Anna Mandretta is a young woman on a submarine-like vessel submerged in the waters of an alien moon. By night, she enters a mandatory lucid-dream that causes her to take on the life of an alternate reality, in which she is an acclaimed surgeon at the Miskatonik University Hospital. Unable to save the life of an infant afflicted with a hideous, hissing tumor, she is assaulted by the boy’s parents, who claim he will be reborn to eternal life to rule the world in the name of an ancient deity, Azag-thoth. This gothic space fantasy follows Anna as she shifts between her horrific reality as a medic on the front lines of a war against the mysterious Xax and the supernatural life she leads in the recurring dream that draws closer to becoming her waking world. The multilayered graphic novel—in which the true meaning of the events seems constantly just beyond the reader’s grasp—bridges horror comics with a blend of military sexism, mind control, political commentary, and quantum string theory.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This is a fantastic independent comic-book . . . reminds me of . . . Jules Verne . . . if you want something completely off the wall and different, Weirdling will do it for you!" —JazmaOnline.com
"The story is entrancing. Mike does a a masterful job setting things up so that the reader cannot tell [what] is real, who is friend, who is foe, and what will happen next . . . If you like horror and H. P. Lovecraft, you'll love this." —Rifter magazine
"This is a fascinating world. Mike keeps us thinking we are on the right track then in the turn of a page throws another curve." —Comic Book Network
"Evokes a sense of nostalgia . . . of a better time for the industry in terms of there being good comic books for people to read." —comicsfondle.com
"Every page creeps with exotic otherness-if you shook it really hard the various aliens and flora would fall out." —Skullring.org
"If you like your Mythos cosmic, and prefer protagonists who face horror without whining about it, you should definitely check this out." —Daves Rants, eyrie.org
"Should appeal to those who like weird horror, unusual science fiction, or stories that are more ambitious than your usual fare." —comixtreme.com
"Probably the most unique story I've read in recent memory—I couldn't put it down." —ComicList.com
About the Author
Mike Dubisch is the author of Morbid Curiosity, the illustrator of the middle-reader series Heir to Fire, and the cocreator of the Flesh Crawlers comic miniseries. A professional illustrator for 20 years, his work has also appeared in various magazines, including Realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction Age; as cover art for Dark Horse Comics' Aliens vs. Predator; and in fantasy fiction role-playing games for Beyond the Supernatural, Dungeons and Dragons, Rifts, Star Wars, and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. He lives in upstate New York.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable Twist on Lovecraft and Science Fiction,
By Lonnie E. Holder "The Review's the Thing" (Columbus, Indiana, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Weirdling (Paperback)
I have to own up to a bit of embarrassment with respect to this black and white graphic novel. I was about 15 pages or so into this book when I realized that I had lost track of the plots. It was my fault. I walked into this novel thinking it was another graphic novel with a simple plot line. Wrong. Mike Dubisch created multiple worlds and refuses to allow the reader to know which world is the "real" world until the very end. Even when I reached the end I was not sure that the multiple worlds had really been untangled and that I really knew which world was supposedly the real world. This graphic novel is quite enjoyable because of its complexity.
Anna Mandretta is a medical technician on a submersible spaceship that is fighting an enemy on a far-off world. There are several things available on this craft that make life bearable. There are virts, or virtual reality, and then there is LDE, lucid dreaming, and of course there is the ever-popular hemp - and I do not mean the kind used for making ropes. Anna somehow falls into a dream or alternate reality or perhaps history where she is a renowned doctor trying to save a baby with a sinister-looking tumor on its head. If you think this story is starting to sound like something out of a Lovecraft novel, Mike Dubisch avoids keeping you from guessing by throwing in the name of Azag-Thoth and Cthulu so that you know the tie-in to Lovecraft is deliberate. The rest of the novel blurs the lines between the stories so that you wonder which version of Anna is controlling the others, or whether any of them are controlling anything. I also got confused for a short while between the novel's reality and fantasy, but that was intentional to enable a reader to feel the same confusion felt by Anna. The blurring also permits an infusion of Lovecraft into a science fiction story as well as an infusion of science fiction into a Lovecraftian story. This story has a lot of influences. Anna reminds me of Ripley from "Alien." For some reason, Anna also reminded me a little of Michael Valentine Smith from Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land." I have no explanation for why I made that particular connection. Lovecraft was also a huge influence on this book. I also noticed that this book seemed to owe a bit of stylistic influence to E.C. Comics. This book certainly has its share of influences and does seem somewhat derivative. However, a book can be derivative and still be original. This book seemed very original to me. The overlapping worlds, the blurring of reality and the similarity of monsters in the various realities were quite interesting and challenged me to keep the story lines straight. Now comes the tough part. Who is going to like this book? I think fans of Lovecraft will be intrigued and should rush out to buy this book. I also think fans of science fiction horror graphic novels will find this novel interesting and different from any graphic novel of which I am aware. I also think that fans of black and white graphic novels from any related genre will find the artwork interesting and the story challenging. This intricately created graphic novel reminded me that U.S. artists have a long tradition of creating wonderful horror, fantasy and science fiction art in a style that is easy to identify as being North American. We hear so much about anime and manga that we sometimes forget that graphic artists in the U.S. have their own eerie style that traces back to at least the Victorian era. Mike Dubisch has done a very good job of combining his creative, artistic and writing talents. The result is this book. My thanks to Mike Dubisch for bringing his graphic novel to my attention and providing me with a review copy. Enjoy!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
