SALGOOD
SAM's WORK DIARY | an account of endeavors
and random musings | the web-log of Max Douglas, a
professional cartoonist working and living in Montreal Qc Canada
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11-May-2008
"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammo" takes on new meaning with this one. Highly recommended."
Some readers are never going to pick up Therefore Repent! when they hear about the plot. The graphic novel imagines the biblical Rapture, with the righteous floating up to heaven, and the sinners stuck on a miserable earth roiling with war and suffering. It just sounds too much like it might be the work of a smug Christian author, offering a book-length Jack Chick tract to a general comics readership. Bible camp for the heathens.
Not only is that an erroneous conclusion, it's a far too simple one. What writer Jim Munroe and artist Salgood Sam have done here is to join mystery, horror, romance, and the lurid excitement of eschatology in a complex tale that manages to be spiritually moving without resorting to organized religion.
We begin with Mummy and Raven, a couple of free spirits wearing the costumes it sounds like they are, as their way of protesting this whole Rapture business. They wander the post-Tribulation streets, squatting in apartments abandoned by the righteous, trying to cook up food without electricity and survive by their wits in a collapsed America. They confab with Jews, Muslims, drinkers, hippies, and "unbelievers" of all stripes, looking for resources, friends, and meaning in a bereft world.
The cover to Therefore Repent. Click for a larger image.Gradually, we witness stranger and stranger doings in this post-Rapture life. Dogs eat the voice boxes of dead people and acquire the power to speak. Some women have the ability to conjure living birds of ash, and cats of dust. The newly pious can walk on water, multiply loaves and fishes, and turn water into wine. Bisexual soldier-angels descend to earth to kill survivors practicing the "dark arts" of divination -- levitation, invisibility, and even drumming circles. It's a mishmash of horrors and wonders that reminded me, with its sheer oddness, of the vibe you get from some Clive Barker stories. Of course, the idea of this particular sick world is only as "new" as the New Testament. I wish I knew more about the Rapture so I could appreciate more here. The genital-less angels, for instance, are a Biblical idea, I understand.
Munroe and Sam convey the action with a deceptively sleepy pace. The practical considerations of what Mummy and Raven should do with their daily surfeit of free time, the bumps in their relationship, and the challenges faced by a few other minor but memorable characters are the meat of the book. We, along with these characters, are waiting for answers. Will there be another, final Rapture? Can the impious yet be saved? Should the stunned non-Christians fight the gun-toting angels of vengeance, or would that be sacrilege? What does anything mean in a world where god has passed judgment, and everyone left is a loser?
The ending is a revelation, in several senses of the term. Let's just say that the Christians may have been right about how the world will end, but wrong about who's on either side of the chess board. And the potential for good people to fight their way to salvation -- and transformation -- in the darkest of times is presented so lovingly, via the delightful couple that is the cosmically tripping Mummy and the defiant Raven (and their talking dog, too), you just marvel at your journey as a reader.
Salgood Sam (the nom de plume of one Max Douglas, spelled backwards, more or less) is a gifted illustrator. His black-and-white drawings are slick like a film storyboard drawn by an exacting crafter. Check out one panel near the end of the book, in which our band of heroes takes out an angel. He falls through the sky upside-down, his huge black wings fluttering helplessly above him on the way down. It's gorgeous.
It might be a good idea to read Therefore Repent! twice, even. Any confusing plot points at the beginning will be revealed as clever little breadcrumbs.
"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammo" takes on new meaning with this one. Highly recommended. | Byron Kerman
Got a note about this just before leaving for NY, which was cool; when i told folks like the literary agent i talked to at the con that a Pulitzer Prize winner name dropped my last project they tended to take notice. So yeah, Junot Diaz was interviewed by THIS RECORDING April 10th, and when asked about what he's reading lately this is what he said...
In terms of genre fiction, are you getting to do any reading for pleasure?
I've have been reading tremendously. I'm sort of recovering from book-novel-whatever... right now, I'm reading this book called THEREFORE REPENT! (Laughs)
Does it have an exclamation mark at the end?
YES! YES!
What's it about?
It's completely nuts. Of course you haven't heard of it. It's by a guy named Jim Monroe and it's put out by a small press. It's a book about what if the rapture actually happened, and that's all I'm gonna tell you.
Cool. Much thanks to Junot! So I'm going to have to go find some of his work and have a look, I'm told he's an amazing author, as the Pulitzer would tend to suggest.
And finally on Monday the 21st from 6 to 8 pm at Jim Hanley's Universe [4 West 33rd St.] I'll be joining pirate captain RICK REMENDER (Fear Agent),TONY MOORE (The Exterminator), & GREG THOMPSON (Sinbad: Rogue of Mars) for the JHU's "NYCC HANGOVER CURE".
Hey all, some nice stuff for the clip pile here; stumbled across this a bit late, Comic News Insider featured the book on their weekly top three list when it came out in January. This is a clip from Episode 125 - Tue, 29 January 2008!
I'm Going to be at the upcoming New York Comic Con - April 18-20, 2008!
Also i've confirmed with Vito, I'm booked to do a singing for Therefore Repent! on the 21st the Monday after the con with my co-creator on Sea of Red, Rick Remender (Fear Agent) and Tony Moore(Walking Dead) @ Jim Hanley's Universedowntown store in New York City [map]! If your in town i hope you can make it out to the store.
