The Fifth Beatle map contest

Here's a map-centric scene from the graphic novel The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story.  There's a contest to re-write the captions on this page and the winner gets a signed, numbered, slipcased "Limited Edition" of The Fifth Beatle

Introducing In Maps & Legends

In Maps & Legends is a digital graphic novel by Niki Smith that's now in its 9th volume.  I haven't read it but the concept looks amazing:

Kaitlin Grayson considers herself just an artist until she gets recruited by a strange man named Bartamus, who shows up at her place in the middle of the night and demands she use her skills to save his dying world. Soon Kait gets caught between two worlds, and if Bartamus’ world falls, Earth is next — along with untold other worlds.

9/11 Commission: The Graphic Novel

Remember the 9/11 Commission Report? If you never actually got around to reading it, here's the graphic novel version by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón serialized in Slate Magazine. It's an easier read... and uses quite a few maps (although I would guess that the original does too).

Lord's Resistance Army Graphic Novel

Today's two-fer comes from the graphic novel "Army of God", by David Axe and Tim Hamilton.  They have published the first chapter of a graphic novel recounting the atrocities committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (and others) in the Congo.  The first chapter gives background for the area, which has had a deeply sad history in recent centuries, which continues to this day with what has been called "Africa's World War" and the murderous exploits of the Lord's Resistance Army.  So far Chapter 1 uses a few maps.  Future chapters will be forthcoming. The story promises to be sad, even difficult to read, but compelling.

...have to watch the show

What if there was a long lost screenplay by Muppet creator Jim Hensen that hadn't been movie-ized yet?  What if that were made into a graphic novel?  Fortunately for us, the brilliant cartoonist Ramón Pérez has done just that with Tale of Sand, due to be released any day now. Note the discarded map being blown into the canyon.

While you're waiting for that to come out, do, certainly, have a look at Mr. Pérez' masterwork webcomic Kukuburi, which is one of my most very favorite things, although it's updated far too infrequently.  Read it from the beginning and bask in it's surreal loveliness.

Girl Genius two-fer

Today, in honor of Girl Genius winning the Hugo award for the Best Graphic Story for the third year in a row (read the graphic acceptance speech... and the other one in 2009) I'm doing a Girl Genius Tuesday Two-fer... Which is tough because there's actually a LOT to choose from.  Phil and Kaja Foglio have mentioned maps several times in their Girl Genius webcomic and occasionally have drawn some rather beautiful maps.  So I think I'll do two sets: An amazing 3D scale model battle map, and an amazing 3D virtual map (and an extra set at the end). Here goes:

The first is a simply spectacular depiction of a scale model map of the town of Mechanicsburg, home of the artificially intelligent and homicidal Castle Heterodyne, which is under siege/protection by the Baron Wulfenbach, as well as under attack by practically every other fighting force in Europa, as the power struggle rages to see whether there is, in fact, a new Heterodyne heiress. This amazing map, by the way, is in one of the many, many chambers inside the ridiculously vast flying Castle Wulfenbach airship.

The next set is part of the story arc where our heroine Agatha Clay/Heterodyne is in her broken ancestral artificially intelligent and homicidal castle looking for a 3D map of the castle that will show them where further repairs need to be made:

With her are Violetta, an elite Smoke Knight who serves the Sturmvoraus family, Tarvek Sturmvoraus, Prince of Sturmhalten, and heir to the throne of the Storm King (well, he's the actual Storm King now, since his father was killed by his clank-daughter just before he tried to restore Agatha's mother/The Other into Agatha's body/mind), also Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, Tarvek's rival, and heir to the aforementioned Baron Wulfenbach's European Empire (his dad might also be dead).... Also Agatha is carrying the severed head of Otilia, the Muse of Protection ...only that's not actually Otilia, it's actually another copy of the Castle Heterodyne's fractured, and somewhat insane, identity. The identity of Otilia was actually Madam Von Pinn, nanny (not kidding), who ripped apart Agatha's adoptive parents, but who's identity has since been transferred into into a giant mechanical cat. ...Is this a great story or what!

Gil there in the bottom panels is getting abducted by a psychedelic Audrey II-esque plant.   

 So after their ordeal with the plant (and another hyper run-in with the Heterodyne pretender, Zola), Tarvek and Agatha get around to looking for the 3D map in the library... now where could it be...?

 ...under the rug? (by the way, here's the episode of Agatha talking to The Castle the first time 'round)

Ah! There it is! That's a pretty neato 3D steampunk map, wouldn't ya say?

Now to find the secret control room... right...about ...here!

... and with a few repairs, the lovely 3D map's looking much, much better, yes?  By the way, that rather battered gentleman is Airman Higgs.  Ya know, Higgs.... He has a map too...

...apparently.... Let's see, this is before the 3D map, and just after Zola has escaped and caused a collapse that sealed off Agatha-as-The-Other, Tarvek, Gil, & Violetta in Lucrezia/The Other's old secret sub-sub-sub basement lab, separating them from the rest of their crew, which includes Higgs, Zeetha (the green one, Princess of the Lost City of Skifander), Molech VonZinzer, Theopholous DuMedd, Sleipnir O'Hara, and Professor Diaz in the tall hat (who I think ends up dead later... I don't quite remember).

 ...right... he's got a "map". ...and that cat thing in the coat is Krosp, Emperor of Cats.

Well, that more than sums it up for today's map-related Girl Genius extravaganza. There's a few more but we'll take a break and get to those later.  Meanwhile I recommend heading over to Girl Genius and starting from the beginning of the story and enjoy the whole way through.  It's very worth it.

The Meek

This one is a new discovery for me: "The Meek" by Der-shing Helmer, aka Alexds1.  It's an online graphic novel that has been running for a while.  It's getting towards the end of chapter 3 and the story is effectively only beginning.  It wouldn't take too long to get caught up and then check in every few weeks.  The part of the story arc that involves a map starts here (kinda NSFW warning): http://www.meekcomic.com/2009/04/11/chapter-1-page-17/, but the story itself starts here: http://www.meekcomic.com/2008/12/27/chapter-1-cover/.  It's a captivating story so far, but it left off with the map stuff back in chapter 1... though that is a cartographer our heroine is attempting to recruit there for her quest so it's reasonable to expect the map stuff to show up again later.  Enjoy.

Captain Estar

This is from a graphic novel "Captain Estar Goes to Heaven" by Winston Rowntree at the Subnormality webcomic (warning, it can be pretty dark, but it's intricately drawn with tons of detail, and not just in the dialog). The tagline on Subnormality is "Comix with too many words since 2007". This panel, just like the associated webcomic, very much lives up to that name. And why this panel? Notice the "Maps for the Galactic Backpacker" manual in the hands of the two folks in the lower right... not to be compared with the inestimable "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"