While in 1907 Paris developing the style that would become known as "Cubism," Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque chase bloodthirsty creatures come to life from famous paintings. Gertrude Stein, Alice B Toklas, Guillaume Apollinare, and Erik Satie join in the hunt for the madman at the center of the mystery: Paul Gaugin.

A fast-paced thrill-ride with an earthy tone that offers a pungent glimpse of pre-War Paris, The Salon deftly deconstructs the creative process, allowing the reader to enter the minds of two men who changed not only art, but the entire world.

"Bertozzi's long-awaited graphic novel has a brilliant, daffy premise executed with wit and flair. In the Paris of 1907, a salon of later famous Modernists — including Gertrude Stein, Georges Braque, Erik Satie and their sawed-off, potty-mouthed, frequently naked, hilariously arrogant acquaintance Pablo Picasso — discover a stash of secret blue absinthe that allows its drinkers to travel inside paintings, which may hold the key to the demonic creature who's been dismembering avant-gardists. The setting is fertile territory for speculative historical in-jokes, bawdy and action-packed set pieces — especially artistic experimentation in the tradition of its protagonists — Bertozzi plays it to the hilt. His artwork is consistently vigorous, featuring rough, lusty brush strokes, an engaging duotone color scheme that changes from scene to scene, and hilarious mock French sound effects (someone being kicked is rendered 'QUIQUE'). But there's also a clever subtext to the book, about the historical moment at which a small group of associates reinvented art, music and literature by thinking intensely about how to represent space and time. Bertozzi dramatizes the origins of Cubism and its links to Gauguin's work, and even suggests how Picasso might have been influenced by comic strips, thus demonstrating the Stein salon's absolute devotion to advancing their art more strikingly than a 'real' history could." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Throughout the book, Picasso is a fireplug, always ready to smack Matisse in the face....There's something so winning about their friendship in The Salon...that you hardly need a luminous, absinthe-colored murder scene to enjoy it." John Hodgman, The New York Times Book Review

"Bertozzi separates his sturdy, spot-color chapters with stand-alone, delicate black-and-white mise en scenes. The characters are vividly depicted visually and verbally....In The Salon, Bertozzi has made what might have been a mere exercise in nostalgia into a new way of seeing." Chicago Sun-Times

Nick Bertozzi is an award-winning cartoonist based in New York.