Also really look forward to meeting the guys, Tony did some awesome work on my covers for Sea of Red, I've worked with both of them but i haven't met either of them in the flesh so it's going to be cool to actually encounter the real people! Hope it goes well :)
Time TBA and last...
And we got a nice short blurb in the March 2008 issue of Rue Mourge!
Another one on the digital surf this morning, quite enjoyed this for my morning coffee, found it really articulate and of course very flattering. It's by Chicago blogger Matthew Brady [not Mat of Newsarama], a regular contributer to Indie Pulp, ComiPress & Comics Bulletin
Therefore Repent! Written by Jim Munroe Art by Salgood Sam
So, that "rapture" part of Christian mythology is kind of disturbing, isn't it (I mean, aside from all the other disturbing stuff in the Bible)? Everybody good (with the definition of "good" meaning you agree to say God exists, or whatever) gets sucked up into the sky, leaving everybody else behind, rejected, ignored, and pretty much left to kill each other and rot in hell. Good times! Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam explore a post-rapture world in this freaky graphic novel, and it's a weird, ugly place. For some reason, people seem to have developed magical abilities, and an army of angels outfitted in combat gear is going around killing anybody who practices this "witchcraft". Swell! In the middle of all this are a young couple known only as Mummy and Raven, so called because he wears bandages all over his body and she wears a bird mask over her head. They wander into one of the suburbs of Chicago (but not as far out in the boondocks as the place where I live) and take up residence, getting to know the people in the neighborhood, including a Korean kid who runs his family liquor store, the owner of a local bar, and a couple lesbians who run an interdimensional communications business called "She-mail". Also, their dog starts talking, and Raven starts developing strange ash-controlling powers. Who knows what's going on with this strange world.
So it's a fascinating, rich world that Munroe and Sam have created, but I did find it a bit hard to follow at times. A lot of the story is left up to the reader to infer, or references events and relationships that we don't see. Part of this might be due to the fact that the book is a sort of sequel to Munroe's novel An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil (which began life as a series of faux blog posts, which are still online). Munroe also did a sort of prequel comic with artist Michel Lacomb (also viewable online). So it's not a completely standalone work, but I was able to follow it well enough, especially when it all came together for a very satisfying ending.
But really, I found the best part of the book to be Salgood Sam's art. I've seen his work before on the Image vampire-pirate series Sea of Red, but I didn't think too much of it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't especially distinctive or interesting to me either. But here, he's working on a whole new level, sumptuously detailing dingy environments, expressive characters, and fantastical creatures. Being a sort of Chicago native, I loved seeing his work with cityscapes (and his depiction of the infamous "bean" sculpture in Millenium Park):
His depictions of animals are also great; the dog, who is a fairly major character, is expressive and even emotive while not seeming cartoony or anthropomorphized. He also comes up with some great layouts, like this dynamic shot of angels deploying:
And I even find the "less-readable" layouts fascinating:
There are at least three different scenes sort of melting into each other there, and I'm not sure how it all works, but it's so well put-together, I keep coming back to it. I especially like the thick, but not oppressive, shading, which adds a nice texture to everything. The character work is pretty great too; I love the girl's expression in this bit: It makes for a funny/sad scene, and those nicely-defined and -detailed characters make for a good, human grounding to Munroe's crazy world. Finally, I wanted to point out one last bit that wowed me, in which Raven and Mummy have a shared vision that takes the form of the drawings in Mummy's notebook: It's an effective shift from Sam's normal pencil-shaded style, and the sudden "open-ness" of the art is striking and effective. Nice.
So, yeah, I definitely dug this book. Any perceived storytelling deficiencies that I felt while reading were assuaged by the excellent ending, and the exquisite artwork (and well-drawn characters and fully-realized world) kept me going until then. It makes for a really good book, and I definitely recommend it to anybody who is interested in something a little bit outside the mainstream. Good job, guys.
Both scarier and funnier than a library full of only Left Behind novels, Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam's Therefore Repent!: A Post-Rapture Graphic Novel asks the disturbing question: "What if the religious right... are actually right?" Set in a post-rapture world, when Heaven's non-elect are left behind to pick up the pieces after the "chosen" have ascended to their just rewards, Therefore Repent! imagines a world in which magical powers become commonplace and the same pre-rapture biases and prejudices rule the day.
Where else but Canada could such a work come from? First published by No Media Kings in Canada and now brought to America by IDW Publishing, Therefore Repent! takes aim at the fundamentalist foibles of the American Christian Right with withering satire. When "Dubya Almighty," as one character calls him, appears on a television news broadcast to discuss his post-rapture tour of the Red States, Bush spins wildly in response to the question of why he himself has been left behind. When Bush refers to the faux Jesus beside him as "Mr. Christ," it's laugh out loud funny as well as cry in your pillow sad, especially if you're an American surrounded by the consequences of conservative "religion."
One good aspect of the post-rapture world is the availability of good housing vacated by the chosen. Raven and Mummy, the two main characters of Therefore Repent!, find themselves a new home in the chaos of the aftermath (above). Although basic services are spotty at best, a number of "splitters," those who believe in a second round of rapture to pick up those who needed to atone during the "tribulation" period before ascending, keep hope alive and the wheels of society turning to a degree. Munroe and Maxim Douglas (Salgood Sam's real name) create a credible incredible world of "radical splitters" performing the miracles of Jesus, talking dogs, and sibylesque figures who replace e-mail with "she-mail." Like Milton's Lucifer in the early sections of Paradise Lost, this depiction of "evil" seems infinitely more interesting and fun than the world of the holy rollers. If you'd "rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints," post-rapture Earth and America seems not so bad, at least for a while. Douglas' edgy, almost grimy black and white images compose the perfect atmosphere for this magical realm set in all too familiar places.
