Conundrum Press – förlag

“This beautifully woven series of vignettes from the brilliant Aimee De Jongh are a necessary and poignant reminder of our common humanity.” —Joe Sacco

“One of the great young cartoonists in the world.” —Comic Book Resources

Aimée de Jongh, one of the brightest new talents in Europe, creates her first autobiographic work, focusing on taxi rides from four cities: Los Angeles, Paris, Jakarta, and Washington, DC.

Despite the stunning and detailed streetscapes she passes, de Jongh discovers she’s more interested in the cab drivers than the view from the backseat. As the drivers slowly open up about their personal lives, de Jongh does too—even when it means challenging her own ideas and prejudices. Through these vulnerable—and often humorous—moments, de Jongh finds common ground with the people driving her. Taxi is an ode to taxi drivers everywhere.

Aimée de Jongh is a Dutch graphic novel author, animator, and illustrator. After creating comics for a daily newspaper for nearly five years, she left in 2017 to make graphic novels full time. Her debut, The Return of the Honey Buzzard, won the Prix St Michel and was adapted to a live-action film. Her second book, Blossoms in Autumn, written by the acclaimed Belgian writer Zidrou, was awarded the Prix Atomium. She works and lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

London, 1862. When your daughters Lorina and Alice go for an afternoon's picnic in Hyde Park, Alice goes astray! You practically run your legs off looking for her, and as night falls you panic. You look for a clue, a sign—anything. And that's when a smelly vagrant steps out from behind a tree and offers you information in exchange for coin—or a kiss. If you decide to ignore him, continue searching on page forty-two. But if you hear him out, turn to page twelve. The choice is yours!

In a quest to find your daughter that will take you through the seedy underbelly of London's Whitechapel district and up into the secret debauched heart of its richest denizens, You Are Alice in Wonderland's Mum! allows you to make the choices that will bring your dear daughter home, or lose her to Wonderland forever.

Inspired by the gamebook fad of the 1980s, You Are Alice in Wonderland's Mum! is the gothically visionary fourth entry in the acclaimed Pick-A-Plot series of Choose Your Own Adventure style books. Off the success of the first three titles, which form the You Are a Cat! Trilogy, author and illustrator Sherwin Tjia puts a new twist on the Alice in Wonderland tale, removing the titular character altogether, and tasking you as her mother—a respectable Englishwoman who must navigate London's dangerous underworld—with finding her.

The comics community in Quebec has long been heralded as unique, blending the clear-lined aesthetic of Europe with the underground influences of North America—think Tintin meets R. Crumb. However, most of the work is in the French language. Conundrum Press started its BDANG imprint in 2004 to rectify this situation by translating and publishing work from Quebec comic artists. This volume is a companion to the imprint, collecting interviews and essays on Quebec comics to give context to the history and breadth of the work.

As with all of Collier’s work, his latest graphic novel is a combination of memoir and biography. This time, he explores his involvement in the cultural landscape of Toronto in the 1970s and 80s, specifically focusing on the life of Gary Topp, a concert promoter and founder of the pioneering Canadian repertory cinema.

Topp emerged from an immigrant background, abandoned the family textile business, and became an influential figure in the lives of an entire community. He was also Collier’s first boss and mentor. Though outspoken and opinionated, Gary Topp inspired love and devotion, not only in those who worked for him, but also in the acts he booked—including the Ramones, The Police, and the Dixie Chicks.

This graphic novel looks at a rapidly disappearing past and uses Topp’s ability to see beyond the mainstream for a look at where our culture is heading.

Growing up in Haines Junction, YT, artist Cole Pauls performed in a traditional song and dance group called the Dakwäkãda Dancers. During that time, Pauls encountered the ancestral language of Southern Tutchone. Driven by a desire to help revitalize the language, he created Dakwäkãda Warriors, a bilingualcomic about two earth protectors saving the world from evil pioneers and cyborg sasquatches.

Pauls’ Elders supported him throughout the creation process by offering consultation and translation. The resulting work is a whimsical young adult graphic novel that offers an accessible allegory of colonialism.

