Book picks similar to
The Squirrel Machine by Hans Rickheit


comics
graphic-novels
graphic-novel
horror

Asterios Polyp


David Mazzucchelli - 2009
    An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait. Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about? As the story unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where he is. And isn’t. And we meet Hana: a sweet, smart, first-generation Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now she’s gone. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually.In the meantime, we are enthralled by Mazzucchelli’s extraordinarily imagined world of brilliantly conceived eccentrics, sharply observed social mores, and deftly depicted asides on everything from design theory to the nature of human perception.Asterios Polyp is David Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.

Black Widow, Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread


Nathan Edmondson - 2014
    She may be an Avenger and an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., but the Widow has her own mission: to atone for her past as a KGB assassin. Her methods are dirty. Her heart is cold. But her work is flawless. On an undercover assignment in Russia, she finds that the Hand of God is reaching for her--and it's as merciless as its name. Outmatched by the brute force of this powerful new villain, Natasha discovers a deadly globe-spanning plot. It's a race against time, and the Widow has nowhere to turn for answers. The trail of blood and destruction will test her strength and cunning--but it may also test her faith. Collecting: Black Widow 1-6 & material from All-New Marvel Now!.Point One

Incidents in the Night, Book One


David B. - 1999
    sets out to explore the uncharted territories of overflowing and dusty shelves of Paris' legendary book shops. His journey quickly turns into an obsessive vision quest in pursuit of a mysterious nineteenth-century journal: Incidents In the Night. Mountains of books become sites of archeological digs as the author excavates layers of myth, fact and fiction in search of the elusive thread that links them all. Along the way he stumbles on fanatical Bonapartists, occult conspiracies and the angel of death. Incidents in the Night is an intricate, ever-expanding web of dream and reality exquisitely translated by Brian Evenson.David B. is one of France's finest cartoonists and one of the co-founders of the legendary L'Association collective. He is the author a many books: The Armed Garden and Noctural Conspiracies, among many others. Epileptic was was awarded Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Scenario and the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist.Brian Evenson is the author of ten books of fiction. He is the winner of the International Horror Guild Award, and the American Library Association's award for Best Horror Novel. He has translated work by Christian Gailly, Jean Frémon, Claro, Jacques Jouet, Eric Chevillard, Antoine Volodine, and others. He is the recipient of three O. Henry Prizes as well as an NEA fellowship. He lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Living and the Dead


Jason - 2006
    Romero-esque zombie comedy that he intends to be the middle installment of his "horror trilogy" begun with the Frankenstein monster love triangle of You Can't Get There From Here. Jason's elegant deadpan style somehow manages to make the gruesome gore and splatter effects almost... charming — and yes, it is a sweet love story at heart. If you read only one book in which a zombie devours a baby this year (even Romero never quite summoned up the nerve for that), read this one!

How To Be Happy


Eleanor Davis - 2014
    Davis is one of the finest cartoonists of her generation, and has been producing comics since the mid-2000s. Happy represents the best stories she's drawn for such curatorial venues as Mome and No-Brow, as well as her own self-publishing and web efforts. Davis achieves a rare, subtle poignancy in her narratives that are at once compelling and elusive, pregnant with mystery and a deeply satisfying emotional resonance. Happy shows the full range of Davis's graphic skills -- sketchy drawing, polished pen and ink line work, and meticulously designed full color painted panels-- which are always in the service of a narrative that builds to a quietly devastating climax.

Days Gone Bye


Robert KirkmanRus Wooton - 2004
    The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.

Good-Bye, Chunky Rice


Craig Thompson - 1999
    It was winnning a Harvey Award, no less. It documentates the once upon a time in our fishing village town and a short turtle lad name of Chunky, last name Rice.Mister Chunky Rice be living in the same rooming house likewise myself, only that boy be restless. Looking for something. And he puts hisself on my brother Chuck's ship and boats out to sea to find it. Only he be departin' from his bestest of all friends, his deer mouse, I mean, mouse deer chum Dandel.Now why in a whirl would someone leave beyond a buddy? Just what be that turtle lad searchings for? I said you best read the book to find out. Merle said, "Doot doot."