Unfortunately, the powers of religious bigotry remain strong after the rapture, and perhaps even gain strength in the vacuum of legitimate authority. Military figures with angels' wings (above) wreck vengeance on the unfaithful practicing "black" magic. Militiamen calling themselves "God's Faithful" decide who lives and dies based on their personal creed. In these passages, Munroe and Douglas reveal the roots of the destructive tendencies of the Christian Right in America and their ties to other wings of conservatism such as the militia movement and just how deep those roots go. Of course, Therefore Repent! is fantasy, but only in fantasy can you find the license to connect the dots in such profound and illuminating ways. Therefore Repent! is social commentary disguised as fantasy literature. "It's just a comic book," they say, allowing these ideas to get under the radar in a way that more mainstream media no longer provides.
Therefore Repent! begins by quoting the Bible passage from which the title is taken. "Therefore repent!" says Revelations 2:16. "If you do not, I will come to you soon and fight against them with the sword of my mouth." In Therefore Repent!, Munroe and Douglas use the "sword" of their mouth and pen to fight against those crippling America under the weight of their right-wing prejudices codified in religious language. Those who need to repent are not the sinners but the "saints" who have taken their country down a very strange and twisted path leading to the violence of illegitimate wars and legitimized torture. In Therefore Repent!, we receive a valuable Bible lesson that questions the nature of what it is to be God's chosen and who has the right to do the choosing.
Therefore Repent! Makes it to #16 of the Sequential All-Canadian Top 25 and NMK offers deep discounts.
Bryan over on Sequential has been compiling a best sellers list via the BookManager database for a while now, and for the last few weeks the NMK edition of the book has been fluctuating around the top 20 of the All-Canadian list [All-Canadian creators].
This week we made it to our lowest number yet, 16th over all! Perfect timing for the spring cleaning sale Jim is holding this month at NMK...
I have SLASHED SLASHED SLASHED prices on my books -- as much as 50% in some cases. Go check out the AMAZING deals: And, for people who buy 3 or more books, you get a No Media Kings t-shirt. FREE!
Whaa? I know! I know, you just lost your mind. I'll wait while you find it. OK?
PLUS if you're a book club or an educator or an indie bookseller or just a really big Munroe fan, email me for purchases of 10+ -- just be prepared to redefine your def of "deep" discounting. I don't want you to die from the shock of the INSANELY LOW PRICES.
Got a couple reviews this week and a mention in a pod cast, going to stick to this, the best by Greg McElhatton for the clippings pile here. I've had my art compared to Farel Dalrymple's before, i always take it as a complement, he's an excellent artist...
It's very strange when you're reading a graphic novel and feel like it was formed by an entirely different set of creators. In some ways it's a little unfair to do so to the actual creators, almost like you aren't giving them their fair credit. None the less, if you'd asked me who'd created Therefore Repent!, I'd have probably guessed Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple (who coincidentally really are collaborators on Marvel's Omega the Unknown revival). I'd like to assure Jim Monroe and Salgood Sam, however, that such a comparison really isn't a bad thing at all.
The Rapture came, and billions of people rose up into the sky to go to Heaven. Now, the rest of the world is in chaos, some claiming this to be a time of tribulation with a second chance at salvation eminent, others just trying to survive as best they can. With an army of angels trying to purge the world of survivors, and strange powers manifesting left and right, can Mummy and Raven find a way to just live in peace?
Monroe's story reminded me a lot of Lethem's early novels, with its fantastical events and ever-shifting status quo being presented almost matter-of-factly to the reader. This isn't the sort of story where characters spend half their time continually gawking at their situation, but instead just move on as if it's part of their lives these days--which of course it is. The end result is that as a reader, I never felt like I was being condescended or talked down to, and picked up the sensation that this was somehow a very real world that I was getting a glimpse into. The setup for Therefore Repent! is clever, in both how Munroe imagines what the remaining infrastructure would look like, but more so in the changes in humanity. This is the sort of setting I could easily see sustaining a long series of stories if Munroe chose, dipping into different locations and lives all over the globe. As it is, I feel like there's still so much more that could be told about the book's existing cast. There's a lot in their past left nebulous, and it's the arrival of Mummy and Raven into a neighborhood of Chicago that not only asks questions of all the supporting cast but of them as well. Likewise, some parts of the story itself are never really explained; the actions of some characters are left blank, which can be frustrating to anyone who is expecting everything to be explained or wrapped up neatly.
The art in Therefore Repent! is a lush, thick-inked creation. I really love the way that Sam illustrates an urban sprawl, with its streets and buildings and alleyways. It's a wonderfully full art style, and in some ways I think it's more effective here as pure black and white versus the red-tinged art of Sea of Red. Here, the darker color against a white background carries a stronger visual weight, and that's especially important when Sam draws the fantastical elements of Therefore Repent!. Because they're so different, they need to really stand out and pop off the page at the reader, and that's exactly what happens. My only one complaint is that some of the more action-oriented scenes came off as a little muddled and hard to follow--I can't help but feel that they don't really play to Sam's strengths as an artist. Fortunately, they're a very small part of the greater whole. I do wonder if the smaller dimensions of the book, which normally works well in compacting Sam's art, somehow worked against him there.
