Non Album Collections 288

The Winter of the Cartoonist (2020)

by Paco Roca  (Author). In 1957, Editorial Bruguera was one of Spain's largest publishing houses, putting out hugely popular weekly magazines and comics for young and old ― while retaining all rights and creative control of their artists' work. Spanish comics superstar Paco Roca investigates the true story of five cartoonists who, spurred by poor working conditions, arbitrary editorial edicts, and nationwide dictatorial rule, went on a quest for creative freedom. Little did they know that the corporation had begun actively trying to thwart their distribution and publishing efforts, turning their battle into a real-life David and Goliath tale. The Winter of the Cartoonist provides historical context and short profiles of these artists as they serve as everyday heroes for all of those who have chased a dream, no matter how high the obstacles that stand in front of them.  Full-color illustrations throughout.

Twists Of Fate (2018)

by Paco Roca  (Author). Miguel Ruiz is a Spanish veteran exiled in France who was a member of “La Nueve” ("The Nine"), a company of men that went straight from fighting for their homeland in the Spanish Civil War to battles spanning the globe in WWII. Their years-long trek across Europe and Africa was spurred on by their love for their country and their hatred for brutal dictatorships. Roca uses the composite character Ruiz’s “memories” to tell a story that’s an ode to a generation that bravely stood up to, and beat back, violent fascism. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Waves (2019)

by Ingrid Chabbert (Author), Carole Maurel (Illustrator). After years of difficulty trying to have children, a young couple finally announces their pregnancy, only to have the most joyous day of their lives replaced with one of unexpected heartbreak. Their relationship is put to the test as they forge ahead, working together to rebuild themselves amidst the churning tumult of devastating loss, and ultimately facing the soul-crushing reality that they may never conceive a child of their own.

Brain Drain

Certain details surrounding the death of Albert Einstein are so outlandish as to sound like urban legend: namely, the theft of his brain by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the pathologist who performed the eminent physicist’s autopsy. From these historical events, Pierre-Henry Gomont concocts a picaresque road trip of a tale by turns farcical and moving, whimsical and melancholy, sweeping up in its narrative whirlwind the FBI, a sanatorium, neurobiology, hallucinogens, hospital bureaucracy, and romance. In his dissection of friendship and the forging of scientific reputation, the nimble cartoonist serves up a slice of lovingly rendered Americana for the ages.  Pierre-Henry Gomont (artist, cover, writer).

Non Album Collections 287

Women Discoverers - Top Women in Science (NBM 2021)

by Marie Moinard (Author), Christelle Pecout (Illustrator). From Ada Lovelace (computing) to Marie Curie (Physics and Chemistry), these exceptional women enabled the world to advance in all fields of science including space exploration (Mae Jemison), telecommunications (the actress also genius discoverer Hedy Lamarr), and Biology (Rosalind Franklin). An inspiration going counter to preconceived notions about women and science, presenting a diverse group from around the world.

Lovecraft - The Myth of Cthulhu (2018)

by Esteban Maroto  (Author). "The Nameless City" is considered the first story of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, detailing the discovery of an ancient city in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula built by an unnamed race of beings of reptilian appearance. In "The Festival" a man arrives at the sea town of Kingsport, Massachusetts during Christmas but finds a place eerily empty and centuries out of date. "The Call of Cthulhu" is perhaps Lovecraft's most famous story, describing a man who after finding the notes of his grand-uncle is lead on a journey around the world in search of this mysterious and disturbing phenomenon.

Jamilti and Other Stories (2008)

by Rutu Modan  (Author). Published by Drawn & Quarterly in 2007, Exit Wounds-a tale at once mystery and romance-introduced North American readers to the colorful and tightly woven narrative by Rutu Modan and was included in Time and Entertainment Weekly's "best of" lists. Jamilti and Other Stories collects the cartoonist's short works, which lead the reader through unexpected turns of plot and unusual character portraits. Some are darkly fantastical and unsettling, such as the unraveling of a serial-killer murder mystery, or her accounts of an infatuated plastic surgeon and his sanitarium, and a mother back from the dead with dubious healing powers. Others are more attuned to surprising discoveries that shape personal identity, as in the story of a tragic past that lies within a family's theme hotel, or that of a struggling musician who hopes an upcoming gig will be his big break. In "Jamilti," Modan addresses political violence with a suicide bombing that shakes up a day in the lives of a young couple.

