JANUARY 21 2025 NEWS UPDATE

Well hello! I hope you all are having a wonderful January.
It's been too long since one of these missives, mainly because, as usual, I'm slammed preparing our next slate of books. We have prepared a shocking ten books for 2025, which will almost double our existing backlist of titles. So what's new then?

Living that SMUDGE Life

Ryan Holmberg in Japan

If you follow Ryan Holmberg on Instagram, you'll have seen that he's been travelling in Japan since the new year, working on research for his various translation projects, and also securing new titles for our SMUDGE line of horror manga as well! So far this has included a ton of stuff that we can't talk about, and a handful of things that are already public, including his visit to a killer exhibit of the tattoo work of upcoming SMUDGE artist Bonten Taro, whose short story collection FACE MEAT will be arriving in stores and mailboxes as early as May.

...and how about a real announcement?

Living the Line/SMUDGE Signs Multi-volume deal with the estate of Marina Shirakawa

Living the Line Books is proud to announce a multi-volume book deal with the estate of Shirakawa Marina, whose gonzo science-fiction horror book UFO Mushroom Invasion has won its author acclaim and an audience almost fifty years after its first appearance in Japanese.
UFO Mushroom Invasion, Shirakawa's first English-language publication, is a spore-horror classic which mixes extreme body horror and deeply-researched science fiction speculation with a calm, philosophical take on the extinction of humanity. The book received critical acclaim upon release in October 2024, even being nominated prior to publication as Best New Edition of a Classic Manga for the inagural American Manga Awards.
"It's a real honor to be able to introduce more of Shirakawa's manga to English readers," says Ryan Holmberg, SMUDGE curator and translator. "Though his books are avidly sought out by collectors, he's underappreciated by manga fans even in Japan."

"We see this as the next phase of our SMUDGE line," says publisher Sean Michael Robinson. "It's not enough to excavate the hidden gems of the past and find moving, shockingly-resonant works from half a century ago. We want to take it further, and bring the authors of those works into English just as you might introduce a living author, by carefully-curating books from their catalog of work."

Special thanks to Kunisawa Hiroshi, the manga researcher who facilitated contacts with the estate.
SHIRAKAWA Marina (1940-2000) was an artist of many talents. As a cartoonist, he drew bizarre and harrowing manga about such things as UFO invasions, time-traveling vampires, and zombie cats. As an illustrator, he worked on projects related to Japanese folklore and H.P. Lovecraft. He was also a folklorist himself, authoring manga and illustrated anthologies about Japanese ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. All of these interests come together in UFO Mushroom Invasion (1976), his most famous manga.
The books, titles unannouced so far, will see release in 2026 and early 2027.

...and speaking of title announcements...

The Complete C.D. Gibson

I've spent the past few days working on completing the long essay for our October title, The Complete CD Gibson: A Widow And Her Friends by Charles Dana GIbson, the first released book in our long-awaited survey of the works of one of America's greatest cartoonists, the legendary CD Gibson.

After a lot of deliberation, I decided to start mid-way through Gibson's career for the publication order of the series, mostly because I wanted the first book released to be the most graphic novel-like of his work. Specifically, this book will include his two long-form narratives, The Education of Mr Pipp, and its follow-up, A Widow And Her Friends. Both books offer an excellent entry-point to Gibson's work, as they are filled to the brim with his peculiar mixture of humor, social criticism, and streaks of sadness that puncture the humor a bit and bring a real humanness to even his most exaggerated characters.

The page featured here is from The Education of Mr. Pipp, which first appeared in the September 8, 1898 issue of Life. The titular Mr. Pipp is a new-money American iron magnate who travels to Europe on a pleasure cruise with his stout, stern wife and his two lovely daughters. This fish-out-of-water story of cultural collision was a runaway success with the public, prompting Gibson to extend the serial to meet demand.

Only one of four Gibson works that will appear in this inagural volume of the Complete CD Gibson! Available October 2025, lovingly-restored from several different original editions of the book overseen by Gibson himself during his lifetime.

This Year's Full Lineup

Wanted to end with our current schedule for the year! As some of you might have noticed, there's been a pretty big shakeup at our distributor in the past week, so that uncertainty might lead to some time shifts in the lineup for logistical reasons, but the first three books are already printed, currently being shipped from their three respective printers, and will definitely be on time as indicated below.
More about Mansect (Koga Shinichi), Roihu (Kutikuti) and the Pit (Erik Kriek) very soon!