Therefore Repent! was a nice surprise for me as a reader--a book full of enough ideas to fill up an entire series, and with a beautiful illustration style in the narrative. Add in an unpredictable (but good) ending and lots of little surprises along the way and the end result is a book that would make me definitely seek out further collaborations between Munroe and Sam. I might have confused their synergy with other creators in the past, but I certainly won't make that mistake again.
Taking a few days to ink, then back to Top Secret project.
Blocky thing takes forever to ink, I'm telling you, Boyo.
Having some interesting conversations with a few writers right now, considering illustration a sort of philosophical picture book, been approached about a couple of comic book ideas that if not too big I might end up doing, and maybe even seeing if I cant think of an interesting animation idea - had a studio contact me about the possibility of talking about developing an idea with them, pretty exciting the more I think about it. Pondering what concepts i've been kicking around might make the leap well, or if I have any new notions that might be worth pitching....hmmm.
Also making small steps towards writing a new Sea of Red project, that i've pretty much decided I'd like to do sooner than I can draw it, so looking into other artists for that maybe.
Been making plans
to tour for Therefore Repent!
It's looking very good for me going to the NYCC, and Paradise, and by hock or crook my first visit to the San Diego Comic Con. Also Windsor/Detroit as well in the next 6 months! Maybe more yet, haven't got a confirmation but might be giving a presentation here in Montreal at the end of the month as well in NDG, hosted by geekmontreal.com
Jim's going to hit the road as well a little bit, stay tuned and i'll have dates and places for all that.
Therefore Repent! Review on the Comics Reporter and news of good sales!
Good news, i've been talking with a variety of shops to compile the list, and a good number have been telling me they are selling out of their first cautious orders and reordering, in some cases quite a lot!
So here's hoping that's reflected in the next few months from Diamond, we moved about half the run in the first month, so if this keeps up, maybe we can clear out the first run in the next two.
A few managers have really taken to advocating it; heard that the Manhattan Jim Hanley's Universe is nearly sold out in part due to the guy i talked to there pushing it [sorry, was so pleased with the good news you were giving me I forgot to ask your name! get that when I talk with you next] and my old friend George Rizock in Windsor at the Rogues Gallery Comics Shop has moved 30 and has another 30 on order! Thanks man! So it seems the book is finding a good reception.
I've also made some arrangements to be in NY for the April NYCC, and it looks like some kind of signing is going to happen, I'll post details on that soon as it's settled.
So a good day, and not too tempered by this, a qualified review from Tom Spurgeon here on his site. Not bad, i really appreciated the thoughtful consideration he gave it and some of his observations of Jim's writing and my art were very faltering.
"Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam's Therefore Repent! bills itself as "a post-Rapture graphic novel." This is obviously a reference to the story's plot, which details the lives among those left behind when a number of Christian believers around the world ascend into heaven via a scenario that seems to prove the popular Christian Right public prophecy to be 100 percent true. It could also be a joke about this being the kind of book that would come out after such an event, in the same way that a few books and plays wrestled with 9/11 either directly or indirectly in a manner that placed the book within that specific historical context, or even a reference to the Rapture as a series of beliefs by millennial-obsessed Christians that many have processed and come to a different set of conclusions. I think there are elements to all three, and as a tribute to the sturdy, focused quality of the dark fantasy in the book, multiple interpretation aren't only possible they're kind of the point."
"The most affecting part of the book shows their daily routine as they deal with the strain on their affection and the general breakdown of society that followed the departure of the various believers."
"Munroe's strengths as a writer seem to come through most overtly in this section: his way of delineating Mummy and Raven's relationship through incidental moments rather than explication, and the way he uses fantasy to craft a large metaphor about widespread, post-event trauma, such as the feelings of rootlessness, fear and desire to function on a very basic level (staying home, watching the news, going out for food only) that enveloped a lot of people after 9/11."
"Salgood Sam's work proves mostly strong throughout. There are moments of visual sumptuousness that should keep the reader's attention, and those readers who feel an artist should draw everything and not drop backgrounds or atmosphere for a lighter workload or to emphasize certain foregrounded actions should be pleased with the pages placed in front of them here."
But he goes on to sight some issues with it, and seems to have been not totally taken with it on the whole. It's an ok review but he wasn't totally into it. And the last somewhat back handed praise their about the backgrounds, you know, I pretty regularly dropped the backgrounds to do just both those things. Never to the point of loosing the sense of place i felt, but he makes it sound as though I was exhaustive in my background art! I don't know about that, not by my standards.
It's been interesting, the different reactions the books getting.
More mainstream folks seem to totally go for it, and some are taking it as an Indy version of the sort of book Grant Morrison would do, which in mainstream circles is high praise.
Indy and literary people are often having a mixed reaction. Mostly good, near everyone has liked the story at least - But a good number seem to not be sure how to take the way we handled stuff, some more so than others and in some cases i can't help but think they are thinking too hard about some things. And some are just not keen on my detailed representational art, or how I mix some of the cartoony stuff in there with that as in the case with Tom.
On this, for myself I like the verity of texture mixing things up brings to a book, I'm not into the notion that the art style needs to be homogeneous. And while I don't think it was Tom's issue, some seem to simply dislike that I'm not keeping to an certain Indy, or literary look for the art. Oh well.
Many seem to be wrestling with what we 'Intended' with the story a lot.