Porcelain

As snow falls on a magical city, the urchin, Child, steals into the Porcelain Maker's garden. Captured by his alchymical porcelain automata, she charms her way into his life and he becomes the father she never had. He has only one rule; she must never, ever, open the workshop door.

More than a decade has passed since the events of Porcelain: A Gothic Fairy Tale, and Child has become Lady. Inheritor of all of Uncle's secrets and wealth, she has continued his work, becoming equally as isolated in her quest to refine the Porcelain and put right past mistakes.

With the Porcelain more sought after than ever, Lady comes to the attention of a ruthlessly ambitious General who desires inhuman soldiers for the war effort and won't take no for an answer. Other, more human, problems rear their head when a handsome young Captain discovers a secret part of Lady's life.

Faced with impossible choices, Lady must forge her own path through the complexities of love and war. Created by Benjamin Read, Chris Wildgoose.

Non Album Collections 286

The Stranger - The Graphic Novel (2018)

by Albert Camus  (Author), Jacques Ferrandez (Illustrator). The day his mother dies, Meursault notices that it is very hot on the bus that is taking him from Algiers to the retirement home where his mother lived; so hot that he falls asleep. Later, while waiting for the wake to begin, the harsh electric lights in the room make him extremely uncomfortable, so he gratefully accepts the coffee the caretaker offers him and smokes a cigarette. The same burning sun that so oppresses him during the funeral walk will once again blind the calm, reserved Meursault as he walks along a deserted beach a few days later—leading him to commit an irreparable act.

In Search of Lost Time - Swann's Way (Heuet) (2015)

by Stéphane Heuet (Adapter), Marcel Proust  (Author). In this first volume, Swann's Way, the narrator Marcel, an aspiring writer, recalls his childhood when―in a now immortal moment in literature―the taste of a madeleine cake dipped in tea unleashes a torrent of memories about his family’s country home in the town of Combray. Here, Heuet and Goldhammer use Proust's own famously rich and labyrinthine sentences and discerning observations to render Combray like never before. From the water lillies of the Vivonne to the steeple and stained glass of the town church, Proust's language provides the blueprint for Heuet's illustrations. Heuet and Goldhammer also capture Proust's humor, wit, and sometimes scathing portrayals of Combray's many memorable inhabitants, like the lovelorn Charles Swann and the object of his affection and torment, Odette de Crécy; Swann's daughter Gilberte; local aristocrat the Duchesse de Guermantes; the narrator's uncle Adolphe; and the hypochondriac Aunt Léonie.

Plutocracy - Chronicles of a Global Monopoly (NBM 2020)

by Abraham Martinez  (Author). 2051. The world's largest company, The Company, has seized power on a planetary scale and runs the world as if it were a business. In a plutocracy, the richer one is, the more powerful one is. In this context, an anonymous citizen becomes compelled to uncover how the world came to this situation, without paying any attention to the official version. Several members of the government end up encouraging him to carry out this investigation by giving him access to all information. He decides to discover the true history of The Company and the various interests that are trying to influence his investigation.

Bootblack

During the depths of the Great Depression, an orphan reinvents himself as Al Chrysler and strives to win the heart of the local grocer's daughter. In doing so, he falls in with a newly arrived petty criminal who soon has him and his friends working for the local mafia. As the stakes get higher, Al soon realizes he's gotten in too deep, and is caught up in a chain of events beyond his control. Created by Mikael.

Non Album Collections 285

Fruit of Knowledge - The Vulva vs. The Patriarchy (2018)

by Liv Strömquist (Author, Artist). From Adam and Eve to pussy hats, people have punished, praised, pathologized, and politicized vulvas, vaginas, clitorises, and menstruation. In this graphic nonfiction book, drawn in chunky, punky pen, Swedish cartoonist Liv Strömquist traces how different cultures and traditions have shaped women’s health and beyond. Her biting, informed commentary and ponytailed avatar guides the reader from the darkest chapters of history (a clitoridectomy performed on a five-year-old American child as late as 1948) to the lightest (vulvas used as architectural details as a symbol of protection). Like humorists Julie Doucet (Dirty Plotte), Alison Bechdel (Dykes to Watch Out For), and Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), she uses the comics medium to reveal uncomfortable truths about how far we haven’t come. Full-color illustrations throughout.