Mansect by Koga Shinichi (February 2025)
Roihu by Kutikuti (February 2025)
The Pit by Erik Kriek (April 2025)
Face Meat by Bonten Taro (May 2025)
The Rabagoo Race by Garresh (June 2025)
Moonray Book Three: Blood Song (July 2025)
Harpy by EPHK (Aug 2025)
TBA Classic Horror Manga (Sept 2025)
UK In a Bad Way Plus Six More by James Harvey (Sept 2025)
The Complete CD Gibson: A Widow And Her Friends by Charles Dana GIbson (Oct 2025)
TBA Classic Horror Manga (December 2025)

5-16-2024

UFO MUSHROOM INVASION Announced by Living the Line Imprint, Smudge

“UFOs are one of the world’s greatest mysteries...and I hope they stay that way. For the day that aliens reveal themselves may very well become the beginning of the end of life on Earth as we know it!”

iving the Line and Diamond Book Distributors are proud to present the second title in LTL's SMUDGE, a line of vintage horror, occult, and dark fantasy manga, curated and translated by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg.

A flying saucer crashes deep in the mountains of Japan. Wary of the hyper-intelligent beings they find inside, the government hides from the public all news of the alien craft. But it’s not the strange visitors themselves that they should be afraid of—the real danger is the parasitic spores smuggled aboard! Will Earth survive the UFO MUSHROOM INVASION?!

Originally published in 1976, Shirakawa Marina’s UFO MUSHROOM INVASION is a masterpiece of sci-fi horror. Drawing on his deep knowledge of Japanese folklore and the supernatural, Shirakawa created one of manga history’s cult classics and an unforgettably creepy entry in the canon of spore-horror. The book includes an illustrated color essay by Udagawa Takeo, author of MANGA ZOMBIE (1996), a classic survey of weird manga soon to be released in English by Ultra Gash Records. It also includes a "The Best of Marina Shirakawa" section by Smudge editor/translator Ryan Holmberg that offers a career survey with synopses and a color cover gallery.

Shirakawa's unique and wild work has been making waves in Japanese-language manga collector circles for decades.

The ambitious Smudge manga line aims to provide the most extensive survey of classic horror and dark fantasy manga in any language, complimenting the Ito Junji and Umezz Kazuo titles put out by Viz Media and the Hino Hideshi and newer horror manga titles put out by Star Fruit Books.

"Though he wasn't super productive by workaholic Japanese standards, Shirakawa is one of the most adored artists within the history of weird, cult manga," says Holmberg. "UFO Mushroom Invasion is by far his most famous work, with new editions appearing every ten years or so from fringe publishers in Japan. Shirakawa speaks to me not only as a lifelong fan of dark fantasy, but also as a Japanophile and cultural historian. You don't find many manga authors who are, at the same time, interesting artists, believers in fringe science and pseudo-history, and respected amateur researchers of Japanese yokai, folklore, and the supernatural."

“Shirakawa is a remarkable author whose classic art and meticulously researched, oddball perspective make his rediscovery inevitable,” says Smudge publisher Sean Michael Robinson. “We couldn't be more pleased to be bringing him to English language audiences. Although this is only our second book in the Smudge line, UFO Mushroom Invasion makes it clear that we are taking our mission statement seriously, to bring previously unknown genre classics to the English language market, key books and authors that have been virtually unknown outside of enthusiastic collectors.”

The first Smudge title, HER FRANKENSTEIN by Norikazu Kawashima, will be released in May, and has already garnered significant accolades, including a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which stated: "Kawashima’s suspenseful thriller is cinematic and beautiful, full of the indelible imagery—an eerily calm seascape, a discarded mask, a featureless face—that established him as one of the leading names in Japanese horror comics."

UFO Mushroom Invasion will hit comic shops on September 18th and the wider bookstore release will follow on October 1st.

Lost Horror Manga Masterpiece from Living the Line: HER FRANKENSTEIN by Kawashima Norikazu

Dare to read the psycho-horror classic that horror manga master Ito Junji called a “frightening but moving story about an unfortunate individual who, lost in search of his true self, finds his own annihilation instead.”

Little Tetsuo is a wimpy mess. His parents don’t love him. He meets the beautiful Kimiko, an ailing teenage girl obsessed with movies and mayhem in equal amounts. She doesn’t love Tetsuo either, or anyone other than herself. But she needs him. So Tetsuo becomes the man she wants—the monster she wants. He becomes HER FRANKENSTEIN!

Originally published in 1986, Kawashima Norikazu’s HER FRANKENSTEIN marks the bizarre and sadomasochistic finale to a cult era in Japanese horror comics. A few years after it was published, the author burned all of his artwork and abandoned Tokyo, never to be heard from again! HER FRANKENSTEIN is the inaugural volume of SMUDGE, a line of pulp, horror, and dark mystery manga, curated and translated into English by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg.

