Abecederia.

Abecederia. By Blexbolex. Nobrow Press, 2009. 32pp., illustrated throughout, 21x14,8cm. Edition of 3000.

This is a really wonderful illustration-based book - at first deceptively casual, playful and accessible, but dealing with important subjects such as totalitarianism, alienation and dehumanisation.


Book description:

"With his first independent publication for Nobrow Press, Blexbolex’s graphic novella 'Abecederia' is an incendiary mix of intrigue, artwork and extremes.

A play on the Greek practice of Abecedarium inscriptions, the story is illustrated one letter a time, incorporating A-Z onto the page in ever more ingenious ways.

For his comic, Blexbolex transports the municipal film-noir genre into the jungle clearings of Abecederia, where our protagonists, Leon and Bernard Blanchett, two French born gangsters hiding from an international warrant for arrest in central Africa, are fleeing the police after a far from perfect bank robbery.

A work that confounds with its twists and turns just as much at it impresses with its imagination, 'Abecederia' explores themes such torture, totalitarianism, alienation and dehumanisation in a brutal world where no one is safe.

First published in Germany in 2007, Abecederia is sold out in both it German and French versions and is available exclusively from Nobrow Press."