Synopses & Reviews
Midnight. A small Parisian apartment in the 1930s. A rabbit, a cat, and a dog scream in terror as a giant monster lunges toward them...
That's the opening scene of Harum Scarum, a European-style album that mixes action, humor, horror, and funny-animals with a uniquely modern flair. Written and illustrated (in stunning full color) by Lewis Trondheim, the hottest French cartooning talent to emerge in the '90s, Harum Scarum mixes sardonic wit with a genuinely thrilling story that involves a plague of horrible monsters and science gone awry... kidnappings, murder, arson, and pitiless beatings... fairy dust, time machines, and the teleportational cap... sinister commies, double agents, and corrupt commissioners... the niceties of tipping and the precise location of the jugular vein. Join the bunny, the cat and the dog as they blunder and wisecrack their way through a monstrous mystery that could destroy mankind as we know it. Trondheim has been nominated for multiple awards, and Harum Scarum is probably his most accessible (and most fun) work.
Review
"The three main characters...trade rapid-fire quips and put-downs with excellent comedic rhythm. Adding to the fun is Trondheim's deceptively simple drawing style: The characters are sketched with only a few lines, but are remarkably expressive and funny....Harum Scarum represents a great leap forward for the French comedic tradition." Mike Loew, The Onion A.V. Club
Review
"Harum Scarum is a wonderful, fun-filled tale with a great cinematic feel to it. If Alfred Hitchcock ever did a funny-animal story, Harum Scarum would be it. The art is simple, but expressive, with a great deal of detail, and the story is told with the understated mastery of a consummate craftsman." Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo
Review
"The beautifully colored drawings...show a terrific range of facial expressions and architectural details....High school-aged boys, especially, will enjoy the frank machismo informing many of the exploits and the realistically foul language of Richie, the alley cat. The depictions are never truly gruesome or carnal; even the shootouts in Harum Scarum are no more graphic than Saturday-morning cartoons." School Library Journal
Synopsis
Fantagraphics Books is proud to present
Harum Scarum, the first volume in the internationally acclaimed funny-animal action-adventure-humor series by Lewis Trondheim!
Being a story about horrible monsters and science gone awry...
about kidnapings, murder, arson, and pitiless beratings...
about fairy dust, time machines, and the teleportational cap...
about sinister commies, double agents, and corrupt commissioners...
about the niceties of tipping and the precise location of the jugular vein.
Join the bunny, the cat, and the dog as they blunder and wisecrack their way through a monstrous mystery that could destroy mankind as we know it.
Synopsis
Join the cynical rabbit McConey and his erratic funny-animal pals as they blunder and wisecrack their way through a monstrous mystery that could destroy mankind as we know it. Action, humor and horror with a modern flair.
About the Author
Lewis Trondheim was born in 1964 and spent his childhood in the french town of Fontainebleau. In 1987 he met Jean-Christophe Menu, an aspiring cartoonist who turned him on to the world of comics. In 1990, together with four other cartoonists, Menu and Trondheim co-founded L'Association, a publishing company which would go on to publish some of the most revolutionary alternative European comics of the decade.
A hugely prolific and well-regarded cartoonist, Trondheim splits his time between two ongoing full-color album series the comedy-adventure-fantasy series Lapinot ("McConey" in the U.S) and the sword-and-sorcery series Donjon ("Dungeon" in the U.S., done in collaboration with Joann Sfar) as well as many diverse other works, including children's albums, unique one-shots, and new work for L'Association. He has ventured into autobiography with the graphic novel Approximativement (see The Nimrod #1), and his booklength silent strip La Mouche ("The Fly") has been turned into an extended series of five-minute animated cartoons. Trondheim now lives in Montpellier, France, with Brigitte Findakly, his colorist and wife of 10 years, and their two children.