"Though only getting his proper due now, Kawashima is an important figure in the history of horror manga," says Holmberg. "Considered by many to be his best work, HER FRANKENSTEIN was the swan song in a glorious era of horror graphic novels in Japan, which came to a close just as horror manga found its footing in the mainstream magazine market. Without under-appreciated pioneers like Kawashima, there would have been no Ito Junji." This history is further elucidated in an essay included in the volume by cartoonist Kawakatsu Tokushige.

"I've rarely read a comic so gripping, thrilling, and unclassifiable,” says Living the Line and Smudge publisher Sean Michael Robinson. “HER FRANKENSTEIN makes a compelling argument for searching for vital, vibrant work in the forgotten past.”

Her Frankenstein will be available in spring of 2024. The 208 page book will retail for 19.95 and will include almost 20 pages of color extras, including a cover gallery and guide to Kawashima's work.

SMUDGE is a new imprint of Living the Line Books, a boutique graphic novel publisher owned and operated by illustrator and designer Sean Michael Robinson. Living the Line Books is a publisher of dynamic, visually-striking comics and graphic novels. Living the Line's graphic novel debut, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (Dave Sim and Carson Grubaugh) was recently nominated for an Eisner Award, for "Best Reality-Based Work.", and their seven other subsequent publications have been well-decorated and much-discussed.

Abolition of Man, the World's First Entirely-AI-Illustrated Graphic Novel Returns in a Deluxe Collection with Event at Yale University Bookstore

When publisher Living the Line first announced The Abolition of Man, the world's first entirely-AI-illustrated comic book, in June of 2022, it did much to bring attention to the future that generative AI technologies might bring, a future filled in equal parts with wonder and unsettling philosophical ramifications. Now co-authors Carson Grubaugh and Yale Professor of Luciano Floridi bring that discussion to the Yale University Bookstore on Friday September 29th 2023, for a philosophical discussion on the past year of machine learning technological development and its implications. The discussion will be followed by a signing of The Abolition of Man, which will be available at the event.

Luciano Floridi (Laurea, Rome La Sapienza, M.Phil. and Ph.D. Warwick)is Yale's Founding Director of the Digital Ethics Center and Professor in the Practice in the Cognitive Science Program. Before joining Yale, he was the Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford. He has published more than 300 works on the philosophy of information, digital ethics, the ethics of AI, and the philosophy of technology. His most recent books are The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence – Principles, Challenges, and Opportunities (OUP, 2023) and The Green and The Blue – Naive Ideas to Improve Politics in the Digital Age (Wiley, 2023).

Regarding his involvement in The Abolition of Man, Floridi says, "The evocative illustration of ideas by the latest technology: this is the amazing encounter between the medium of comics, the content of philosophy, and AI as a new form of agency, all supervised by the mind of the artist. The result is remarkable, and it is a unique privilege to be part of such an exciting experiment so significantly coherent with our digital age."

The Folridi penned capstone to Abolition of Man follows a science-fiction future (co-scripted by Grubaugh and Living the Line publisher Sean Robinson), which tells the satirical story of a dystopian future where automation has left humankind devoid of dignity, and a following chapter which is both written and illustrated by A.I. Floridi counters the bleak outlook of the first section of the book with a hopeful note that explains how the concept of human dignity can help us design a future worth building.

Abolition of Man is on the leading edge of a wave of discussion regarding the potentials of AI technologies, both utopian and dire. Grubaugh and Robinson discussed these possibilities with the legendary artist Dave McKean, who had this to say about the Abolition of Man miniseries. “The Abolition of Man is a thorough test drive of AI image making, and the results are extraordinary, appalling, compelling, cold, hot, beautiful, repellent, and should be abolished."

Artist, Grubaugh, says: “I've spent years as an artist abusing many different publicly available app-fads, in an effort to illustrate what could be called a "Banal, Content Apocalypse,' in which we've generated so much semantic content that something genuinely new is near impossible to come by. These new art-making AI open up both new means for generating previously unimaginable content, but also speed production to the point where all we will have left to us is to transmute the meaning-rich gold of the past into recycled lead of the present.”

Grubaugh concludes, “In a world where there is nothing new under the Sun, choose to change the Sun.”

The Abolition of Man is now available in comic shops and bookstores worldwide. The signing event will be held on September 29th at 6 PM at the Barnes and Noble Yale University Bookstore, at 77 Broadway, New Haven, CT 06511

Announcing Moonray Book One by Brandon Graham and Xurxo G. Penalta!

