European Comics in Official and Fan Translations
Being the boss of the free world is a full-time job. Sometimes there are tasks that just don’t get seen all the way through to the end. The solution in here: time travel! In this volume, Mister President teams up with the scientists at the Pentagon to travel back in time and try to change the future to his advantage. Will he succeed?
“What’s going on? Where is my dad? Are we at war? The city is so quiet and dark that it seems hostile and it scares me.” Marzi is a little girl like any other. She plays with dolls, gets lost in the woods, covets chewing gum and ballet lessons… Except that she’s growing up the behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s, and the Soviet regime sometimes casts an unsettling shadow over her otherwise carefree childhood. But, somehow, she always manages to bounce back! Marzi’s clear-eyed, playful storytelling continues in this third volume of coming-of-age tales from Communist Poland.
A fatal slip on the toy car that his son had left in the bathroom, and Victor Tourterelle is dispatched straight to the other side of the mirror, to the beautiful world of chalk desert, under a sky as black as ink. No noise, not a soul. In his new state, Victor finds that he’s still fully conscious, more acutely than on earth, even. But his body is only bones. Little does the dead man know that he’s at the dawn of the wildest adventure of all time…
Marzena Sowa continues her endearing memoir recounting childhood behind the Iron Curtain in Poland. Even at the height of summer vacation deep in the countryside, the noise of urban unrest carries, bringing news of rations, strikes, and Solidarność. Amid a young girl’s typical worries—the witch neighbor, the school nurse, her mother’s angry temper—come the echoes of the strange and confusing world of adults.
The bony masses are gripped with blind panic ever since the new arrival, renamed ‘Ash Tuesday’, started kicking up a fuss about his post-mortem condition. Ash Tuesday manages to escape during his transfer to Saint-Luc, the adjustment center for twisted spirits. The Militia sends out search parties all over the land to try and track down the dangerous rebel escapee. But Ash Tuesday is soon recruited by a clandestine group that entrusts him with the gargantuan task of drawing up a map of all purgatory.
The fall brings more than changing leaves as massive strikes in Marzi’s little hometown help change the course of Polish history. She’s proud of her dad, but can he come home now? Eight-year-old Marzi tries her best to keep up, but it can be hard when you keep outgrowing your shoes! With one foot in the adult world, where nothing is black and white, and one foot in the fantasies of childhood, where greyscale girls can dream in color, she puts her very own twist on everything she sees and hears. Lucky for us, she likes to tell stories.
Poor Ash Tuesday, in the midst of a general uprising, is still seeking his soul which is being detained by a formidable sect. His quest plunges him right to the heart of Pluto and into the eight circles of Purgatory. Will this finally put an end to his wanderings? Why does he seem to be the only one seeking redemption? Will he ever find his way out of this labyrinth?
The communists are gone, but life is still full of challenges. Both for Poland, and for 12-year-old Marzi, the strong-willed kid finding her voice in a country undergoing radical changes. As the country faces new issues like drug abuse and AIDS, Marzi’s piercing gaze notices fraying seams in her own community. “What ever happened to solidarity? If you want help, you’d better not be different.” Marzi is a natural champion for being different: she can’t stand the new capitalist shops, or how boy-crazy her friends are becoming. Will she find a place where she can just be herself?
“This summer, my factory can send you to summer camp. To the mountains or the sea. I’ve never been to the sea, but now you can go for me.” What awaits Marzi on the Baltic shore? It’s the summer of 1992. Preteens at camp in newly-democratic Poland are crazy for Madonna, Pepsi, Russian video games… and seances. Notebook in hand, Marzi observes it all with her wry sense of humor, but that doesn’t keep her from getting swept off her feet…
Mia, Gauthier, Louka and Zouzou are inseparable. Like most teenagers, they’d much rather be playing video games or making music than doing their homework. Mia, the only girl in the group, doesn’t really seem to click with the other girls in her class. But as they grow up, her tight-knit friendship group will become more and more complicated as girl-boy relationships start to get interesting…