Like Tom's note that
"it could also be that the artists are overtly making a case for diversion over significance in narrative art."
That was a bit odd to me. I don't think we had intended to make such a case.
But if one were to be made, i don't think those are mutually exclusive goals. We were working on a medium length graphic novel, 160 pages, that lets you tell a lot of story but not so much that you can go crazy, at least not the way I or Jim wanted to tell it. Which was to emphasize the quite moments, the time of small things over grand things. Or at least that's what I got from Jim's script and his choices there in.
That was something I had always liked in his books, so I took that idea and added my own two bits along those lines to it. In my breaking down of the script and layouts, I reduced the action sequences to minimal staccato hits, bam bam bam sequences of events to try to capture the way those moments in life fly - and yet I gave the most physical space on the page to that stuff, big splashes and large panels - so you could get lost in the frozen seconds of time. Get a distended feeling of short moments of time moving like molasses.
On the other hand I took the quite stuff and gave it multiple panels, pages, beats, to stretch it as much as I could. I wanted those moments to be as significant as they needed to be, each in their own way.
The story is both commentary on big questions of how people deal with traumatic events, and each other in their wake. And it's a fantasy adventure, a lark, at the same time.
I don't think we thought we needed to make a case for that, it seems that both are things the medium can do, and at the same time even.
I was talking tonight with a fellow creator via email, and I think I agree with him, that if we're getting a mixed and even off put reaction from some of the folks who take stuff supper seriously, it means your doing something right. And one thing is true. I was hoping it would be hard to peg. Seems we have made a slightly difficult book! :) Be nice if every one loved it but I'm liking the mixed reviews we sometimes get.
Jim sent me a clipping from RAZORCAKE, a non-profit music magazine dedicated to supporting independent music culture [and comics it seems too! :) ]. Nice review by Keith Rosson.
Therefore, Repent! (A Post-Rapture Graphic Novel) By Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam, 164 pgs.
A little over ten years ago, I had one of Punk Planet's "DIY Files" tacked up over my desk. I stared at it religiously, nightly, every time I sat down to Work or answer mail.
It was titled "How to Write a Novel," and was written by Jim Munroe. He'd written one himself and gotten it picked up, I believe, by HarperCollins. A few years later, he'd grown pretty firmly disillusioned with the mainstream publishing industry and has remained entrenched in the DIY publishing world ever since. So, I finished my novel and yeah, it was a piece of garbage, entirely unpublishable and probably more cathartic than anything else. Point is, Munroe was a punk who had walked down that path before me and had given me--if not a working blueprint on how to write a decent book--at least the impetus and inspiration to follow through and keep working even when the words weren't coming well. So it's great to see him still kicking around and, more importantly, successfully tackling the graphic novel format.
I really don't want to give too much of the plot away, as much of the joy of reading this thing comes from the fact that things get increasingly weird as the chapters go on. I will say that the story begins in an apparently post-Rapture world; hundreds of thousands of people have literally floated from the earth and disappeared, ascending into the sky. Jesus Christ is campaigning with George Bush--solely, of course, in red states. Angels (dressed in Vietnam-era fatigues and carrying M-16s) are systematically attempting to wipe out the remaining inhabitants of earth and facing resistance. Within the story, there are talking dogs, gay angels, resurrected homeless men, cyber-psychic lesbians, bikers that turn water into wine, a woman who turns ash into attack-birds, invisible Korean convenience store owners, and more. Like I said, I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but apart from the terrific pace of the story and Salgood Sam's gorgeous artwork, it's this attention to detail and bizarre bending of reality that makes Therefore. Repent' such a blast to pore over.
Salgood Sam (dude's real name is Max Douglas--it's backwards, get it?) has worked on titles for Marvel, DC, and Image, as well as a host of indie tines and comics; his work is somewhat suggestive of Derek Hess, but is much more refined. His sense of perspective and value is top-notch--as far as I can tell, his illustrations must be a mix of brushwork, charcoal, pencil, and ink washes. Absolutely gorgeous stuff. Munroe's gotten the pacing of the story down tight and every chapter's got a cliffhanger that kept me turning pages--I read Therefore, Repent! in one sitting and still find myself thumbing through it well after the fact.
All told, this one's a keeper; the ending ties everything together nicely, but it's one fuck of a weird ride before you get there. -Keith Rosson (No Media Kings, 10 Trellanock Ave., Toronto ON, M1C 5135, Canada)
January 31, 2008 By J. Caleb Mozzocco [personal blog]
When a huge swath of the world's population suddenly rises bodily into the sky, disappearing into the heavens, it's popularly assumed that the Rapture has occurred, and that those Christians who believed in it were right all along. Writer Jim Munroe and artist Salgood Sam's new graphic novel Therefore Repent! (IDW Publishing) is set in this post-Rapture world, focusing on those who are--ahem--left behind.
I hear there's a real market for books about people left behind.
[max:Rimshot! ba-tish! he he.]
Munroe and Sam's leads are a weird-looking couple who answer to the names Mummy and Raven; he wraps himself in gauze bandages like a mummy, and she wears a raven mask that covers her whole head. A half-hearted reason for this is given at one-point-they were at a Burning Man-like arts festival when the Rapture happened, and kept their costumes on from then on to commemorate the event-but I think they just make for more interesting character designs for Sam to draw dressed like that.
[max: well yes and no, they are more interesting like that, but...]