Living the Line, Diamond Comics, Diamond Book Distribution, and Moonray PBC are proud to present Moonray Book One, the first volume in a bold new science fantasy graphic novel series written and drawn by Eisner-award-winning author and artist Brandon Graham (PROPHET, KING CITY, RAIN LIKE HAMMERS), and featuring artist Xurxo G. Penalta.

Moonray Book One will be released in comic book stores and book stores worldwide in October 2023. The lavishly-produced oversize hardback volume will run 160 pages and will retail for $35 USD.

Since the release of King City in 2008, Brandon Graham has been known for making the most experimental and stylish action comics in the business, a true international cartoonist with a distinctive and compelling style. Moonray is the culmination of those fifteen years of development, and takes all of his stylistic influences to their pinnacle: graffiti culture, science fiction manga, clean-line European comics, ukiyo-e prints, and collage, all mashed together into one of the most distinctive visual signatures in comics.

Moonray is a daring experiment in world-building, a true graphic epic that began in a truly unusual way. Moonray the graphic novel series shares its name and characters with a surreal 3rd-person multiplayer battle arena game set in a fantastical sci-fi world. Featuring intense combat, stunning visuals, and a world-class soundtrack, Moonray the game has been in development by the independent game developers Moonray PBC since 2019, and will be available publicly in an arena-combat form this fall of 2023.

But Moonray was written and drawn almost entirely in reverse of the normal process of a video game “tie-in” book. Rather than fit his comic work into an existing story and set of rules, Graham was instead hired by Moonray PBC to draw out the ideas at the game's core, to in essence develop the sketched-in ideas that were present before his involvement. Rather than developing a book based on a game, the team is developing a game based on an their own book.

Writer/artist Graham takes up the origin story.

“The idea for Moonray started with Rodrigo Etcheto and his brother Diego's interest in far future surreal science fiction, which led them to my work.,” says Graham. “The world of It-Ao, the goddess Iltar, and most importantly the idea for miium, the living material that could be absolutely anything, was already in place. They hired me to explore it all.”

“At the same time I was newly living in the desert of Las Vegas, which felt like moving to Mars,” continues Graham. “At the start me and my old friend Farel Dalrymple were doing sketches of all the places and creatures and weapons that could exist in the Moonray universe. Eventually I enlisted Xurxo to draw another story set in the same world.”

“I approached my own pages often without a map of where exactly I'd go next,” continues Graham. “As much as the miium hero was figuring out himself and the world he's found himself in, I was figuring out each week's pages as I went, setting up questions for myself to figure out the following week.”

“We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to develop a style of sci-fi that would be different from anything else out there,” says Moonray PBC CEO Rodrigo Etcheto. “We wanted to explore ideas that touch on surrealism, consciousness and the struggle to know your true nature. But we wanted to set those ideas in a world which would draw gamers and readers in with magnetic visuals. Brandon was the obvious person to create something this ambitious.”

Brandon Graham was born in 1976, the grandson of pin-up artist Bill Randall. He grew up in Seattle around a lot of graffiti and comics from all over the word. His books include KING CITY, MULTIPLE WARHEADS, PROPHET, ROYALBOILER, and RAIN LIKE HAMMERS.

Xurxo G Penalta is a Galician artist who’s collaborated with Brandon on KIEM and PROPHET. He's been published by Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Marvel, and illustrated for multiple music labels and live events. He focuses on science fiction and fantasy artwork in the European clear line style, with late 70s and 80s influences from comics, animation and film.

The solicitation text is below.

"MOONRAY is gloriously epic, exploding scifi fantasy world daydreams in every wonderful way! I can't think of anything I've enjoyed more in recent memory!" -Michael Allred: Madman, Silver Surfer, Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams, Red Rocket 7, Superman: Space Age

"Moonray is a deeply personal work built on top of a licensed property, that provides a stunning meta-mythical framework for how to live happily in 21st century." — Carson Grubaugh, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, The Abolition of Man

“Moonray is a heady rich stew of psychedelic science fiction, my favorite kind. And in the skillful hands of Brandon Graham and Xurxo Penalta, it’s served with an unsettling ease in every bite. The perplexing becomes the flavors. It’s joyful to get lost in it.”
— J H Williams III, Echolands, Batwoman, The Sandman Overture, Promethea

In a post-human world, the man of miium is born. Created to avenge a slain goddess, our nameless warrior travels an unrecognizable landscape, constantly evolving with new wonders and terrors: Zanikam pirates, deadly reflections, a living bridge, and a red tear in the sky. Written and drawn by Eisner-award-winning author and artist Brandon Graham (Prophet, King City, Rain Like Hammers) and featuring artist Xurxo G. Penalta, Moonray presents a mind-altering new dawn for a distant sci-fi future unlike any other. This bold graphic odyssey births the Moonray universe, from comic book to video game and beyond.

