Category: NBM

By Lewis Trondheim
32 pages, color
Published by NBM

A couple of years ago, NBM published a North American edition of Lewis Trondheim’s Mister O, detailing the continual attempts (and deaths) of a little O-shaped man desperately trying to get across a chasm. Now we’re presented with its thematic sequel, Mister I, in a new cycle of attempt-and-death by a character shaped like the letter he’s named after. The big difference, here, is that everyone will be cheering Mister I on to his inevitable death.

Continue reading “Mister I”

Written by Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar
Art by Joann Sfar and Kerascoet
96 pages, color
Published by NBM

Up until now, reading Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar’s Dungeon books has been nothing but a great deal of fun. Their “present day” Dungeon Zenith is a wonderful parody of sword and sorcery stories while still having a strong backbone of its own, and the “prequel” Dungeon Early Years installments have been an entertaining mix of intrigue and swashbuckling. Now that we’re seeing the “in the future” books of Dungeon Twilight, we’re getting something slightly different. The series is still full of the brilliant and over-the-top ideas, and it holds the reader’s interest just as tightly. The big difference is that if I had to sum up Dungeon Twilight in one word, it would probably be “bleak.”

Continue reading “Dungeon Twilight Vol. 1-2”

By Patrick Atangan
48 pages, color
Published by NBM

Patrick Atangan’s comics debut, The Yellow Jar, was a beautiful retelling of ancient Japanese folk tales using the ukiyo-e art style of Japan. With his latest graphic novel, Tree of Love, Atangan’s tackling the Rajput Polyptich art of India and the end result is just as visually stunning.

Continue reading “Tree of Love”

Written by Lewis Trondheim
Art by Manu Larcenet
96 pages, color
Published by NBM

Audiences in general seem obsessed with “the twist”. You know, that singular moment where everything’s turned upside down and you discover what’s really going on. In that case, Lewis Trondheim and Manu Larcenet’s Astronauts of the Future should delight just about everyone who reads it… not just because of the cute art or the fun story, but because Astronauts of the Future has more twists than a bag of french crullers.

Continue reading “Astronauts of the Future Vol. 1”

Written by Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim
Art by Lewis Trondheim
96 pages, color
Published by NBM

Two of the biggest comic creators in France are Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar… so when they decided to co-create the Donjon series of graphic novels in France, there was a lot of reason for celebration. NBM started translating the series into English (as Dungeon) in late 2002 and publishing it as a black and white series of comic books. Now that it’s showing up as full-color graphic albums, though, it’s time for everyone to get reminded about just how good Dungeon really is.

Continue reading “Dungeon Zenith Vol. 1: Duck Heart”

By Jens Harder
144 pages, two-color
Published by éditions de l’An 2, distributed in North America by NBM

Every now and then, something ends up in my hands with which I’m completely entranced. The reason for being entranced can be one of many—a neat cover, a flip through the interior revealing something “wow” worthy, or even a good title. Sometimes the book ends up exceeding my expectations, other times it can’t come even close. So when I ended up with Jens Harder’s Leviathan, the immediate question was, “Which will it be?”

Continue reading “Leviathan”

By P. Craig Russell
Based on short stories by Oscar Wilde
32 pages, color
Published by NBM

It’s been a little over six years since the last volume of P. Craig Russell’s Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, and I hadn’t realized how much I missed them. As I read the two stories Russell adapted here, it was nice to see that over 110 years after Wilde originally wrote these pieces, they’re just as relevant and pleasant to read now as they must have been then.

Continue reading “Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde Vol. 4”

By Lewis Trondheim
32 pages, color
Published by NBM

Every time there’s a new Lewis Trondheim book printed for the North American market, I feel like I should cheer. Slice-of-life, humor, mystery, fantasy, science-fiction… there isn’t a genre or style that Trondheim hasn’t conquered in France. Now Mister O is available thanks to NBM, although I have to chuckle to myself at the thought of the book being “translated” since, like Trondheim’s Li’l Santa books, Mister O is wordless.

Continue reading “Mister O”

By Rick Geary
80 pages, black and white
Published by NBM

Many people assume that brutal or senseless murders did not really happen until the 20th century, but that’s hardly the case. All throughout history, people’s lives have been shattered by the ruthless killings of each other, both in public and in secret. Cartoonist Rick Geary has shown in his Treasury of Victorian Murder that modern conveniences are hardly necessary in order to kill—and his latest volume, The Beast of Chicago, shows just how crafty a killer in the 1890s could be…

Continue reading “Beast of Chicago”

By Christophe Blain
96 pages, color
Published by NBM

Christophe Blain is one of those super-creators in France that very few English-speaking people have heard of. NBM seems determined to show us just what we’ve been missing, though. They’ve already published his graphic novel Speed Abater, and his work as an artist on Dungeon: Early Years is hitting stores early next year. The book I’m probably the most excited about, though, is the one that just hit stores: Isaac the Pirate.

Continue reading “Isaac the Pirate Vol. 1: To Exotic Lands”