Omnivoracious

Greg Bear and “Primordium,” the New Halo Forerunner Novel

Can a novel set in a videogame universe enthrall fans of the game and entice those who don’t play the game? Iconic science fiction writer Greg Bear’s seem to be a great example of a series that can attract both sets of readers. Halo: Primordium—the follow up to the first volume, Halo: Cryptum—has just been released by Tor Books. The viability of the series is partly a testament to the Halo game and partly a tribute to Bear—a Hugo and Nebula award-winner—who, in his original fiction, brings powerful and original ideas with him.

When Omnivoracious asked Bear, just back from a recent book tour, how he first encountered the game, he replied that his son Erik “followed the game faithfully and played it frequently. I observed and then played it a few times—I was not as good as he was!—and thoroughly enjoyed the action, design elements, the entire science fictional outlook and feel. I was also intrigued by the back story, which seemed fascinating, but just barely touched upon. I’m a sucker for ancient giant alien artifacts.”

In terms of any constraints exploring the implications of those “giant alien artifacts, Bear indicated the Halo team has given him “a lot of freedom to create and play around in the known Halo universe. We have to respect what has gone before, of course—but when there’s a major question or something pretty much undeveloped, I run with it, develop my own solutions and scenarios, then run them past the gang [at 343] to see if they fit. By far, the majority of my creative additions have been accepted, and then added upon by the Halo team. It’s a great collaborative effort!”

Still, Bear acknowledged that there are challenges to writing in an “established universe”: “I’m used to developing my own moods and themes for individual works. Halo has its own moods and themes, which have to be respected...[it] requires some disciplined and thoughtful maneuvering. Fortunately, the Halo universe reminds me so much of classic science fiction, that it isn’t much of a leap to discern what Halo fans are going to enjoy. They seem to like what I like, so far!”

Graphic Novel Friday: The Annotated Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Unless you were abducted by aliens decades ago and have only just been deposited back on Earth, you’ve no doubt heard of the iconic Sandman comics series, for which Neil Gaiman is credited as the principle architect. The Sandman, which ended in 1996, is one of the most acclaimed titles in the history of comics. The basic premise, following the adventures of Dream, ruler of the worlds of dream and member of the family Endless, blends myth, dark fantasy, contemporary fiction, and historical drama. One reason for its enduring legacy and popularity must be due to the sheer flexibility of the concept and how that allowed Gaiman’s imagination free rein.

Now Vertigo has released volume 1 of

The Annotated Sandman in an oversized hardcover. Edited (some might say “curated”) by Leslie S. Klinger, this first volume covers issues 1 through 20. Special extras include a preface, an essay entitled “The Context of the Sandman,” and a foreword by Gaiman himself.

In that introduction, Gaiman remembers reading other annotated books like Annotated Alice and The Annotated Hunting of the Snark: “I loved feeling I had been given a key, or a succession of keys. I loved having jokes I had missed pointed out to me. I loved feeling that there had been scholarship and thought put into something, and that I had been made a gift of it….It’s like going around a museum with a knowledgeable guide, someone who can point up into the rafters, where you might not have looked if you were walking around alone, and point out the gargoyles.”

He also notes that from the beginning Sandman was being annotated: “I was being sent copies of the USEnet annotations being assembled by a group mind.”

George R. R. Martin: "I have the best fans in the world"

Finally!

You've been asking, and we've been promising, but this video is finally ready for prime time. (We're sorry it's taken so long. Really.) Last summer, the hugely popular author of the epic "Song of Ice and Fire" series answered questions submitted by Amazon Books Facebook fans. He talks about his childhood (I was a "geek ... I lived a lot in my own mind"), his writing life, the many worlds he's created, and his admiration for Tolkien. 

Last year, Martin was named one of "the most influential people in the world" by Time magazine, which called him the "American Tolkien."

He's a brilliant man, a thoughtful and thought-provoking writer, and we hope you enjoy this engaging 20-minute chat with one of the most fascinating of contemporary writers.  

 

 

10 Books Jack London Might Enjoy Reading on the Occasion of his Birthday

Happy Birthday, Jack London. To so many readers, your name stands for self-reliance, bold individuality, love for nature and animals, and an adventurous soul. On this day, January 12th, when you would have been 136 years old, we considered what books you might want to read. Here's our list:

Into the Wild by John Krakauer - The story of a young man who travels to Alaska to live in the wild, this book was Krakauer's first bestseller (which JL would surely appreciate), helping to launch his career as one of the preeminent contemporary chroniclers of adventure and the outdoors.

 

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat - based on the wolf research that Mowat conducted himself in Canada, Never Cry Wolf has done as much to change people's misconceptions of Canis lupus as any other book, even London's own. A highly entertaining and informative portrayal of a man living in the cold, cold wild surrounded by wolves and voles.

