jasonfranks

As you may recall, I wrote about Bruce Mutard's landmark graphic novel, The Sacrifice, a couple of months back when I read an advance copy.

The official launch was Wednesday and it is now available. 

I went along to the event. The launch was MCed by Bernard Caleo, writer, artist, editor, publisher and showman. There was a big crowd in attendance--Bruce's editors and many of the guys from Melbourne's comics scene, including Greg Gates, Phil Bentley, Colin Wilson, Bobby N, James Andres, Dillon Naylor,  Paul Bedford, and Mandy Ord. Probably more guys I didn't even see.
Bernard provides better coverage here and I'm sure Bobby will blog it before long, he was there with his new camera and he usually gives much better coverage of these things than I do.

There is a clear movement by Australian book publishers to produce graphic novels, much like Pantheon et al are doing in the US, and the Sacrifice is part of the vanguard of this movement... but never mind all that nonsense, it's a terrific, though-provoking work of historical fiction. Mutard's work is polished and assured, massively researched and highly nuanced; oversized in format as well as in scope.

If you live in Australia, you should be able to find it in any good bookstore, filed in the Fiction section under M--check it out, you won't regret it. If you're overseas... well, there are no foreign editions scheduled at this point but you can order it online from Readings  (or a number of other places, I'm sure): http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781741751178/the-sacrifice

-- JF