Bizarre Romance

by Audrey Niffenegger, Eddie Campbell (Illustrator)

Overview

Internationally bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger, and graphic artist Eddie Campbell, of such seminal works as From Hell by Alan Moore, collaborate on a wonderfully bizarre collection that celebrates and satirizes love of all kinds. With 16 different stories told through illustrated prose or comic panels, the couple explores the idiosyncratic nature of relationships in a variety of genres from fractured fairy tales to historical fiction to paper dolls. With Niffenegger’s sharp, imaginative prose and Campbell’s diverse comic styles, Bizarre Romance is the debut collection by two of the most important storytellers of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419728532
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Pages:	168
Sales rank:	363,873
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Audrey Niffenegger is the author of the international bestsellers The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, as well as a fine artist who has published four illustrated books with Abrams: The Three Incestuous Sisters, The Adventuress, Raven Girl, and The Night Bookmobile.

Eddie Campbell is an award-winning comics writer and artist. His work includes From Hell with Alan Moore as well as the autobiographical Alec: The Years Have Pants and The Playwright (with Daren White). They both live in Chicago and London.

Hometown:

Chicago, Illinois

Date of Birth:

June 13, 1963

Place of Birth:

South Haven, Michigan

Education:

B.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1985; M.F.A., Northwestern University, 1991

Editorial Reviews

01/22/2018
A magical-realist kaleidoscope, this volume of romance comics and prose stories, from husband-and-wife team Campbell and Niffenegger veers wildly between whimsy, horror, and the utterly banal. A girl becomes queen of a fantasy realm, only to lose it all in an instant. A man’s attic becomes infested with angels. Fairies levitate ocelots. At its strongest, the book has much to say about the beauty and devastation of seeking companionship in any given human life—the grace and alienation of photography, for example, is memorably captured in a portrait of a 19th-century model’s morning, as she reminisces about a lover while waiting between poses. At its weakest, it relies too much upon cleverness rather than content. Fairies encountered at a bar is charming on its own, and their subsequent manipulation of a patron has potential—but Campbell and Niffenegger end what might have been an intriguing exploration of codependency before it has a chance to go anywhere. Still, taken as a whole, their collaboration is winningly strange, especially in its use of collage; Campbell smashes photography, purposefully sloppy abstraction, and even characters like Popeye and Nancy together to unique off-kilter effect. Love is a many-splendored thing within these pages—but it is also mightily odd. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

A master class in storytelling from two of the medium’s most celebrated talents, Bizarre Romance is a book you’ll return to again and again."

San Francisco Weekly

02/01/2018
Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife; The Night Bookmobile) writes tales of wistful unease, normality morphing gently into the weird. Campbell (From Hell; Bacchus), Niffenegger's husband, has illustrated numerous genres, including memoir and horror. For these 13 selections, many previously published, his color storybookish drawings "grow on the lattice each story provides." Some appear as comics, some as illustrated text, and some as mostly text. A man with angels in his attic calls an exterminator but then adopts one as a pet. A woman on a cruise wishes her life had been different—and it happens. Two pieces imagine backstory for real events: a young model photographed getting out of bed by Eadweard Muybridge, and Charles Altamont Doyle painting fairies. In a clever take on postromance blues, a woman ruminates about former boyfriends, concluding: "Next time he will be perfect. Next time." Campbell illustrates this with a simplified naked male paper doll, surrounded by various clothes, accessories, and body parts. VERDICT This unsettling collection touches on many facets of relationships and how intentions fall short. Niffenegger and Campbell's delicate not-quite-horror will appeal to readers preferring shivers to screams.—MC

Library Journal