The Life of a Coat (2019)

by Kadya Molodowsky (Author), Batia Kolton (Artist). When the father of a large family makes a beautiful winter coat, little does he know how much use it will get. Little Gedalia wears the coat with pride all year, but when it gets too tight for him―he’s a growing boy, after all―it’s given to his sister, Yeshaya. Thus begins the journey of the coat as it’s passed down from child to child, a charming portrait of a loving family. Drawn in a clean-line style with a muted color palette, The Life of a Coat is based on the beloved Yiddish poem by the Polish poet Kadya Molodowsky and will delight young readers and their parents. Full-color illustraions throughout

The Sea (2018)

by Rikke Villadsen (Author). A fisherman traversing the ocean is used to danger and surprise, but what happens when he pulls up his net and catches a newborn baby and a talking fish? Thus begins a story full of provocative symbolism and a madness that doesn't just bubble beneath the surface of the water, but drenches the sailor--and reader--like a tidal wave. Danish cartoonist Rikke Villadsen makes her English-language debut with this seafaring tale soaked in surrealism that is ultimately about the end of one life, the beginning of another, and a man, literally and figuratively, lost at sea.

Aster of Pan

The year is 2068. The place, Fontainebleau forest, ancient home of some of France’s mightiest monarchs on the outskirts of what was once Paris. The post-apocalyptic society of Pan survives by growing rice and scavenging among the ruins of a destroyed civilization. Their precarious existence comes under threat when the powerful, technologically advanced Federation of Fortuna forces them into a dangerous choice—submit to Fortuna’s rule, or try to best them in a barbaric, ritualized game known as Celestial Mechanics. Pan’s only hope? A hot-headed outcast they’d rejected for being “un-Pan”: a girl named Aster. Script by Merwan - Art by Merwan.

Non Album Collections 284

Lola's Super Club 01 - My Dad is a Super Secret Agent (Papercutz 2020)

Lola is a girl like any other, except for one tiny detail: her father, Robert Darkhair, is James Blond, a top-secret agent so secretive, that not even he knows what he does, or at least that is what Blond wants us to believe. When the villains of Friendly Falls kidnap Lola's parents, she becomes Super-Lola. Accompanied by her toy dinosaur Super-James (in undies) who can grow to the size of an actual dinosaur (thus stretching the undies), their cat Hot Dog, a pencil, an eraser, and an infallible duckie pool toy, she is off to the rescue. Ah, imagination. It is our most powerful weapon

Goddamn this war

by Jacques Tardi. Created 15 years after the completion of his Eisner Award-winning World War I masterwork It Was the War of the Trenches, Tardi's Goddamn This War! is no mere sequel or extension, but a brand new, wholly individual graphic novel that serves as a companion piece to Trenches but can be read entirely on its own. Vastly different sequentially (eschewing Trenches' splintered narrative, Goddamn is split into six chronological chapters, one for each year of the war), graphically (Tardi deploys his more recent pen-ink-and-watercolor technique, with the bold colors of the early chapters fading into a grimy near-monochrome in the later ones as the war drags on), and narratively (all of Goddamn is told, with insight, dark wit and despair, as a first-person reminiscence/narration by an unnamed soldier), Goddamn This War! shares with Trenches its sustained sense of outrage, pitch-black gallows humor, and impeccably scrupulous historical exactitude. In fact, Goddamn This War! includes an extensive year-by-year historical text section written by Tardi's frequent World War I research helpmate, the historian and collector Jean-Pierre Verney, including dozens of stunning rare photographs and visual documents from his personal collection.