We follow them as they arrive in Chicago and try to start a new life there. Writer Munroe seems to have grossly overestimated the number of Christians who actually believe in a physical Rapture, as Chicago is apparently depopulated to the point where there are plenty of nice apartments around for squatting purposes.
[max: true, but for fiction, it depends on who's numbers you use when you start out on your literalists' take on the idea ;) ]
The existential questions such an apocalyptic situation would raise are built into the setting, often in rather incidental ways (the press conference in which the president offers a rationale for why he's still on Earth is amusing), and hang over the narrative, an unspoken conflict informing all the other conflicts.
Among these are the one between Raven and Mummy, whose love for each other was tested in a way that is a testament to its incredible strength, but also leaves a lingering resentment.
In their new neighborhood, they seem to quickly be drifting apart and are soon on the verge of breaking up. Apparently, the Rapture was only the beginning of the weird things going on, as dogs begin talking, magic becomes real and fairly easy to practice and squadrons of angels patrol the cities machine-gunning down sinners.
The story is rather oddly paced, turning from a serious slice of post-apocalyptic life focusing on a sprawling cast into something of a fantasy action piece in the second to last chapter, but it has a few killer twists at the end that turn the whole story on its head, and seem well worth waiting for (one twist, in particular, forgives what seems like lazy research at certain points).
Sam's highly textured black-and-white art serves the script well, and he's able to sell people mutated by magic just as easily as the everyday feel of bars, shops and street corners.
And hey, isn't it nice to see a comic book about the end of the world that doesn't involve zombies?
Not bad, not bad at all and if his blog post is any indication we got him thinking so that's cool. The "lazy research" was kind of the point on our behalf, but i think he got our intention in the end. Hate to disappoint him though, there are a few zombies in the story. :)
Ok, so you've heard about the book, seen the 60 page preview on ComicSpace, and you want a copy for yourself.
If you want to support your LCS, and get it from a brick and mortar shop, then I've compiled a list of ones that do, or did carry our book and will probably keep it in stock or order it for you if you ask so long as it's still available. Scroll down to find a shop near you. If your local shop is not stocking it the Diamond catalog number to ask for is # NOV073660.
There are also a few web sites you can order it from too. You can get it directly from Jim Munroe via NMK here on his site, and that way you'll get your copy complete with his signature!
It can also be ordered from amazon, just search the title, and a number of other web based services are listing it. And you can get it via regular book shops, some are stocking it and to order the ISBN's are 1600101461 for the IDW us edition, and 0968636349 for the NMK can edition.
Hope that helps and let me know what you think of the book when your done!
cheers - Max
Confirmed stocked via email &/or eyeballs.
Witz End Comics Collectibles and Games 177 Water Street, Suite 2 Augusta, ME 207 621 0904 witzend@witzendcomics.com www.witzendcomics.com
Jim Hanley's Universe 4 West 33rd St. New York, NY 212 268 7088 info@jhuniverse.com www.jhuniverse.com
Midtown Comics Times Square 200 W 40th Street New York, NY Grand Central 459 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 1 800 411 3341 info@midtowncomics.com www.midtowncomics.com
Don's Atomic Comics 6354 Transit Rd. Depew, NY don@donsatomiccomics.com www.donsatomiccomics.com
Time Warp Comics & Games 555A Pompton Ave Cedar Grove, NJ (973) 857 9788 www.timewarpcomics.com
Music Quest "don't let the name fool you. Full line of comics, new and back issues & related collectibles" 446 Grafton St. Worcester, Ma. 508 754 9597 MusicQuest446@aol.com
Brave New Worlds 212 N Easton Rd Willow Grove, PA 215-657-8838 45 North Second St Philadelphia, PA 215-925-6525 eric@bravenewworldscomics.com www.bravenewworldscomics.com
Comix Connection York West Manchester Mall 1800 Loucks Road, Suite 688 York, PA 717 767 4871 Mechanicsburg 6200 Carlisle Pike, Suite C Mechanicsburg, PA 717 591 2727 www.comixconnection.com
New Dimension Comics 113 E. McMurray Road McMurray, PA 724-941-5445 ndcmcmurray.com
Bennie's Comics and Cards 462 Sharpsville Ave Sharon, PA 724 347 3390 crah@infonline.net www.myspace.com/crah64
Comic Swap, Inc. 110 South Fraser Street State College, PA 814-234-6005 comicswap.inc@verizon.net Website
Modern Myths 34 Bridge Street #4 Northampton, MA 888 227 8844 www.modern-myths.com
Green Brain Comics 13210 Michigan Avenue Dearborn MI 313-582-9444 www.greenbrain.biz
Clem's Collectibles 212 S Washington Sq Lansing, MI (517) 485 2369 clemslansing@gmail.com www.clemslansing.com
