Non Album Collections 402

Sapiens Imperium (2021)

After losing the imperial throne to the Kerkans, all members of the Khelek Dynasty and their allies were banished to the barren caves of Tazma. Sixty-five standard years later, their descendants are still held captive there. Xinthia has had enough. "In 1972, the Moroccan king Hassan II escaped an attack organized by General Oufkir, a close relative. Oufkir was executed, but his wife and six children, the youngest of whom was only three, were thrown into a dungeon from which they would not emerge for nineteen years. by Sam Timel  (Author), Jorge Miguel (Illustrator).

The Forest

The Forest is a graphic novella told via twenty-five singular illustrations, without words, of which only Swiss artist Thomas Ott is capable. A young boy sneaks away from a family funeral and sinks into the forest depths, where he confronts man's greatest fear and must choose his path. Drawing with a technique called scratchboard, where a white surface is covered with a black layer and scratched away, Ott creates images out of negative space to harrowing effect.

moebius - Arzak the Surveyor

Arzak the Surveyor preview published in Beau Arts magazine.

Thomas Ott Assorted Collections

There aren't many comix artists from German-speaking countries whose work has been translated into other languages. Luckily, the Swiss artist Thomas Ott makes wordless scratchboard comix, which helps in making his work known in the rest of the world. Born in Berne, Ott studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and began working in the independent comics scene in the second half of the 1980s. His work was published in various European magazines, including Ahai, Hochparterre, Okay Erotik Magazin, Strapazin, Tagesanzeiger-Magazin and Weltwoche in Switzerland, Boxer, Geo-Spezial, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Tempo in Germany, as well as El Vibora in Spain and Bulles Dingues, Culte, L'Écho des Savanes, Libération, Stronx and Vogue in France. 

The titles of his books, like 'Tales of Error' and 'Hellville, Tales from the Edge', already suggest that he is fond of the darker sides of life, which he depicts in his books with painstaking clarity. Since 1995, he is a regular contributor to Lapin, the publication of the French publisher L'Association (he has lived in Paris since 1990). Among his other books are 'Cinema Panopticum', 'Greetings from Hellville' and 'The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8'. The multi-talented Thomas Ott makes animations, was the lead singer of a band called The Playboys, and on top of this, he makes political satires, comics and caricatures for various newspapers and magazines.