Dragman
A Novel
ISBN10: 1250172640
ISBN13: 9781250172648
Hardcover
336 Pages
$28.00
CA$38.00
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
Finalist for an Eisner Award
A Guardian Best Graphic Novel of the Year
August Crimp can fly, but only when he wears women’s clothes. Soaring above a gorgeous, lush vista of London, he is Dragman, catching falling persons, lost souls, and the odd stranded cat. After he’s rejected by the superhero establishment, where masked men chase endorsement deals rather than criminals, August quietly packs up his dress and cosmetics and retreats to normalcy—a wife and son who know nothing of his exploits or inclinations.
When a technological innovation allows people to sell their souls, they do so in droves, turning empty, cruel, and hopeless, driven to throw themselves off planes. August is terrified of being outed, but feels compelled to bring back Dragman when Cherry, his young neighbor, begs him to save her parents. Can Dragman take down the forces behind this dreadful new black market? Can August embrace Dragman and step out of the shadows?
The debut graphic novel from British cartoon phenomenon Steven Appleby, Dragman is at once a work of artistic brilliance, sly wit, and poignant humanity, a meditation on identity, morality, and desire, delivered with levity and grace.
Reviews
Praise for Dragman
"Fans of Steven Appleby's brilliant cartoons know already of their unique energy; his first long-form graphic novel will surely bring him massed armies of new admirers. Funny, sweet, and emotionally true, it doesn't so much tiptoe on to fraught cultural territory as dance wildly across it."—The Guardian
“An intricately plotted epic starring a huge cast of memorable characters and a tender, illuminating meditation on identity. Imaginative and uncommonly moving.”—Library Journal (starred review)