| From The Publisher* | After fourteen years, renowned and beloved graphic novelist Sammy Harkham finally delivers his epic story of artistic ambition, the heartbreak it can bring, and what it means to be human
Set in and around 1971 in Los Angeles, Blood of the Virgin follows an immigrant film editor named Seymour who is desperate to make his own movies. Without money or clout, he has no choice but to spend his days slumming it for the worst and most exploitative production company in town. When Seymour is given the chance to make a film of his own, his unbending principles and relentless drive violently clash with an industry that rewards everything but these traits. As Seymour's blind ambition pushes the movie along, his home life grows increasingly fraught. Using the film's production as a means to spiral out into time and space, Harkham creates an epic novel that explores the intersection of parenthood, 20th-century America, sex, the immigrant experience, and the era of grindhouse movies. Like a kaleidoscope, Blood of the Virgin shifts and evolves with each frame, allowing the reader to zoom out and see that at its core, this book is about the making of a man. |
| Biographical Note | SAMMY HARKHAM is an award-winning cartoonist and editor, born and raised in Los Angeles. He created the ongoing comics anthology Kramers Ergot, considered to be one of the most influential publications of its kind in the twenty-first century. His first collection of short comics stories, Everything Together, won the Los Angeles Book Prize for "Graphic Novel of the Year" in 2012. He is also the author of Crickets (Drawn and Quarterly) and Poor Sailor (Ginkgo Press). In 2022, he was awarded the Ignatz Award for "Promising New Talent." His work has been published in Best American Comics, The New York Times, Vice, and McSweeney's among many other publications. |
