Exurbia [Paperback]

Scott Allie (Author), Kevin McGovern (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2009

Gage Wallace's life falls apart when, after breaking up with his girlfriend and having a heart-to-heart with his television set, he finds himself framed for blowing up his apartment building - the latest in a string of deadly bombings in this doomed suburb. Neighboring Fat City fell into the river during an earthquake eight years ago, and ever since, these hapless ex-urbanites have been waiting for their own town to sink. But now their hopes are renewed by a talking rat, whose drunken ramblings are taken as prophecy of a better time ahead. Gage finds himself pursued by well-intentioned friends, bored kids who see Gage's plight as an extension of their video-game fantasies, and the bloodthirsty Bald Suzie, a local firearms enthusiast whose brother was killed in a recent explosion. Meanwhile, Gage's girlfriend uncovers the secret that plunged the once-idealistic teen into his apathetic twenties, involving an anarchist cable-access show and its mutant host - the hero and mentor that Gage betrayed and left to die at the hands of an angry mob.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Since the earthquake that dumped the neighboring metropolis, Fat City, into the river, life in Exurbia has been bleak. Overpopulated with preoccupied yuppies and apathetic youth, what used to be suburban is now a gritty city plagued by a mad bomber and riddled with graffiti extolling the wisdom of the mysterious, talking Rat. Gage Wallace, generally tending toward the apathetic end of the spectrum, suddenly has his life turned upside down when he is mistaken for the mad bomber. Pursued by assassins with a grudge, the marginally competent police, well-intentioned friends, and the obligatory mob of angry townsfolk, our unwitting hero is forced to confront the demons of his own past. Although occasionally hard to follow, Allie’s story features strong characters, especially the Rat as an accidental messiah, and lots of rip-roaring action. McGovern animates the story well, giving it just the right amounts of quirky and gritty. A good pick for comics fans with a taste for dystopian literature and a good sense of humor. --Tina Coleman

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (October 20, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595823395
• ISBN-13: 978-1595823397
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,093,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Scott Allie writes and edits comics and stories for Dark Horse Comics and Glimmer Train Press. He's the longtime editor of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hellboy, and brought The Umbrella Academy, Beasts of Burden, and The Goon to Dark Horse. His focus has been horror comics since a young age, which is reflected in his writing and his editing, including his first published work, Sick Smiles, a horror anthology. With Sick Smiles (1994-1996) he formed long-lasting collaborative friendships, including Kevin McGovern, with whom he created Exurbia in '94 and finally released the graphic novel in 2009. He rejoined Todd Herman, another Sick Smiles artist, in 2006 to create The Fog, a prequel to the great John Carpenter film. He's the writer or Dark Horse's adaptation of Robert E Howard's Solomon Kane, where he delves into the pulp traditions that his grandfather turned him onto as a young boy. He's currently hard at work on the sequel to his first creator owned series, The Devil's Footprints, set in his home town of Ipswich, MA. He now lives with his son in Portland, Oregon. Follow him on Twitter, where he mainly posts while on solo roadtrips through the Northwest, which he thinks extends east through the Dakotas and south through Nevada.