• Lunatic

    by Dan Mazur
    Price $20.00
    Hardcover
    Special Order
    Order
    Lunatic
January 28, 2021

Dan Mazur

Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes acclaimed cartoonist and editor DAN MAZUR—cofounder of the Boston Comics Roundtable and MICE: the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo—for a discussion of his latest graphic novel, Lunatic. He will be joined in conversation by Ignatz-Award winning cartoonist WHIT TAYLOR, author of the forthcoming Harriet: Toward Freedom.

Details

The moonstruck Lunatic is an unusual and striking graphic novel in the tradition of wordless books by the likes of Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward and William Gropper. Part fable, part classic adventure in the tradition of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Méliès, the tale is told in nearly 200 full-page, wordless images in a variety of media from pencil, pen and ink, ink wash and paint that lovingly evoke the artistic styles of its period setting, and classic illustrators from Charles Dana Gibson and Toulouse Lautrec to Edward Gorey.

The word “lunatic” derives from Latin, meaning “of the moon”, or “moonstruck” and in this sense it describes the protagonist of this story: from infancy she develops a magical, almost intimate relationship with the moon itself, a celestial being who acts as her friend, lover, mentor. Our heroine is a dreamer, an outsider, never feeling like she quite belongs to this world. We follow her through the stages of life, infancy, childhood, youth and adulthood, at each point guided by the moon toward a fateful journey and an unexpected destiny. A timeless and charming story of longing, loneliness and the pursuit of dreams.

About Author(s)

Dan Mazur is an independent cartoonist, journalist, teacher, screenwriter and editor. Co-founder of the Boston Comics Roundtable, and MICE: the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo. He has edited the comics anthologies, InboundShow and TellIn a Single Bound, and the Greatest of All Time Comics Anthology. Articles on comics have appeared in the Boston Phoenix and the International Journal of Comic Art. He is the co-writer of Comics: A Global History, published in 2014 by Thames & Hudson. He has taught comic art at the Art Institute of Boston, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and the Brookline Arts Center, as well as screenwriting at UCLA Extension School.

Whit Taylor is an Ignatz-Award winning cartoonist, editor, and public health educator from New Jersey. Her comics have been published by The NibThe New YorkerNinth Art PressRadiator ComicsRosarium Publishing, and others. She is currently a contributing editor at The Nib. Her graphic novel with Kazimir Lee, Harriet: Toward Freedom, will be published by Little, Brown Young Readers in 2021.