Comix Revolution 606 Davis St Evanston, IL 847 866 8659 999 N. Elmhurst Rd Mt Prospect, IL 847 506 0800 www.online-revolution.com
Calliope's Realm Comics 133 S Washington St Naperville IL 630 420 7710 calliopescomics@gmail.com www.calliopes.net
Fantasy Shop comics & games 5 locations 2426 West Clay St. Charles, MO 636 947 8330 8232 N. Lindbergh Blvd Florissant, MO 314 831 5211 10560 Baptist Church St. Louis, MO 314 842 8228 7238 Manchester Road Maplewood, MO 314 644 3070 1937 Lincoln Trail (W. Hwy 50) O'Fallon, Il 618 624 0920 www.fantasyshoponline.com
Fantasy Books Inc 1113 East Main Belleville IL 618-235-0844 fantasybooksinc.com
Fantom Comic Tenleytown 4500 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington, DC 202 362 5051 And Union Station 50 Mass Ave. NE Washington, DC 202 216 9478 fantomcomics@gmail.com www.fantomcomics.com
SpazDog Comics 21610 N. 35th Avenue #162 Glendale, AZ 623 582 3240 shawn@spazdogcomics.com www.spazdogcomics.com
Samurai Comics 5024 N. 7th St. Phoenix, AZ 602 265 8886 And 10720 W. Indian School Rd. #61 Phoenix, AZ 623 872 8886 www.samuraicomics.com
Alternate Reality Comics 4800 S. Maryland Pkwy. #D Las Vegas, NV 702 736 3673 ralphcomix@lvcm.com www.alternaterealitycomics.net
Comic Oasis 3121 N Rainbow Blvd Las Vegas, NV 702 212 8885 702 212 8890
Meltdown Comics 7522 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 323 851 7223 www.meltcomics.com
Isotope 326 Fell St San Francisco, CA. 415 621 6543 james@isotopecomics.com isotopecomics.com
Comix Experience 305 Divisadero Street San Francisco, CA 415 863 9258 questions@comixexperience.com www.comixexperience.com
Comickaze Comics Books and more! 5517 A/B Clairemont Mesa Blvd San Diego CA 858 278 0371 | 800 869 5275 www.comickaze.com
Brave New World Comics 22722 Lyons Avenue #6 Newhall CA 661 259 4745. mail@bravenewworldcomics.com www.bravenewworldcomics.com
COMIC BOOKS, ETC! 1105 Parkside Lane, Suite 1212 Woodstock, GA 770 592 4747 info@comicbooksetc.com www.comicbooksga.com
Velocity Comics 904 W Broad St Richmond, VA 804 225 7323 velocitynews@yahoo.com www.velocitycomics.com
Kingdom Comics 1425 Montgomery Highway Suite 119 Vestavia Hills, AL 205 978 0600 www.kingdomcomics.net
Secret Headquarters 2418 N. Monroe St. Suite 210 Tallahassee, FL 850 385 2736 questions@shqcomicsandgames.com www.shqcomicsandgames.com
Strange Adventures Comic Bookshops 5262 Sackville St. Halifax, NS 902.425.2140 68 York St. Fredericton, NB 506.450.3759 toll-free 1.866.626.6427 shop@strangeadventures.com www.strangeadventures.com
Rogues Gallery Comics 327 Chatham St. W Windsor, Ontario 519 254 9482 www.rgcomics.com
Another Dimension 424 B - 10th Street NW Calgary, AB 403 283 7078 comics@another-dimension.com another-dimension.com
Amazing Fantasy 5003 Ross Street Red Deer, AB 403 346 7505
LUCKY'S 3972 Main Street Vancouver, BC 604 875 9858 luckys@luckys.ca www.luckys.ca
CURIOUS COMICS 631 Johnson Street Victoria BC 1581-F Hillside Ave Victoria, BC #6 3200 N. Island Hwy Nanaimo, BC 250 384 1656 curiouscomics1@shaw.ca www.curious.bc.ca
Gosh! Comics 39 Great Russell Street, London United Kingdom 020 7636 1011 info@goshlondon.com www.goshlondon.com
Impact Comics 16 Garema Place CANBERRA, ACT, 2601 Australia 02 6248 7335 impactcomics.com.au
Listed as in store on their web site All About Books & Comics 5060 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 602 277 0757 Alan@allaboutcomics.com www.allaboutcomics.com
Atlas Comics 1750 Rio Hill Center Charlottesville, Virginia 434 974 7512 info@atlascomicbooks.com www.atlascomicbooks.com
The Source Comics and Games 1601 West Larpenteur ave Falcon Hights, MN 651 645 0386 bobsource@aol.com www.sourcecandg.com
Dragon's Lair Comics 6111 Burnet Road Austin, TX 512 454 2399 and 7959 Fredericksburg Rd # 129 San Antonio, TX 210 615 1229 dlair.net
Zeus Toys and Comics Turtle Creek Village 3878 Oaklawn Ave, Suite 100E Dallas, TX. 214 219 TOYS richardATzeuscomicsDOTcom www.zeuscomics.com
Sci-Fi City 6006 E Colonial Dr Orlando, FL 407 282 2292 mark@sci-fi-city.com www.sci-fi-city.com
Realms of Fantasy thinks were ingenious and sharply intelligent....
We just got a write up in the fantasy mag, 'Realms of Fantasy'. very short, but i liked it....
Therefore Repent!, Jim Munroe and Salgood Sam, IDW Publishing.
This first foray into graphic novels by the indie innovator Jim Munroe, with able assistance from the illustrator, features a war with angels, bird-headed men, and, after a Rapture-like catastrophe, the appearance of magic on Earth.
The main characters, Raven and Mummy, must navigate this new world while also dealing with more personal issues.
The art is extraordinarily fluid and the storyline ingenious and sharply intelligent.
Overwhelmingly good review on the Guild of Outsider Writers by Victor Schwartzman.
Link: I posted a link to this a while ago, but i wanted to add it to my clipping pile. This one blew me away when i read it, i owe Victor a drink...