Living the Line Books is a publisher of dynamic, visually-striking comics and graphic novels, founded in 2020 by writer/illustrator Sean Michael Robinson. Living the Line's graphic novel debut, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (Dave Sim and Carson Grubaugh) was recently nominated for an Eisner Award, for "Best Reality-Based Work."

HOUSE ON FIRE — THE DEBUT GRAPHIC NOVEL BY MATT BATTAGLIA, AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW!

(ST PAUL, MN) -- 01-16-2023 Living the Line Books is proud to announce that preorders are now open for House on Fire, the debut graphic novel of cartoonist Matt Battaglia. House on Fire is now available to preorder from any local Diamond-affiliated Comic Store, English-language bookstore, or direct from Living the Line’s website.

Is she sick, or is it the world itself? HOUSE ON FIRE, the debut graphic novel by writer/artist Matt Battaglia, teases out the difference in a personal-political cruise through a fallen world, where fear is rational and obedience your only refuge.

Battaglia depicts the near-future landscape of House on Fire with wild two-color brushwork reminiscent of the great Paul Pope, and a minimalist writing style that evokes and questions rather than lectures.

“Living the Line books focuses on unique, personal books that are intensely visual, and Matt Battaglia’s House on Fire fits that bill,” says Living the Line publisher Sean Michael Robinson. “House on Fire’s passionate delivery always moves the pages forward, each page a performance in ink, where his brush’s movement across the page is visible. This gives the whole book, but the action scenes in particular, a tightrope quality that is increasingly rare in a world more and more focused on perfection of performance.”

House on Fire will be available in a 100-page softcover and will retail at $16 USD. The book will be released in stores late March. Living the Line’s website will also feature a signed version by writer/artist Matt Battaglia.

Early praise for House on Fire:

‘‘... gritty ... raw... a comic you can’t pass up.”

—Matt Lesniewski, The Freak, Crimson Flower, Faceless and the Family

“Matt Battaglia had to invent Photo-Impressionism to convey the full Force Majeur of HOUSE ON FIRE, the first of the post-pandemic WADs (We Are Dystopia) graphic novels.”

—Dave Sim, Strange Death of Alex Raymond

“HOUSE OF FIRE is powerful stuff. A human story, raw and brutal, and it really makes me miss Vertigo Comics.”

—Kody Chamberlain (Sweets, Punks, 30 Days of Night)

"A nihilistic brutal little tale, drawn in bold brush strokes in a gutsy, expressionist style. The sparsity of dialogue and context makes reading it an almost visceral experience. The post-apocalyptic backdrop for the story has long belonged to the sci fi realm, but recent history had proven that it isn't such a far fetched fantasy as we all thought... All in all a bold debut."

— Erik Kriek, The Exile, Gutsman, Murder Ballads

“House On Fire is built with an almost scattered visual energy that never loses clarity through its use of a singular warm palette holding it all together while heightening the story’s emotional intensity.”

—J H Williams III (Echolands, The Sandman Overture, Batwoman, Promethea)

Matt Battaglia is an artist and video producer. His work in comics started from coloring for BOOM! Studios and Roche Limit at Image Comics. He collaborated with author Michael Moreci for their book Indoctrination at Z2 Comics. After a multi-year hiatus from making comics, he returned with his solo work Ghosts of the Carousel published by Dauntless Stories. His latest, House on Fire, is forthcoming from Living the Line. In his other professional life Matt works for Free the People, where he directs and produces a variety of video projects and documentaries.

Art samples and preview PDFs of House on Fire are available upon request from livingthelinepublishing@gmail.com.

CENTRALIA — THe DEBUT GRAPHIC NOVEL BY MIEL VANDEPITTE, AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW!

(ST PAUL, MN) -- 11-28-2022 Living the Line Books is proud to announce that preorders are now open for Centralia, the debut graphic novel of the young Flemish cartoonist Miel Vandepitte. Centralia is now available to preorder from any local Diamond-affiliated Comic Store, English-language bookstore, or direct from Living the Line through a Kickstarter presale campaign.

Wandering in a World on Fire. The ground in and around Centralia has warmed so much, it’s impossible to stand on without melting. Those who survive long enough will be confronted with carnivorous birds, collapsing buildings, and the trigger-happy Simia Nasalis, armed with bazookas and stilts. Against their better judgement, a group of adventurers set out to discover the treasure of gold hidden away at the heart of the abandoned town.

