Lunatic, Out December, Blends Art Book and Story Wordlessly

Lunatic

In December, Fanfare Presents will be publishing Lunatic by Dan Mazur. It’s a 200-page hardcover where every page is a wordless single image, combining into the story of a woman who loves the moon.

Dan put out this video to show and tell about the book, which uses a variety of art styles. I wish more people explained their projects so clearly and directly, with plenty of sample pages.

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. 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.

You can preorder Lunatic from Amazon or your local comic shop (Diamond code OCT20 1411) for delivery in December, or from Dan’s website, where it’s available now. (What he has is a limited edition at a slightly larger size, without a few “making of” pages.)

Lunatic



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