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Broken Social Scene & Z2 Comics Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of You Forgot It in People with New Graphic Novel, “Lover’s Spit” Vinyl & Cassette

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Z2 Comics celebrates the most crucial indie album of the new millennium with Broken Social Scene: You Forgot It in People, The Graphic Novel. Paralleling the confluence that led a community of Toronto musicians to craft a winding audio epiphany, this project unites one writer and 13 artists to create a series of intertwining vignettes inspired by the landmark 2002 record, You Forgot It in People, on its 20th anniversary. Overseen by Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, Justin Peroff and Brendan Canning, writer Lonnie Nadler joins Eric Orchard, Scott Chantler, Ray Fawkes, Mike Feehan, Diana Nguyen, and more artists to be announced for a fully Canadian sequential art jam session.

Within these pages, a collection of seemingly disparate strangers’ lives weave in and out of each others’ orbits, touched equally by the mundane and unexplainable. The meta of music and people and ideas harmonizing together shifts to a new medium for this touching and ambitious graphic novel. 

To commemorate the anniversary, the band is also releasing a 10-inch vinyl of “Lover’s Spit”—featuring both versions from, respectively, You Forgot It in People and b-sides collection Bee Hives. Broken Social Scene will also release an original tape cassette, a collection of unreleased instrumental compositions that will take the listener on a sonic journey.

Z2 and Broken Social Scene present You Forgot It in People, The Graphic Novel in both softcover and hardcover formats, as well as oversized hardcover deluxe, and an oversized hardcover deluxe edition hand-signed by members of the band. Renee Nault provides cover art. Deluxe editions include gallery-ready prints capturing various incarnations of the band, courtesy Eric Orchard (2018), Ray Fawkes (2003), Diana Nguyen (2004), and Adrienne Tollas (2001), as well as the Lover’s Spit 10-Inch Vinyl and cassette tape. Pre-order yours today.

Review: The Handmaid’s Tale

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The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood has been one of my favorite authors for a very long time, and this was before every media outlet decided to adapt her work for television. Her ability to convey hurt, despair, and triumph despite circumstance, is what makes her a unique storyteller. The way she portrays her protagonists, you not only fall in love with them, you hope to be as brave as them.

I found about her, years before the famous adaptations, through a girl I was dating. It was through her love of Atwood’s work that I became enamored as well. The way she described each book, made me feel like these were places you had to visit. The first book, that she introduced me to was The Blind Assassin, a complicated murder mystery shrouded in family history and forbidden love.

I always wondered how her books would translate to comic form. She gave us an original story in Angel Catbird but it was her prose novels that deserve even further examination. For the first time, fans of hers will get to see how the world of Offred is brought to life via comic form in The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel.

We are dropped in the Red Centre. What was a gym, has now become the sleeping quarters for hundreds of women, all whom are silenced and their names taken. We meet Offred, a young lady who is less than a prisoner, as she becomes beholden to the man of the house, The Commander. We soon find out that in this world women are slaves. In this America, men hold power absolutely. We also meet the Commander’s wife, a wretched woman who sees Offred as another in a long line of women who will fail to bear the Commander a child. We also meet Nick, the Commander’s chauffeur, and someone Offred falls for. There’s Aunt Lydia, an austere warden of the women who bare children and a strict disciplinarian of any woman who gets out of line. Soon Offred gets into dangerous territory, an illicit affair with the Commander beyond the function of child bearing. The Commander also becomes infatuated with her.

Overall, the graphic novel is a skillful exploration of how humanity can turn on its own and the evil that can be resurrected when the dark recesses are left to wander in the minds of men in power. The story by Margaret Atwood is scary, heart wrenching, and unforgettable. The adaptation and illustration by Renee Nault are articulate and gorgeous. Altogether, if you loved the book and the television show, this interpretation is paramount to your understanding of this world.

Story: Margaret Atwood Adaptation: Renee Nault Art: Renee Nault
Story: 10 Adaptation: 9.5 Art: 9.7 Overall: 9.8 Recommendation: Buy

Preview: The Handmaid’s Tale

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The Handmaid’s Tale

(W) Margaret Atwood (A) Renee Nault
In Shops: Mar 27, 2019
SRP: $22.95

An instant classic when it was published in 1985, Atwood’s genre-bending, dystopian story comes to life in this new, beautifully illustrated graphic novel. The story is iconic: In the Republic of Gilead, a Handmaid named Offred lives in the home of the Commander, to the purpose that she become pregnant with his child. Stripped of her most basic freedoms, (work, property, her own name), Offred remembers a different time, not so long ago, when she was valuable for more than her viable ovaries, when she was mother to a daughter she could keep, and when she and her husband lived and loved as equals. Darkly prescient, scathingly sarcastic, and eminently frightening, The Handmaid’s Tale has only gained relevance since it was originally published, and remains one of the most powerful, widely read stories of our times.

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale Gets a Graphic Novel Adaptation this March

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Margaret Atwood‘s The Handmaid’s Tale is an influential work of fiction. The dystopian world exploring the subjugation of women and patriarchy feels ahead of its time as we discuss these very things in today’s world. Published in 1985, the book has been adapted into a motion picture, radio play, stage play, opera, and the award winning television show. On March 26, 2019, McClelland & Stewart in Canada and Doubleday in the US will publish the first ever graphic novel adaptation.

The Handmaid’s Tale Graphic Novel features the art of Renée Nault — a Canadian artist and frequent illustrator for the Los Angeles Times. Atwood selected Nault to adapt the work. The 240 full-color watercolor pages took Nault over two years to complete from the initial sketches to the final pages.

This isn’t Atwood’s first foray into the world of comics. She has recently written Angel Catbird and War Bears which are published by Dark Horse.

The Handmaid's Tale graphic novel cover