"Ever since our first publication, I've been on the lookout for unique, personal books that are intensely visual," says Living the Line publisher Sean Michael Robinson. "From the first time I held the Dutch-language version of Centralia in my hands, I was in awe of the artwork and Miel's mastery of the graphic novel form. Centralia is a wild romp through a post-apocalyptic landscape, with an anything-goes approach to the setting and story, and a dynamic visual style reminiscent of European masters such as Herge and Moebius. The clean-line stylized characters are offset against improbably complex environments, all unified by a painterly approach to color and a breezy, page-turning storytelling verve."

Centralia will be available in an oversize 144-page hardback and will retail at $35 USD. The book will be released in stores late February. The Kickstarter will also feature a deluxe version of the book signed by writer/artist Miel Vandepitte.

Early praise for Centralia:

“...a beautifully drawn, dreamlike adventure story that is sure to please lovers of Euro comics masters like Herge and Moebius.”

— New York Times Bestselling author Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! and 7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up

"Vandepitte tells a thrilling, surreal, and often unsettling story that escalates as fast as heat rises. "

― Cat Webling, Fruits and Finery

Miel Vandepitte (1998) lives in Ghent, Belgium and graduated at LUCA School of Arts with a degree in Graphic Storytelling. As part of this program, he got to spend a few months in the Pacific North-West College of Arts in Portland (OR), where under the tutelage of Jonathan Hill (known from "Odessa" and other works), his interest in comics only grew. He started Centralia as part of his thesis project, and finished the book almost two years later in "The Bright Yellow Cube" , a workspace for young comic book artists in Brussels. His main interests are comics, professional wrestling and spending time with his amazing girlfriend Lise.

Art samples and preview PDFs of Centralia are available upon request.

Erik Kriek’s The Exile — a Viking Western for the ages, AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER THIS FRIDAY

(ST PAUL, MN) -- 10-20-2022 This Friday, readers will at last be able to preorder what is certain to be one of the most talked-about graphic novels of 2023— Erik Kriek's The Exile, a stunning Viking tale of life and death, revenge and redemption, impulse and forgiveness. On October 21st, The Exile will be available to preorder from your local Diamond-affiliated Comic Store, or direct from Living the Line through our Kickstarter campaign.

After seven years of exile, battle-hardened Hallstein Thordsson returns home to Iceland, only to find that old wounds haven't healed. His stepmother Solveig and his half-brother Ottar are besieged by wood thieves, directed by her unwelcome suitor, Einar. The Exile's presence disrupts the delicate balance and threatens to tip all of Iceland into violence.

A remarkable decades-spanning epic, Erik Kriek's The Exile is equal parts action “Western” and family drama, with a surprising story of violence and consequences at its core. Told in a naturalistic modern style but with tremendous fidelity to the historical period in which it is set, The Exile depicts the Viking age in all of its conflict, turmoil, and social structure, with every detail depicted vividly on the page.

Hailing from the Netherlands, Kriek is an internationally-decorated illustrator known for his work on In the Pines (2015, Fantagraphics) and Gutsman. Lushly told with gorgeous traditionally-drawn brush work, and a limited palette illustration style reminiscent of the great three-color illustrators of the 1940s and 50s, Kriek's art is alternately breezy and gritty, but always stunning, whether he's depicting a full-blown Viking battle or a wearying sea voyage.

"Ever since our first publication, I've been on the lookout for unique, personal books that are intensely visual," says Living the Line publisher Sean Michael Robinson. "From my first glance at the Exile, I was in love with its stylish limited-color art, the stunning vistas, and the sheer range of its striking visual storytelling. But it was only after I was able to read it in English that I was able to take in the nuance of its devestating story of generational violence and revenge, and the nuanced relationships at its core. We're thrilled to be bringing such a compelling graphic novel to English-language audiences."

The Exile will be available in an oversize 192-page hardback and will retail at $40 USD. The book will be released in stores late January. The Kickstarter will also feature a deluxe version of the book signed by writer/artist Erik Kriek.

Early praise for The Exile:

"Erik Kriek, the Netherlands' legendary graphic novelist and cartoonist/illustrator, brings a previously unimaginable level of historical authenticity to the Viking Age with this beautifully-lit New Way of Seeing mankind's collectivist (and individual) origins."

— Dave Sim, Strange Death of Alex Raymond

“... a punch in the stomach...”

— Steph Leuvener

"“... everything one could want in an old Icelandic story. Violence, cruelty, shamanism, women, love and envie...”

— Nadine Vansant

"A harrowing tale of generational revenge told with a gorgeous style reminiscent of classic screen print illustration."

