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.