Letter To Survivors

Description

A haunting and darkly funny post-apocalyptic graphic novel that follows an unusual postal worker on his very bizarre mail route. In the blasted ruins of what was once a picture-perfect suburb, nothing stirs-except the postman. Clad in a hazmat suit and mounted on a bicycle, he is still delivering the mail, nuclear apocalypse or no nuclear apocalypse. One family has taken refuge in an underground fallout shelter, and to them he brings-or, rather, shouts through the air vent-a series of odd, anonymous letters. They describe the family's prosperous past life, and then begin to get stranger. . . This pioneering graphic novel was created in 1981 by famed French cartoonist Gebe, a longtime contributor to Charlie Hebdo, and has never before been available in English. Letter to Survivors is a blackhearted delight, at once a witty metafictional game of stories within stories and a scathing, urgent send-up of consumerist excess and nuclear peril- funnier, and scarier, than ever.

Gebe (Georges Blondeaux; 1929-2004) was a fixture of the French press for almost fifty years. He was best known as a cartoonist, but he was also an author, lyricist, screenwriter, and dramatist; a maker of short films and photo-novels; and a beloved editor and nurturer of new talent. From 1970 to 1985, he was the editor in chief of Charlie Hebdo. He returned when the weekly was reborn in 1992, and served as the editorial director until his death. Edward Gauvin has translated more than a hundred and fifty graphic novels, including Blutch's Peplum (NYR Comics), and is a two-time winner of the John Dryden Translation Competition. He is the contributing editor for Francophone comics at Words Without Borders.

"Originally published in France in 1981, the late Gebe's post-apocalyptic warning makes its English-language debut thanks to award-winning, superbly prodigious (300-plus translated graphic titles!) Gauvin. His astute, context-rich introduction to the multifaceted, Charlie Hebdo-famed Georges Blondeaux ("Gebe" is the French pronunciation of his initials), underscores-ironically, tragically, yet somehow comically-the timeless efficacy of this 'slim, disillusioned volume' about the perils of blind capitalism and imminent self-destruction." -Booklist, starred review "Built on a foundation of whimsical gallows humor, this book bursts at the seams with lessons as relevant to the current state of the world as when it was first published in France over 35 years ago... Through black-and-white cartoon linework, the characters of the letters and the family they are being read to are brought to life in a manner as satirical and pointed as the lessons they are depicting." -Publishers Weekly, starred review