I backed John Mahoney’s Zentropa on Kickstarter because it looked gorgeous and it seemed like he had his shit together. When I saw the samples he posted, it felt very Heavy Metal to me, and apparently they agreed: The first 10 pages of Zentropa appear in issue #382.
I was also intrigued by the concept of a wordless graphic novel. Not new, but not something I’ve seen often, either. And holy shit, that artwork.
Choose your own adventure
By design, the story of Zentropa is open to interpretation — you decide what it’s about, and what’s happening in it. (I’ll still avoid anything I think might be a spoiler here, though.) Here are three examples of John’s artwork that should give you a good idea of what Zentropa is like.
Here’s the first panel in the book:
Most of the book is black and white, but some panels and pages are two-tone or color, like this gorgeous piece:
Lastly, here’s a page that highlights how well John mixes detailed elements with negative space:
An exploration
Zentropa invites exploration — of what it might be about, what it could mean, what’s happening in each panel, and of the artwork itself. Looking at the rest of my comic collection, there’s nothing else in it quite like this book.
It’s weird. It’s sexy. It’s neat. And it’s fun to explore.
I’m not sure where best to pick up Zentropa post-Kickstarter, but this looks like one option.