 

SAS Survival Handbook by Lofty Wiseman - "For Any Climate, In Any Situation" - thus does this book promise to educate you about survival. And it delivers. Jack London could have used it while suffering from malnutrition and scurvy in the Klondike. But the book didn't exist then.

 

Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestad - As survival stories go, this one stands among the giants. In 1979, an 11-year-old boy is the sole survivor of a small plane crash in the San Gabriel Mountains. He must make his way down the frozen slopes through a blizzard, using the skills he learned from his father, who was killed in the crash. Alternating between a harrowing story of escape and warm memories of his father, Norman Ollestad has created one memorable piece of nonfiction.

The Votes Are In: Literary Award Winners and Finalists

Almost as exciting as the Republican primaries: it was a huge week for lit contests, six of which announced winners and/or finalists...

The Story Prize finalists:

• Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda
• Steven Millhauser, We Others
• Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision

Winner to receive a $20,000 prize on March 21 at the New School in New York.

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Among the winners of the 2011 National Jewish Book Awards are Jerusalem: The Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which won the Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award, and Aharon Appelfeld's Until the Dawn's Light, which won the fiction award. Art Spiegelman won the biography and memoir award for MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus.

The full list of winners and finalists in 18 categories can be found here.

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Seven novels (instead of the usual five) made the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist:

• Jamil Ahmad (Pakistan), The Wandering Falcon
• Jahnavi Barua (India), Rebirth
• Rahul Bhattacharya (India), The Sly Company of People Who Care
• Amitav Ghosh (India), River of Smoke
• Kyung-Sook Shin (South Korea), Please Look After Mom
• Yan Lianke (China), Dream of Ding Village
• Banana Yoshimoto (Japan), The Lake

The winner will be announced March 15 in Hong Kong.

Omni Exclusive - Chapter Two of John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars"

As promised, Omnivoracious brings you Chapter 2 of John Green's new novel, The Fault in Our Stars. Enjoy!

The Fault in Our Stars

 

chapter two

 

Augustus Waters drove horrifically. Whether stopping or starting, everything happened with a tremendous JOLT. I flew against the seat belt of his Toyota SUV each time he braked, and my neck snapped backward each time he hit the gas. I might have been nervous—what with sitting in the car of a strange boy on the way to his house, keenly aware that my crap lungs complicate efforts to fend off unwanted advances—but his driving was so astonishingly poor that I could think of nothing else.

We’d gone perhaps a mile in jagged silence before Augustus said, “I failed the driving test three times.”

“You don’t say.”

YA Wednesday: John Green Says Thanks to His "Amazonian" Fans

Yesterday we posted an exclusive excerpt from John's heartbreaking new book, The Fault in Our Stars. Today, John extends his gratitude to "the people of the Amazon."

[Watch this space tomorrow for another excerpt - Chapter 2 of The Fault in Our Stars.]

 

Trend Stetting 10: Listful Thinking

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a numbered list. The Old Testament knew it, Letterman knows it, Cosmo knows it, and we certainly know it around here: Amazon’s editors pick our 10 favorite books each month and our top 100 annually. And every time we put a list on Omnivoracious, you guys can’t get enough of it.

Neither can I, so the first Trend Stetting of the shiny new year is devoted to a list of books that made it onto my nightstand but not into my column during 2011. To keep things egalitarian, this particular list is both numbered and alphabetized. By, hmm, author’s last name. (Yes, that was arbitrary. I’m the Decider on alternating Tuesdays.)

Ready?

1. Help! for Writers, Roy Peter Clark
Clark, a distinguished scholar and teacher, has made a habit of publishing accessibly nerdy books on language. Some are wonkier than others—you might remember his optimistically titled The Glamour of Grammar—but Help! for Writers delivers on its promise with effective simplicity. It’s a light, skimmable read full of practical advice on how to turn the struggle to put words on paper into a feasible lifestyle: For example, eat out. Read graffiti. Use search engines. Revise at every stage. Index and date your notebooks. And, of course, keep lots of lists.

 

2. Word Hero, Jay Heinrichs
“Witcraft,” as Heinrichs defines it, is the elevation of bon mot to art form. His goal is to teach laypeople how to become masters of pith, and though I’d argue you’re either born with it or you’re not, he does a fine job of selling the possibility that such talent can be learned. “Consider it a course in self-taught heroism,” Heinrich shouts from the sidelines, “and use it to develop your own unforgettability.” If you think of him less as a wizened professor and more as a life coach, you’re likely to get a boost in confidence from this book. Remember: If you don’t wordplay the game, you can’t win. (See how I did that? Right there?)