“Chackowicz’s great trick is making us think that he has merely drawn us comics and cartoons both surreal and laugh-out-loud hilarious, but at a closer glance we can see that he has also crafted honest-to-god poems—lyrical works of poignancy and depth. His art is unexpectedly wistful, and warm-heartedly wise.” —Jonathan Goldstein (Heavyweight, This American Life, WireTap)

True to form, Nothing to See Here’s one-page gags convey narrative devices that take fans to strange places that exist well beyond joke territory.

This debut graphic novel tells the story of the 2015 European “migrant crisis” in Budapest, Hungary through the perspective of Langosh and Peppi, a vagabond and his faithful dog. The pair brings to mind an older, down-on-their-luck Tintin and Snowy with adventures to match. A semi-autobiographical work based on Post’s own experiences, Langosh and Peppi escape the pressures of conformity by exploring out-of-the-way places, where they stumble on the vestiges of the war torn region’s hidden past. We follow them through streets, alleys, tunnels, train stations, cheap rooms, abandoned buildings and the countryside and witness the effects of various social, political and interpersonal situations through their eyes.

The story illustrates a sort of “Huckleberry Finn” existence, of travelling freely with no responsibilities except finding food and shelter, and meeting fascinating people along the way. However, Langosh and Peppi soon discover the stark difference between choosing a transient lifestyle, and being forced from one’s home and country. We meet people whose tragic personal struggles are enmeshed with the national struggles that continue to divide and destroy so many lives, see families torn apart due to ignorance and fear, and witness the disturbing global rise of nationalism. Influenced by Hideo Azuma, Joe Sacco, and Julie Doucet, Post examines the modern dilemma of what it means to be human and to call a place home.

The final volume of the Drippy the Newsboy series based on the writings of Stephen Crane. Join Drippy, Harry, Bleeker and Zot in The Dripping Boat, as they battle waves, wind, wits, and wills. Following a shipwreck, the four find themselves stranded on a lifeboat, frantically trying to reach an invisible shore. Rub a dub dub, four men in a tub . . . but how many will return?

Drippy the character emerged in 1999. Lawrence had been working as a comics editor at a Vancouver weekly publication called Terminal City. When Terminal City folded, Lawrence and a couple of other ex-employees rallied to put together their own monthly newspaper, The Drippy Gazette. The mandate of the monthly publication was to feature artist interviews and events, and keep the Vancouver comics scene together. While the newspaper lasted 12 months, the mascot of the paper lived on in Lawrence's work.

Drawn with guileful clarity and bite, The Unknown is a story of deceit, self-deception and the search for happiness.

One day, Helen finds a newborn abandoned in a changing room in her boutique. She decides to keep it, nested in a cardboard box and hidden even from her husband.

Vicky and Wanda are boarding school roommates. Wanda talks Vicky into turning tricks. Meanwhile, Vicky can’t keep her secrets from Wanda – not her affair with their history teacher, and not the pregnancy she tries to sabotage and yet stubbornly carries out.

As the two narratives converge, coincidences and secrets are revealed. Incisive, wicked and breezily unconcerned by taboos, Anna Sommer lets readers put together the pieces of her morally ambiguous fable.

On a typical autumn afternoon, Martha hosts a group of middle-aged women at her suburban home. The day takes a sudden turn when Elisabeth, an estranged friend, turns up unexpectedly—and she isn’t the only unwanted guest at the tea party. Martha’s sister, Maureen, shows up after years of radio silence, along some painful memories and a lot of confusion.

Martha disappears after a simple trip to the backyard for herbs. Martha is the most beloved of the women--but will any of the others be able to look past their own problems long enough to search for her?

A satirical portrayal of feminine archetypes in the social landscape of the 60s, Weeding is inspired by soap operas that use unexplained disappearances and repetitive character reanimations to liven up otherwise uneventful plot lines. As a verb, “weeding” means “to remove an inferior or unwanted component of a group or collection.” In Weeding, Geneviève Lebleu takes this definition to the extreme with a fable about social exclusion in a world where women turn against one another.