— Carson Grubaugh, The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man, World's First A.I. Illustrated Comic Series

Gets 5th Issue, Written by Oxford Philosopher of Information

(BALTIMORE, MD) -- (August 2022) -- Living the Line Books and Diamond Comic Distributors are proud to announce that The Abolition of Man, the first comic series entirely illustrated by a computer, has been expanded to include a fifth issue.

World renowned Philosopher of Information, Luciano Floridi has contributed an essay that will form this special final issue of the series.

Award-winning oil painter turned Eisner-nominated cartoonist Carson Grubaugh opened the five-issue comic book series, The Abolition of Man, by supplying the Midjourney A.I. with lines from C.S. Lewis' groundbreaking lecture, “The Abolition of Man." Similarly, Floridi's words have been fed to the same A.I. to create this capstone to the series.

Floridi holds a double appointment as Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute and as Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Bologna and is deeply engaged with emerging policy regarding the implications of digital technologies. He has worked closely on digital ethics (including the ethics of algorithms and AI) with the European Commission, the German Ethics Council, and, in the UK, with the House of Lords, the Cabinet Office, and the Information Commissioner’s Office, as well as with multinational corporations (e.g. Cisco, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Tencent).

The Folridi penned issue #5 follows issues #2 and #3 (co-scripted by Grubaugh and LTL publisher Sean Robinson), which tell a satirical story of a dystopian future where automation has left humankind devoid of dignity, and issue #4, which is both written and illustrated by A.I. Floridi counters the bleak outlook of the first four issues with a hopeful note that explains how the concept of human dignity can help us design a future worth building.

The Abolition of Man #1 will be available in English-language comic book shops worldwide in October of 2022, distributed exclusively by Diamond Comic Distributors. It is available for pre-order at comic shops using item code APR228727.

Retailers interested in placing wholesale orders for these PREVIEWS Exclusive items are encouraged to place their orders online. Business owners interested in opening an account should contact Diamond Comic Distributors’ New Accounts Department at newaccounts@diamondcomics.com.

The solicitation text follows.

THE ABOLITION OF MAN #1 (OF 5) (MR)

48 pages • $6.99

What do you get when you take a groundbreaking philosophical essay and feed it into an AI image generator, one line at a time? The world's first (and only) entirely-computer-illustrated comic book, The Abolition of Man #1, by oil painter turned Eisner-nominated cartoonist Carson Grubaugh (Strange Death of Alex Raymond). Alternately hilarious and terrifying, Abolition gives a chilling peek into the world of the future, where humans and their most treasured passions have lost all purpose. Part 1 of a 5 issue miniseries.

Order Online or via Email by August 25!

ABOUT DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS (DCD) -- Diamond is at the nexus of comics and pop culture merchandise. Based in Baltimore, MD, DCD is the world’s largest distributor of English-language comic books and pop-culture related merchandise, servicing thousands of specialty retailers worldwide. For more information, visit Diamond on the web at www.diamondcomics.com.

ABOUT LIVING THE LINE -- Living the Line Books is a publisher of dynamic, visually-striking comics and graphic novels, founded in 2020 by writer/illustrator Sean Michael Robinson. Living the Line's graphic novel debut, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond (Dave Sim and Carson Grubaugh) was recently nominated for an Eisner Award, for "Best Reality-Based Work." Visit Living the Line at LivingtheLineBooks.com

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The World's First Entirely AI-Illustrated Comic Book Is Here, and Boy Is It Terrifying.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14th 2022

Living the Line Books and Diamond Comics are proud to present a pioneering new series: the first comic book entirely illustrated by a computer.

Award-winning oil painter turned Eisner-nominated cartoonist Carson Grubaugh has created a four-issue comic book series, The Abolition of Man, in collaboration with an AI image-generation system, MidJourney AI. For the duration of the miniseries, Grubaugh, an accomplished illustrator and painter, has handed over all illustration duties solely to an AI image generator, which operates by responding to text prompts from the user. For this first issue, Grubaugh supplied the AI with lines from C.S. Lewis' groundbreaking lecture, “The Abolition of Man”, and used the images generated by the AI unit.

Surprisingly, the AI's illustrations are compelling and haunting, creating a running commentary on the essay that alternately illustrates and expands upon the text. The AI, trained on images from the entirety of human art making, has created striking compositions that elevate and amplify Lewis' thesis: that human's ability to control nature will lead to a purposeless and diminished form of humanity. Alternately hilarious and terrifying, ABOLITION gives a chilling peek into the world of the future, where humans and their most treasured passions have lost all purpose.

The computer's vivid imagery and illustration technique is reminiscent of the greatest of the modern surrealist painters, and the acclaimed work of comics veterans like Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz. The final three issues of the series promise to push the conceptual gamesmanship to another level, with a near-future science fiction arc for issues two and three, and a machine/machine collaboration for issue four— with AI responsible for the writing as well as the illustration.

