Tag Archives: selfmadehero

Adieu Birkenau: – Ginette Kolinka’s Story of Survival is a graphic memoir of Holocaust survivor and educator Ginette Kolina

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It is April 1944. Nineteen-year-old Ginette Kolinka arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Her father and little brother are immediately gassed. Ginette is selected as a worker. She survives. It is October 2020. Ninety-five-year-old Ginette takes advantage of a lull in the COVID-19 epidemic to accompany a group visiting Birkenau one last time. 

As a farewell, she brings with her a journalist (France Info’s Victor Matet) and a comic strip writer, J-D Morvan. From this trip a comic book is born. Ginette tells of her life before the war and subsequent imprisonment, as well as her present situation today. 

Still sharing what she witnessed with the world, Ginette tells everything with her trademark liveliness and biting humor. If we laugh and shudder, it’s because the story she tells is ours too.

Adieu Birkenau: – Ginette Kolinka’s Story of Survival is written by Ginette Kolinka, Jean-David Morvan, and Victor Matet, and features art by Ricard Efa and Cesc F. Dalmases, it’s out in the US on December 10 from SelfMadeHero.

Adieu Birkenau: - Ginette Kolinka’s Story of Survival

SelfMadeHero reveals its Autumn graphic novel releases

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SelfMadeHero has announced a quartet of original graphic novels for Autumn 2024. These include the Brazilian detective story They Shot the Piano Player about the disappearance of a Bossa Nova jazz musician; the bonkers yet true story Madame Choi and the Monsters, about the kidnapping of South Korean filmmakers by Kim Jong-il; Adieu Birkenau, the graphic memoir of Holocaust survivor Ginette Kolinka; and Andrzej Klimowski’s latest surreal tale Edifice, which features the graphic Grand Hotel of our dreams, desires, and nightmares – and a Christmas Carol like no other.

MADAME CHOI AND THE MONSTERS: A TRUE STORY

Writer: Patrick Spät
Illustrator: Sheree Domingo                                                                                                                                                              Paperback/ colour/ 176pp
ISBN: 978-1-914224-22-5
Publication date: 5 November (US) ; 10 October (UK)

The incredible-yet-true story of celebrated South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee, abducted in 1978 by North Korean secret agents on the orders of their film-crazed future leader Kim Jong-il. Six months later, filmmaker Shin Sang-ok, Choi Eun-hee’s ex-husband, is abducted in turn. Choi and Shin remain unaware of each other’s fates until they meet again at a dinner hosted by Kim Jong-il in 1983. Kim forces Choi and Shin to make films, including the infamous kaiju cult classic Pulgasari (1985), all while convincing the world that they serve North Korea willingly. Choi and Shin’s love rekindles slowly in this reunited captivity. Only at the 1986 Vienna Film Festival do they escape, fleeing in a daring car chase to the American embassy.

MADAME CHOI AND THE MONSTERS: A TRUE STORY

ADIEU BIRKENAU: Ginette Kolinka’s Story of Survival

Writers: Ginette Kolinka, Jean-David Morvan, Victor Matet
Illustrators: Ricard Efa, Cesc F. Dalmases                                                                                                                                        Hardback/ colour/ 112pp
ISBN: 978-1-914224-23-2
Publication date:  19 November (US);   24 October (UK)

It is April 1944. 19-year-old Ginette Kolinka arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Her father and little brother are immediately gassed. Ginette is selected as a worker. She survives. It is October 2020. 95-year-old Ginette takes advantage of a lull in the COVID-19 epidemic to accompany a group visiting Birkenau one last time. As a farewell, she brings with her a journalist (France Info’s Victor Matet) and a comic strip writer, J-D Morvan. From this trip a comic book is born. Ginette tells of her life before the war and subsequent imprisonment, as well as her present situation today. Still sharing what she witnessed with the world, Ginette tells everything with her trademark liveliness and biting humour. If we laugh and shudder, it’s because the story she tells is ours too.

ADIEU BIRKENAU: Ginette Kolinka’s Story of Survival

THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER

Writer: Fernando Trueba
Illustrator: Javier Mariscal
Hardback/ Colour/ 256pp
ISBN: 978-1-914224-24-9
Publication date:  3 December (US) ; 26 September (UK)

From the authors of Chico and Rita and adapted into an animated feature from Sony Pictures. An investigation and celebration of the origins of the world-renowned Latino musical samba-jazz movement Bossa Nova, They Shot the Piano Player captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning-point in Latin American history in the ’60s and ’70s, before the continent was riven by totalitarian regimes. Francisco Tenório Cerqueira Júnior, born in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the most recognized musicians of the samba-jazz movement. At 3 a.m. on 18 March 1976, after giving a concert at the Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, the 34-year-old pianist went out to get some cigarettes. He was never seen again. What happened that night? This is the question that moves the narrator of this documentary graphic novel to initiate an investigation into the fateful events that led to the death of a musician destined to change the course of Brazilian music forever.

THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER

EDIFICE

AUTHOR: Andrzej Klimowski
Paperback/ B&W/ 296pp
ISBN: 978-1-914224-25-6
Publication date: 17 December (US);  7 November (UK)

At the heart of the dream city of Engelstadt stand the tall storeys of an ancient apartment block, home to a nightmare labyrinth of corridors and secrets. Christmas is coming, but the mysterious disappearance of one of its tenants causes a cast of characters (or suspects?) to be assembled before us. Meanwhile, a dark cloud threatens to envelop the city, caped crusaders (or marauders) wander the park, and there is a film screening to attend. A pan-European Pandora’s Box of narrative Russian dolls and Chinese boxes, Edifice builds into an Expressionist graphic vision of our archetypal, metamorphic Shadows and proves to be one of the strangest Christmas stories you will ever read. 

EDIFICE

SelfMadeHero announces The Anxiety Club, a graphic guide to help identify, understand, and manage anxiety

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Arriving in July in the UK and September in the US, The Anxiety Guide is a new graphic novel with a focus on healthcare. Written by Dr. Frédéric Fanget and Catherine Meyer with art by Pauline Aubry, The Anxiety Club introduces three characters, each with a different form of anxiety. After hearing their stories, we follow them into the therapy room where they discover the behavioral, cognitive and emotional tools to help free themselves from anxious thinking. Many people believe that there is no treatment for anxiety: they try to soothe their inner suffering with medication, alcohol, drugs or binge eating. However, there are healthy ways to manage such negative thoughts and feelings. This self-help handbook helps the reader to identify, understand and find freedom from anxiety.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the prevalence of anxiety and depression increased 25% globally during the pandemic.

The Anxiety Club is written by a leading anxiety expert and mental health professional. In contrast to many other self-help books the graphic medium makes this serious topic more approachable to an adult and young adult audience.

The Anxiety Guide

SelfMadeHero present A Comical Eye on British Monarchy, a fold-out fun new way to learn about Britain’s Kings and Queens

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Need a brush-up on royal history before The Crown series  6 ends? Ideally via a convenient, single-sheet, poster-sized booklet? The Comical Eye’s British Monarchy booklet hits the US on December 5, 2024!

As fans of Netflix’s The Crown watch the last season ever, just how much do we know about the history of the monarchs?  For example: Which kings couldn’t speak English, or stammered when they could?  Who were “Softsword” and “Sailor Bill”?  Which king had 10 children with his mistress but none with his queen?

Written and devised by London-based illustrator Teresa Robertson and historian Leo Schulz this is an educational comic strip with a difference, a fold-out pocket-sized poster book that’s an alternative (and funnier) Bayeux Tapestry tracing every king and queen from Alfred the Great to Charles III – each of their vivid pen-and-ink-portraits encapsulating the personal quirks and dramatic social change of their reigns. Unfold The Comical Eye’s British Monarchy to learn and have fun as a family, from grandmothers to toddlers – a wonderful alternative to screen-time that brings everyone together!

The Comical Eye’s British Monarchy

Sophie’s World Vol. II is a graphic novel about the history of philosophy. From Descartes to the Present Day

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Sophie’s come a long way since the day she received that cryptic letter with its intriguing question: “Who are you?” The mysterious correspondence sweeps our curious young heroine off on a tour of Western philosophy from its ancient foundations through the Renaissance. But it also prompts more personal reflection: What is my place in the world, my purpose in life? And just who is that girl, a stranger and yet so familiar, I glimpse in the mirror?

In Sophie’s World Vol II: From Descartes to the Present Day, Sophie’s quest for answers will see her explore major schools of modern thought from Descartes and Locke to Freud and Marx. She and her quizzical philosophy teacher Alberto, now unmasked, struggles with the possibility that they are characters in a book. Our intrepid heroine remains as forthright and openhearted as ever.

In this witty comics adaptation, Vincent Zabus and Nicoby reinvent Jostein Gaarder’s novel of ideas – a beloved bestseller that has already won the hearts of over 50 million readers around the world – to bring Sophie’s charming quest for meaning to a whole new medium and a new generation.

Sophie’s World Vol II: From Descartes to the Present Day

Middle Distance is an interesting graphic novel about running and getting some control over one’s life

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A charming, heartwarming, and poignant story of running and self-acceptance, Mylo Choy’s Middle Distance combines exertion and introspection in an exploration of the physical body’s connection to the human experience. An exciting graphic addition to a growing field, this sports memoir recounts Mylo’s history with running, and how their love for that famously solitary sport pushed them to grow over time.

Story: Mylo Choy
Art: Mylo Choy

Get your copy now! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Bookshop
Amazon

SelfMadeHero provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
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Weekly Preview! Lots of graphic novels!

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There are a lot of comics coming out every week to be covered. Check out some of what we’ll be reviewing and this is only the beginning!