Harleen


Stjepan Šejić - 2020
    Harleen Quinzel has a theory: mental illness is a survival mechanism. As she seeks to help the broken souls of Gotham City piece together their sanity she will become the one thing she fears the most: one of them. A bold new retelling of the tragic origin of Harley Quinn told through the eyes of the only person who knows her better than anyone: Harleen.A young psychiatrist with a potential cure for the madness that haunts Gotham City, Dr. Harleen Quinzel must prove her revolutionary theory to a skeptical establishment by delving into the disturbed minds of Arkham Asylum's deadliest inmates. But the more time she spends with her criminally insane subjects, the closer she is drawn to one patient in particular--and the further she falls away from reality. The birth of legendary antihero Harley Quinn and the shocking origins of her twisted romance with the Joker are revealed in Harleen, a stunning new tale of love and obsession written and illustrated by renowned comics storyteller Stjepan Sejic (Aquaman: Underworld, Sunstone).Collects: Harleen #1-3.

Phonogram, Vol. 1: Rue Britannia


Kieron Gillen - 2007
    Phonomancer David Kohl hadn't spared his old patron a thought for almost as long... at which point his mind starts to unravel. Can he discover what's happened to the Mod-Goddess of Britpop while there's still something of himself left? Dark modern-fantasy in a world where music is magic, where a song can save your life or end it.Collects Phonogram: Rue Britannia #1-6.

Alias, Vol. 1


Brian Michael Bendis - 2002
    But not a very good one. Now a chain-smoking, self destructive alcoholic who is the owner and sole employee of a private investigations firm specialising in superhuman cases. When she exposes one hero's identity her life becomes expendable.

Iron Man: Extremis


Warren Ellis - 2006
    It's the beginning of a new era for Iron Man, and he must face up to a new era of terrifying technologies that threaten to overwhelm fragile mankind! He must find out what Extremis is - and, more importantly, he must figure out who has unleashed it and what its emergence means for the world.Collecting: Iron Man 1-6

The Divine


Boaz Lavie - 2015
    But you never really get away from war. So it feels inevitable when his old army buddy Jason comes calling, with a lucrative military contract for a mining job in an obscure South-East Asian country called Quanlom. They'll have to operate under the radar--Quanlom is being torn apart by civil war, and the US military isn't strictly supposed to be there.With no career prospects and a baby on the way, Mark finds himself making the worst mistake of his life and signing on with Jason. What awaits him in Quanlom is going to change everything. What awaits him in Quanlom is weirdness of the highest order: a civil war led by ten-year-old twins wielding something that looks a lot like magic, leading an army of warriors who look a lot like gods.What awaits him in Quanlom is an actual goddamn dragon.From world-renowned artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka (twins, whose magic powers are strictly confined to pen and paper) and Boaz Lavie, The Divine is a fast-paced, brutal, and breathlessly beautiful portrait of a world where ancient powers vie with modern warfare and nobody escapes unscathed.

The Last of Us: American Dreams


Neil Druckmann - 2013
    In one of the few remaining quarantine zones, thirteen-year-old Ellie begins her new life as a ward of a military boarding school, where a friendship with fellow student Riley leads to her first trip into the outside world. Beyond the walls of the regimented civil order they know, Ellie and Riley are soon confronted with the violent way of life of the insurgent group the Fireflies--and with the monstrous victims of infection!

Little Bird: The Fight for Elder's Hope


Darcy Van Poelgeest - 2019
    A gorgeously illustrated epic where one girl risks everything to save her people, their land, and the freedom they so desperately deserve.Collects Little Bird #1-5.

Locke & Key: The Guide to Known Keys


Joe Hill - 2011
    This special standalone issue features an expanded Guide to the Known Keys, an all-new Guide to Failed Keys, and a story of summer-night magic, set in Keyhouse's unlikely past.