In a press release sent on Tuesday, January 9th, 2024, Penn State University’s Graphic Mundi announced their spring 2024 graphic novel slate. Read on for The Beat’s exclusive announcement of these extremely exciting upcoming covers!
Graphic Mundi’s spring 2024 slate
Here’s the Graphic Mundi Spring 2024 slate, quoted from the press release:
“Leading off the slate in May is The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and illustrated by Léonard Cohen. Originally published in French in 2018 and winner of the Prix Albert Londres, this unique graphic novel provides a glimpse of the devastating changes inflicted on Iraq as told through 1000 tweets and poignant illustrations. During the summer of 2016, distraught and disappointed by how Iraq is described in the media, French-Iraqi journalist Feurat Alani posted over 1000 tweets in which he told the world about his Iraq.
“While Feurat grew up in Paris, he would return to Iraq throughout his childhood, watching the once vibrant culture fall apart under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. As an adult, he reports from an Iraq under American occupation, and discovers the sounds and silences of war.
“The Flavors of Iraq is an intimate and discerning look at a battered country through the perspective of a child growing into a young man. Paired with Léonard Cohen’s superb illustrations, this is a poetic and powerful story of a different Iraq.”
“Later that same month, Graphic Mundi will release Traces of Madness: A Graphic Memoir, a graphic portrayal of author Fernando Balius’s battle with auditory hallucinations, depicted as a monster, and his journey to understand and cope with his illness.
“Illustrated by Mario Pellejer, Traces of Madness tells the story of what it’s like to hear voices in one’s head. Up to 10% of the population experiences auditory hallucinations at some point in their lives. Understanding what it’s like to suffer from this kind of psychosis can be difficult those who haven’t experienced it. This book is an honest first-person account of the author’s experience with a “first break,” the kind of treatment he received, what it’s like living in the world as a voice-hearer, how this impacted his relationships with family and friends, and what he learned about his condition during years of research and participation in support groups. As such, Traces of Madness is a roadmap for others with the same condition. A brief appendix provides succinct descriptions of the sensations, thoughts, and physical symptoms Balius has experienced as a voice-hearer, as well as how this has affected his personal relationships. He closes with some pithy practical advice for those facing these challenges.”
“June sees the release of Eventually Everything Connects: Eight Essays on Uncertainty by Sarah Firth. Originally published by Allen and Unwin in Firth’s native Australia, Eventually Everything Connects is a collection of eight autobiographical visual essays that explore the joys and pains of living in a hypercomplex and uncertain world. In her sprawling and colorful style, Sarah Firth pursues some of life’s deepest philosophical questions about happiness, hope, love, sex, death, truth, reality, and the definition of “self.” She weaves together a mix of great ideas and silly ones deriving not only from her own lived experience, but also from her daydreams, pop culture memes, and the teachings of science, philosophy, and history. Her musings ultimately lead her to consider how to live more joyously in a troubling world, and how to be more compassionate towards oneself, others, and the planet.
“A delicious mix of daily life, science, philosophy, pop culture, daydreams and irreverent humour, Eventually Everything Connects is a work of graphic non-fiction that is comforting, confronting and mind-expanding in equal measure.
“Graphic Mundi closes out the season later that month with And Mankind Created the Gods: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Pascal Boyer’s Religion Explained by Joseph Béhé, translated by Edward Gauvin. In this adaptation of Pascal Boyer’s classic work exploring these concepts, Religion Explained, artist Joseph Béhé harnesses the power of comics to provide clear answers to the basic questions about why religion exists and why people believe.
“A distinguished scholar, Boyer drew from research in cognitive science, anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary biology to explore why religion exists and why the strength of human beliefs can drive us to be selfless sometimes and, at other times, to be fanatical and intolerant. His erudite book is rich with insight into the endless jumble of ideas that inform religious beliefs and practices across cultures. With detailed illustrative drawings and carefully adapted prose, Béhé’s graphic novel brings a new perspective to Boyer’s work.
“An eminently accessible approach to the notoriously thorny topics of belief, cognition, humanity and religion, And Mankind Created the Gods is a thought-provoking graphic novel that will further and broaden the conversation with which Boyer’s book engages.”
Arriving spring 2024
Will you be picking up any (or all) of the titles in the Graphic Mundi spring 2024 slate when they arrive at your local comic shop, bookstore or public library?
The Beat wants to hear from you! Be sure and give us a shout out in the comment section below the article and let us know what you’re thinking.
Find more details about Graphic Mundi at their official website.
