Home Publishers Archaia PREVIEW: Take a first look at Asaf Hanuka’s latest THE REALIST collection

PREVIEW: Take a first look at Asaf Hanuka’s latest THE REALIST collection

The latest collection of the award-winning cartoonist's weekly comic strip is due out in stores from Archaia in June.

02/28/2022 10:30 am

This summer BOOM! Studios will release The Realist: Last Day on Earth. The third collection of award-winning cartoonist Asaf Hanuka‘s autobiographical comic strips comes from the publisher’s Archaia imprint, with translation from Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan and lettering by AndWorld Design. Today The Beat is proud to present an exclusive early look at a selection of one-page strips from the collection.

Here’s how BOOM! describes The Realist: Last Day on Earth:

The long-awaited third collection of the Eisner Award-winning series of New York Times bestselling cartoonist Asaf Hanuka’s one-page autobiographical weekly comics returns to captivate, inspire, and challenge readers.

Through scenes both real and imagined, the acclaimed Israeli cartoonist examines the joys (and pitfalls) of parenting in a politically divisive world and the ongoing struggle to manifest art even as real life humor and pathos keeps getting in the way.

The internationally acclaimed and Hugo Award-nominated cartoonist’s beautifully drawn stories about self, family, society, and everything in between conjure a deeply rich and unforgettable reading experience.

Archaia’s first collection of Asaf Hanuka’s weekly The Realist was released in 2015, with a second volume, The Realist: Plug and Play released in 2017. In an interview with The Beat Editor-in-Chief Heidi MacDonald back when the second book was released, Hanuka described the anxiety that comes with creating work based on his own life:

I’m always worried before sending a new page to print. I fear it will be misunderstood or might make someone angry or just make people think I suck. but the worst times are when I don’t have any doubts. Usually it means the work is not really interesting and I didn’t take any risks. I think that good art includes a risk, in my case the risk is revealing because I do auto-biography. And sometimes I do reveal too much. I learned to live with it. It’s a dirty work but someone has to do it.

Check out the seven-page preview of The Realist: Last Day on Earth below. The 128-page hardcover collection is due out in bookstores on Tuesday, June 21st, and in comic shops on Wednesday, June 22nd.