Therefore Report! (a post-Rapture graphic novel)
Jim Munroe, Salgood Sam
Available through No Media Kings, www.nomediakings.org
Reviewed by Victor Schwartzman
This is not a review in the Ain't It Cool News style, which is usually as much about the reviewer as it is about the book. But you really need to understand why I did NOT want to read this book right now, much less review it. Yet, here we are. And this is the first draft of the review, right now that's all I have time for, but this review needed to be done. It needed to be done now. Guess that tells you something. Later, I'll go back and edit.
You need to read the whole review, so click on 'read more' to find out how busy my life is, and why I had to read this book and write the review anyway.
I am a founding member of Outsider Writers, and run our book review and Agit Prop 101 poetry page. My policy for the book review page is that I do as few reviews as possible-I don't have the time to read nearly as much as I should, plus it is good to have as wide a variety of reviewers possible rather than the review section being my personal blog. I've done maybe five of the ninety or so reviews on the site.
More to the point, I just don't have the time right now to read books and write reviews, due to more than the usual situations. About two months after we started OW, my mom, 91, had a mild heart attack that put her in the hospital. Real heart attacks are not likely Hollywood heart attacks-no horrible sudden pain, no grasping the left arm, no falling to the floor. Instead, they creep up on you, starting with a discomfort in your chest. Mom ended up being in the hospital for about three months. In the end, she was too weak to be discharged back to her retirement community apartment. That meant her going into a 'personal care home', with about one day's actual notice when she left the hospital. Moving her was traumatic for her-she knows she was moving into a 'final stage' kinda place. I was seeing her in the hospital almost every day, plus speaking with her on the phone each day. Clearing out her apartment was difficult, and now my house is full of her things.
Then she had the second heart attack, three weeks after moving into the nursing home. More hospital time. Of course, all that is a far bigger problem for her than me, but I am her primary care giver.
Then there are the problems with my day job (don't we all have problems with our day job), my dealing with high blood pressure medications, and now apparently developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Sometimes I feel I don't have the take to eat and feed my body, much less my mind.
So not only did I NOT want to write a review of this book, I had no time to read it. When it came in the mail two days ago I was tired, depressed, and capable only of watching Dr. House ream out people on tv. So I opened the package (I'd ordered the book from No Media Kings, it was cheap and came with some cool stickers by the way) I had no intention whatsoever of reading it then-y'hear me, Munroe and Sam?
Unfortunately, I opened the book and looked at the first page.
See, this is the damn problem with this damn book-you're screwed if you read the first page, because, based on my experience, you then have to read the second. And the third. In the end, I read three quarters of the book in one sitting, and then finished it yesterday as soon as I woke up & had some coffee. Clearly, Munroe and Sam have no respect whatsoever for me and my problems. Now I'm writing this review, because the book is just out & I figured you need to know about it.
"Therefore Repent" is a graphic novel which takes place after the Rapture-after the true believers, 144,000 of them, rise up to Heaven. It ain't about them. It's about those of us who are left behind. It's about the Army of God then returning to Earth to clear up the non-believers-the Army of God looking a lot like U.S. soldiers in full battle gear, complete with automatic weapons, except these soldiers also fly around with angel wings on their backs. And then there are the talking dogs.
I'm an agnostic (I don't believe in god but I do believe in hedging my bets), so I have no particular interest in the Rapture-but actually, either do Munroe or Sam. Munroe, who wrote the text, and Sam, who illustrated it, are far more interested in those of us who are left to continue their lives, under the literal gun of the true believers. Like President Bush, who didn't make it up to heaven, and who now tours the U.S. with a makeshift Jesus, saying he had to be left behind because someone's gotta steer the ship of state (steer it straight for the rocks, but that's another story).
This is a novel about the magic within all of us, about what stops us from realizing we have that magic, and how we can find that magic again and use it.
Graphic novels are long comic books, essentially. Jim Munroe has a vivid imagination and interest in politics and our social mores. Salgood Sam (whose name, guys, is not actually Maxim Douglas spelled backwards, but it does come close) matches Munroe's imagination and interests in his art. The art is black and white, ragged in spots-a style perfectly fitting the story itself, where the characters lived ragged lives in situations often beyond their (immediate) understanding. There are plenty of cinematic aspects to the art, with Sam playing with different angles, big panels and small panels, showing a lot of versatility working only in black and white. As for Munroe, he paints a large palette himself-our entire society. But the writing is not just a way of expressing his concerns. It was the story that sucked me in, even when I did not want to read anything.
Raven and Mummy are two people who saw the 'chosen few' rising up from the earth. One of them started rising also-but could not leave the other behind. So now they are both stuck with the other "immoral" non-believers. Raven wears a mask that makes her look like a raven-when we see what is under the mask, it's a shock. Her boyfriend, Mummy-well he looks wrapped up. In the midst of the world falling to hell (hahaha) they have relationship problems. It ain't easy in their world, with the Army of God swooping down on angel wings to machine gun them if they step out of line. And then there are the talking dogs.
Raven and Mummy make friends in a new neighbourhood, where people struggle to carry on with their lives as "normal" society has fallen apart. They try to find lost friends, including Lillith, with whom they communicate by "shemail" (email, but through the head and body of a woman who's specially hooked up). There is magic in the air, but it is very risky to look into yourself to see what you can do with the Army of God flying around ready to pop your cap.
There is a lot more to this slim book. There are twists I did not see coming, and which I can not tell you about. There is content I did not expect, but which I found very relevant t
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