak peek at our listings for the next issue of Previews, this time with our releases scheduled for February 2010. It's going to be a big month for us with 8 new books, including two new Love and Rockets collections (one from Gilbert & one from Jaime), a great Kim Deitch yarn, horror noir from Ho Che Anderson, Captain Easy Vol. 1 (resolicited from August), a new softcover edition of the almost-out-of-print Blazing Combat, The Best American Comics Criticism of the 21st Century, and, pictured above, the breathtaking new graphic novel from Eisner Award winner Cathy Malkasian! Check it all out right here.
We hope you've enjoyed our sneak peek at our Fall 2009 - Winter 2010 schedule of releases! Today's final excerpt from our latest book distributor's catalog, taking you through March of next year, includes Temperance, Cathy Malkasian's follow-up to the acclaimed Percy Gloom; The Search for Smilin' Ed by Kim Deitch; and Our Gang Vol. 4, continuing to collect Walt Kelly's 1940s kids' comic. (Note that all the info in this catalog is subject to change along the way to the books' release, including release dates, prices, cover art, book specs, etc.) Click here to download the PDF!
Back in stock: signed bookplates for Big Baby, El Borbah and Skin Deep by Charles Burns; Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian; and Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire. How do you acquire these delightful hand-signed-by-the-artist little extras, you might ask? We give 'em away for FREE when you buy their respective books from us (while supplies last)!
Congratulations to Daniel Clowes, Jason, Paul Karasik and Cathy Malkasian, all of whom took home awards on Friday night at San Diego's annual Eisner Awards gala (they even had Sam Jackson presenting!). Clowes won "Best Short Story" for his "Mr. Wonderful" strip from the NY Times Magazine; while Jason and I Killed Adolf Hitler won for "Best U.S. Edition of Novel"; Paul Karasik took home the "Best Archival Collection" for I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets: The Comics of Fletcher Hanks; Malkasian was this year's Russ Manning Award Winner for Most Promising Newcomer, for her 2007 book, Percy Gloom. Congratulations to all!
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