Bear (2020)

by Ben Queen (Author), Joe Todd-Stanton (Cover Art, Penciller). Bear is a guide dog for the blind, and he would do anything for his best friend and owner, Patrick. But when Bear suddenly loses his own vision, he worries that he has lost his purpose! Determined to protect Patrick at all costs, Bear sets out on a quest to regain his eyesight. Along the way Bear will learn to tap into his other senses and begin to see the world from a new perspective that is at times more rich and colorful than the world he's always known. Writer Ben Queen (Disney/Pixar's Cars 2 and Cars 3) draws inspiration from real life stories of how memory can influence how we recall our own surroundings, and artist Joe Todd-Stanton (A Mouse Called Julian) lovingly renders an unforgettable story of one dog's grand adventure from the wooded countryside to the heart of Manhattan where he encounters new friends and discovers his true calling.

The Scorpions of the Desert

Autumn 1940, in the desert on the border between Libya and Egypt. The protagonists of the story are a group of men that belong to the fighting elite of the British Army: the Long Range Desert Group, aka the Scorpions of the Desert. They come from every battlefield of the Empire, and they travel alone, on the edges of the great maneuvers. They appropriate jeeps, armored vehicles, camels; or they march for days on end before an attack, striking and disappearing behind the sand dunes without much regard for rules.

But everything is bewildering around here, the borders, the enemy’s uniforms, the colors and the flags on the vehicles used by these men. Sometimes whoever is telling a story doesn’t tell the whole truth. Only Vladimir Koïnsky, lieutenant of the Polish cavalry, stays right on track. Koïnsky has enrolled in the LRDG after leaving behind the Cracow disaster and fleeing across Romania and Persia. He is a cynic and an individualist, but he can see beyond the mirages and recognize a spy. Redheaded, tough, disfigured (and not just in the face), Koïnsky is among those characters who do not want to make history, but rather live from day to day facing risks straight on, and overcoming them, because tomorrow doesn’t matter when you have nothing to lose. Created by Hugo Pratt.

Non Album Collections 283

Paper Peril (2019)

by Jean-Baptiste Bourgois (Author). In Paper Peril, our protagonist braves a whimsical world of sinuous shapes and scribbly ink lines in his quest to become an artist. Drawing inspiration from classic illustrators like R.O. Blechman, Saul Steinberg, Sir Quentin Blake, Tove Jansson, and Tomi Ungerer, cartoonist Jean-Baptiste Bourgois explores the exhilaration and chaos of the creative process. A lovingly crafted ode to the pitfalls of artistic expression. Black & white illustrations.

The House (2019)

by Paco Roca (Author). The graphic novel The House is at once deeply personal (dedicated to Roca’s own deceased father) and entirely universal. Three adult siblings return to their family’s vacation home a year after their father’s death. They each bring their respective wives, husbands, and children with the intention to clean up the residence and put it on the market. But, as garbage is hauled off and dust is wiped away, decades-old resentments quickly fill the vacant home. Roca asks what happens to brothers and sisters when the only person holding the family together is now gone. 

The Ladies in Waiting (2017)

by Javier Olivares (Author), Santiago Garcia (Artist). In 1656, Diego Velázquez, leading figure in the Spanish Golden Age of painting, created one of the most enigmatic works in the history of art: Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting). This graphic novel, written and drawn by two of Spain’s most sophisticated comics creators, examines its legacy as one of the first paintings to explore the relationship among the viewer, reality, and unreality. (It guest stars Cano, Salvador Dalí, Zurbarán, and many others.) Olivares’s art moves from clear line to expressionistic; from pen nib to brush stokes; from one color palette to another, as The Ladies-in-Waiting uses fiction to explore the ties among artists and patrons, the past and the present, institutions and audiences, creators and creativity.

The Adoption

Gabriel's retired life is turned upside down when his son and daughter-in-law adopt an orphaned girl from Peru. He was barely much of a father to his own son... how is he going to take to being a grandfather to a kid from a whole other country? When surprises and complications arise, can he learn that you're never too old to change your mind? by Zidrou, Arno Monin (Contributor).