This week’s reviews include:

  • History Comics World War II (First Second)
  • Middle Distance (SelfMadeHero)
  • School for Extraterrestrial Girls Vol. 1 Girl on Fire (Papercutz)
  • Science Comics: Frogs (First Second)
  • Stories of the Islands (Holiday House)

Not shown:

  • Traveling to Mars #9 (Ablaze)
  • The Walking Dead Deluxe #76 (Skybound)

Already reviewed:

  • Faceless and the Family #1 (Oni Press)
  • I May Be a Guild Receptionist but I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock out on Time Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
  • The Villainess Stans the Heroes Playing the Antagonist to Support her Faves! Vol. 2 (Yen Press)
  • Why is Everybody Yelling? Growing Up in My Immigrant Family (Farrar Straus Giroux)

Yen Press, Papercutz, Holiday House, Farrar Straus Giroux, and First Second provided Graphic Policy with FREE copies for review

Mylo Choy’s Middle Distance takes us through the highs, lows, twists, and turns of the author’s relationship with running, down the long road towards self-acceptance

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A charming, heartwarming, and poignant story of running and self-acceptance, Mylo Choy’s Middle Distance combines exertion and introspection in an exploration of the physical body’s connection to the human experience. An exciting graphic addition to a growing field, this sports memoir recounts Mylo’s history with running, and how their love for that famously solitary sport pushed them to grow over time.

As Middle Distance grapples with themes of resilience, identity, and self-care, Mylo leads us along the middle way between motion and rest, hurt and healing, fear and joy. The result is an honest, nuanced work of subtle power that will appeal to all runners, especially those who are transgender or nonbinary.

Middle Distance is out September 14, 2023 in the UK and on October 31, 2023 in the US.

Middle Distance

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

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DC Pride 2023

Wednesdays (and Tuesdays) are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in

Each week our contributors choose what they can’t wait to read this week or just sounds interesting. In other words, this is what we’re looking forward to and think you should be taking a look at!

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this week.

Amazing Spider-Man #26 (Marvel) – Word is out. Someone dies. We want to see how it all goes down.

Ancient Enemies #4 (Frank Miller Presents) – The series has been pretty interesting with its themes and concepts and we want to see how much more it dives into them.

Cat Fight #1 (IDW Publishing) – A mysterious character threatens Felix’s family member to recruit Felix to his crime syndicate. That sends Felix on a mission around the world.

DC Pride 2023 (DC Comics) – We’re always fans of anthologies.

Listen Beautiful Marcia (Fantagraphics) – When a daughter gets in trouble with a gang, her mother steps up to save her.

Local Man #4 (Image Comics) – The series has been a lot of fun mixing in something new with classic Image superhero comics.

North Valley Grimoire #1 (Massive/Whatnot) – It’s spycraft meets spellcraft in a series that’s supernatural suspense with Magicians.

Pathfinder: Wake the Dead #1 (Dynamite Entertainment) – The popular tabletop roleplaying game kicks off a new comic adventure with extras for those that play the game.

Power Girl Special #1 (DC Comics) – Power Girl has new powers and looks to be getting a bit of a spotlight. The character has had a bumpy recent history so we’re wondering where this all goes.

Savage Strength of Starstorm #1 (Image Comics) – A high school student finds a strange alien weapon called the Starstorm and the power within will determine the fate of the entire universe.

Starman: David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Years (SelfMadeHero) – As Bowie fans, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that this made our list this week.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures Continued #1 (IDW Publishing) – The first volume was fun and we’re fans of the classic animated series, so we’re excited to check out this second volume!

W0rldtr33 #2 (Image Comics) – The first issue with a “virus” that causes individuals to act in violent ways was intriguing. There was some potential there and we want to see where it goes.

Discover Thomas Girtin, The Forgotten Painter, this June

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Part historical narrative, part modern fiction, the book consists of two interlinked stories: the first focuses on the 18th-century painter Thomas Girtin and his relationship with his friend and rival J.M.W. Turner; the second tells the tale of three amateur artists in the present day, united by a shared interest in Girtin’s art.

Using this dual narrative to draw parallels between two eras of rapid technological advancement and socio-political turbulence, writer/artist Oscar Zarate’s long-awaited new graphic novel, Thomas Girtin, The Forgotten Painter, restores to modern eyes this unjustly forgotten figure, whose work has been almost entirely ignored despite his huge influence in British painting. At the time of death, aged just 27, Girtin had already established himself as a pioneer and a master: his expressionist approach was a significant turning point in the British watercolour tradition. But the brevity of his career, coupled with his chosen medium (compared to oils, watercolours were a humbler and less easily exhibited form) meant that his work came to be overshadowed by that of Turner. As Turner himself famously remarked, “If Tom had lived, I should have starved.”

Thomas Girtin, The Forgotten Painter is out this June from SelfMadeHero.

Thomas Girtin, The Forgotten Painter
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