Grandvillelores
As reported in Dark Horse’s solicitations for August, Bryan Talbot has a new book, GRANDVILLE, coming out, and it looks to be as unique as his previous works, if not quite the in-your-face mind bender of ALICE IN SUNDERLAND. It’s best described as a steampunk alternate history mystery with anthropomorphic characters, in the Euro tradition. As the solicitation puts it:

Two hundred years ago, Britain lost the Napoleonic War and fell under the thumb of French domination. Gaining independence after decades of civil disobedience and anarchist bombings, the Socialist Republic of Britain is now a small, unimportant backwater connected by a railway bridge, steam-powered dirigible, and mutual suspicion to France. When a British diplomat’s murder is made to look like suicide, ferocious Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard stalks a ruthless murder squad through the heart of a Belle Epoque Paris, the center of the greatest empire in a world of steam-driven hansom cabs, automatons, and flying machines. LeBrock’s relentless quest can lead only to death, truth . . . or war.


There’s a trailer up now. The cover is above and a random page is below. Many more previews at the GRANDVILLE page, linked to above.

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1 COMMENT

  1. I never understood the idea of putting animal heads on human bodies. The horse head looks ridiculous… what am I saying? As if the badger and the camel heads look good. Yuck, this terrible…

  2. Nope, I disagree, it doesn’t look terrible. I’ve never appreciated most of the anthropomorphic-animal comics out there, either; the whole furry subgenre gives me the queasies. But those notable few elevate the medium: Maus immediately comes to mind. I liked Blackgas too, but it’s hardly in the same league as Maus.

    The selling point for this book, however, is Bryan Talbot — who (in my opinion) can do no wrong. It looks like he’s had a lot of fun creating Grandville, and I can’t wait to get it into my hands.

  3. I suggest you look up the name Grandville on Wiki, to understand why the characters are XIXth century anthropomorphics. As for animal heads looking ridiculous on top of a human body, well, cartoons thrive on such unlikely pairings. I’ve heard some of them depict routinely grotesquely developped bodybuilders in absurd skin-tight costumes. ^__________^