Non Album Collections 282

Cowboy (2020)

by Rikke Villadsen  (Author). This uproarious graphic novel is a surreal take on the classic Western ― and a rip-roaring adventure in gender identity and queerness! A rugged outlaw rides into a typical nineteenth-century Western town, swinging his six-guns and stirring up trouble. Meanwhile, an idle young woman gets the notion to outfit herself as a cowboy and makes her getaway. Danish cartoonist Villadsen's off-kilter vision of the Old West features exploding prostitutes, menstruating cowgirls, mysterious gender-bending, and much more. Giddyap! Full-color illustrations throughout.

Mr. Fibber (2019)

by Yirmi Pinkus (Author). Based on Lea Goldberg’s classic rhyming stories, this book introduces this charming character and his absurdist adventures to a new generation of young readers and their parents. When Mr. Fibber accidently drops his coin in a jar of juice, he magically shrinks so he can dive down and retrieve it. On a walk one day, he stumbles upon a giant dog with a smokestack on its back, towing a train behind it ― and hitches a ride. And just to make sure it stays sunny and warm during his vacation, he catches the sun in a net and packs it in his suitcase! These playful adventures, designed for children three and up, are illustrated in a bouncy colored pencil style and just bursting with imagination, will enchant young readers. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Nymph (2020)

by Leila Marzocchi  (Author). In this fairy tale of a graphic novel, a mysterious, tiny being upsets the balance of the woods. A lone, defenseless pupa has rained down from the sky. An assembly of talking birds and trees agree to protect "Dolly" as it begins to evolve ― but into what? As the humanoid creature starts showing a predilection for flight and music, magical clues start unveiling themselves. Italian award-winning cartoonist Leila Marzocchi's terrifically lush scratchboard drawings are a perfect companion to her witty dialogue and profound storytelling. Nymph gets to the heart of both human and Mother Nature to prove that, to raise a child-like larva, it takes a village. Or at least a forest. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Lewis's Spirit

Part one of a two-part Gothic tale. A young English gentleman's mother dies, so he secludes himself on his family's island estate to find peace and write his first novel, when he meets a ghost. by Lionel Richerand (Drawings), Bertrand Santini  (Contributor), Hubert (Inker). Concluding part of a Gothic tale about a young man whose mother dies, so he goes off to shut himself up in his childhood home to grieve and write a book. He meets a ghost and in typical Gothic fashion, romance and tragedy ensue.

Non Album Collections 281

The Swindling Indies (2019)

Writer Alain Ayroles (De Cape et Des Crocs) and artist Juanjo Guarnido (Blacksad) team up to give us a sequel to a seventeenth century novel called El Buscon. In this, we follow luckless pauper and general terrible person Pablos as he goes to the Americas to make his fortune.

Kiki de Montparnasse (2011)

In the bohemian and brilliant Montparnasse of the 1920s, Kiki managed to escape poverty to become one of the most charismatic figures of the avant garde years between the wars. Partner to Man Ray, whose most legendary photos she inspired, she would be immortalised by Kisling, Foujita, Per Krohg, Calder, Utrillo and Léger. Kiki is the muse of a generation that sought to escape the hangover of the Great War, but she is above all one of the first emancipated women of the 20th century. Above and beyond her sexual and emotional freedom, Kiki made her mark with her freedom of style, word and thought that could be learned from only one school – the school of life.

Terra Australis (2014)

Over two centuries ago, a fleet of ships set sail from England led by Admiral Arthur Phillip. Of the thousand men and women on board, most were convicts, sentenced to transportation for crimes against the Crown and banished to exile. They were bound for Botany Bay, on the other side of the world, in the freshly charted territory of New South Wales. The journey to their new home would take them across three oceans, cover 15,000 miles and leave them on the shores of a vast and virgin continent. Five years in the making, LF Bollée and Philippe Nicloux present Terra Australis, the vivid and sweeping tale of an epic journey and an unflinching account of the founding of modern Australia.

Animal

Would you be capable of renouncing your status as a human being… and assuming the ultimate consequences? At the center of it all here is a quiet and introspective man with a desire to live, but who isn’t quite sure in which world to do so. Is it he who is broken or is it society? What could he possibly cling to in order to carry on, despite being alienated from everything that surrounds him? Script by Colo - Art by Colo.