“It's been a wild few months since this technology has slowly crept into the public consciousness”, says Living the Line publisher Sean Michael Robinson, “and I've been searching for art to make sense of this technological cusp. Grubaugh's Abolition miniseries promises to capture both the wonder and despair inherent in this new technology.”

Artist Grubaugh says: “I've spent years as an artist abusing many different publicly available app-fads, in an effort to illustrate what could be called a "Banal, Content Apocalypse,' in which we've generated so much semantic content that something genuinely new is near impossible to come by. These new art-making AI open up both new means for generating previously unimaginable content, but also speed the production to the point where all we will have left to us is to transmute the meaning-rich gold of the past into recycled lead of the present.”

Grubaugh concludes, “In a world where there is nothing new under the Sun, choose to change the Sun.”

The Abolition of Man #1 will be available in English-language comic book shops worldwide in October of 2022, distributed exclusively by Diamond Comics. It's available to preorder now from Diamond Comics-affiliated comic shops, or the PreviewsWorld ordering system, using the Previews order code APR228727.

The solicitation text is below.

ABOLITION OF MAN #1 (OF 4) (MR) • 48 pages • $6.99

What do you get when you take a groundbreaking philosophical essay and feed it into an AI image generator, one line at a time? The world's first (and only) entirely-computer-illustrated comic book, The Abolition of Man #1, by oil painter turned Eisner-nominated cartoonist Carson Grubaugh (Strange Death of Alex Raymond). Alternately hilarious and terrifying, ABOLITION gives a chilling peek into the world of the future, where humans and their most treasured passions have lost all purpose. Part 1 of a 4 issue miniseries.

STRANGE DEATH OF ALEX RAYMOND Eisner Nomination!

We are thrilled to announce that Strange Death of Alex Raymond has been nominated for an Eisner award for "Best Reality-Based Work"! Congratulations to Dave and Carson! If you haven't picked up the book yet, copies are available now world-wide.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Sean Robinson, Publicist, Living the Line
LivingtheLineBooks.com livingthelinepublishing@gmail.com

April 2022

Visionary Cartoonist Yokoyama Yuichi is Back with PLAZA, a Maniacal Manga Extravaganza!

Art and literature historians of the future will be flabbergasted that Yokoyama Yuichi existed in our time. He is a visionary on the level of William Blake. PLAZA is a parade of invention, set to the beat of turning pages.
— Dash Shaw (Cryptozoo, Discipline)

"PLAZA is the purest expression yet of Yokoyama's unmatched style. A circus for the eyes, this book is a magic trick disguised as a graphic novel, one that reminds us of the medium's limitless power."
— Matt Seneca, cartoonist/comics critic

A dazzling sensory barrage of speeding lines and swoops! Witness the torrent of joyous spectacle, the inner workings of a cosmic parade machine!
— Lale Westvind, (Grand Electric Thought Power Mother, Grip)

Living the Line Books is proud to present the latest from avant-garde manga artist Yokoyama Yuichi, the stunning PLAZA, coming to book stores and comic shops internationally in September of 2022.

Bigger, bolder, and louder than ever before, neo-manga artist Yokoyama Yuichi is back with PLAZA! Inspired by Carnaval in Brazil, PLAZA offers a maniacal extravaganza of marching, dancing, leaping, firing, cheering, smashing, and exploding over the course of 225 eye-and-eardrum-confounding pages. Originally published in Japan in 2019, this oversize English edition of PLAZA brings to full, hyper-animated life the spectacular graphic art of this genre-defying work of avant-garde comics.

Yokoyama Yuichi is Japan's leading creator of avant-garde comics. Born in 1967, he studied painting in art school, then turned to manga in the late 1990s. Characterized by modernist abstraction, sparse dialogue, oversize sound effects, obsessive movement and speed, and a wry sense of humor, Yokoyama's "neo-manga" cross the boundary between art and comics. Among his many books are New Engineering (2004), Travel (2006), Garden (2007), Outdoors (2009), Baby Boom (2009), World Map Room (2013), Iceland (2016), and Plaza (2019). His works have been extensively translated, and have featured in museum exhibitions in Japan and around the world. He has been nominated for an Eisner award, and is a two-time LA Times Book Prize finalist.

This English-language edition of PLAZA, translated by noted manga scholar Ryan Holmberg, also includes the most extended and informative interview with the artist to date.

PLAZA will be available internationally through Diamond Comics, Diamond UK, and Diamond Book Distribution.

Art samples and preview PDFs for PLAZA are available upon request.