3. Microstyle, Christopher Johnson
Subtitled “The Art of Writing Little,” Johnson’s “field guide to the age of the incredible shrinking message” stands in philosophical opposition to Word Hero, even as it aims for a similar goal: Do more with less, especially as a means of selling yourself or your product. But this time the advice stems from a PhD in linguistics, and Johnson’s deconstruction of headlines and catchphrases offers a fascinating look at human psychology and how we respond to language as a trigger for nostalgia, desire, and other emotions that shouldn’t reasonably be associated with Clairol or Little Debbie Snack Cakes. Microstyle almost feels like an evil dictator’s manual for taking over the world, one beautifully structured Apple tagline at a time.

2011 Philip K. Dick Award Finalists Announced, Including Maureen McHugh, Mira Grant, and More

The Philip K. Dick Award finalists for best original Science Fiction published in paperback form in the United States have just been announced:

A Soldier's Duty by Jean Johnson (Ace Books)

After the Apocalypse by Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press)

Deadline by Mira Grant (Orbit)

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit)

The Other by Matthew Hughes (Underland Press)

The Postmortal by Drew Magary (Penguin Books)

The Samuil Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden (Orbit)

The hot hand here clearly belongs to Maureen F. McHugh with After the Apocalypse from Small Beer, the only short story collection on the ballot. It’s a brilliant book that hit the trifecta of starred reviews in Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. Michael Dirda called an “irresistible festival of horrors” in the Washington Post. Publishers Weekly and io9.com both put it on their year’s best list.

Omni Exclusive - Chapter One of John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars"

Omnivoracious is happy to bring you Chapter 1 of John Green's new novel, The Fault in Our Stars, which went on sale today. Tune in tomorrow for a video, followed the next day by Chapter 2.

The Fault in Our Stars

Chapter One

Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death. Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying. (Cancer is also a side effect of dying. Almost everything is, really.) But my mom believed I required treatment, so she took me to see my Regular Doctor Jim, who agreed that I was veritably swimming in a paralyzing and totally clinical depression, and that therefore my meds should be adjusted and also I should attend a weekly Support Group.

This Support Group featured a rotating cast of characters in various states of tumor-driven unwellness. Why did the cast rotate? A side effect of dying.

The Support Group, of course, was depressing as hell. It met every Wednesday in the basement of a stone-walled Episcopal church shaped like a cross. We all sat in a circle right in the middle of the cross, where the two boards would have met, where the heart of Jesus would have been. I noticed this because Patrick, the Support Group Leader and only person over eighteen in the room, talked about the heart of Jesus every freaking meeting, all about how we, as young cancer survivors, were sitting right in Christ’s very sacred heart and whatever.

So here’s how it went in God’s heart: The six or seven or ten of us walked/wheeled in, grazed at a decrepit selection of cookies and lemonade, sat down in the Circle of Trust, and listened to Patrick recount for the thousandth time his depressingly miserable life story—how he had cancer in his balls and they thought he was going to die but he didn’t die and now here he is, a full-grown adult in a church basement in the 137th nicest city in America, divorced, addicted to video games, mostly friendless, eking out a meager living by exploiting his cancertastic past, slowly working his way toward a master’s degree that will not improve his career prospects, waiting, as we all do, for the sword of Damocles to give him the relief that he escaped lo those many years ago when cancer took both of his nuts but spared what only the most generous soul would call his life.

AND YOU TOO MIGHT BE SO LUCKY!

Then we introduced ourselves: Name. Age. Diagnosis. And how we’re doing today. I’m Hazel, I’d say when they’d get to me. Sixteen. Thyroid originally but with an impressive and long-settled satellite colony in my lungs. And I’m doing okay.

Media Monday - Here's to a New Year

Happy New Year! 2011 in books was really special. We can only hope to see the same kind of breadth and quality this year. With a whole new year of books ahead of us, let's get started....

 

New York Times

• In honor of the political season, the Sunday Book Review has a section called "Bipolar America," which juxtaposes books about leftward leaning politics with those from the right. One of the books reviewed is Thomas Frank's Pity the Billionaire. The Times says, "This book is Frank’s interpretation of developments since What’s the Matter With Kansas? was published eight years ago. Frank’s thesis here is basically that the thesis of the old book has been confirmed." Sounds like, if you liked the first book, you'll like this one, too.

• Balancing out the Frank book are two books about the Tea Party (both published by the Oxford University Press). The books are Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party by Geoffrey Kabaservice and The Tea Party and the Remaking of the Republican Conservative by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson. The books tie the Tea Party back to 1964's Goldwater moment: "Today, nearly all political centrists are Democrats. And with the rise of the Tea Party, Republicans are experiencing another 1964 moment..." the book states. "But there are important differences between the two movements. For one, the Tea Party, unlike the Goldwater insurgency, has managed to win elections and thereby obtain some power at the national and state level. For another, the Tea Partiers’ anti-­government ideology is tempered by quiet support for Social Security and Medicare. That’s because the activists themselves tend to be middle-aged or older."

Beyond Orcs & Elves: Stacy Whitman on Writing Cross-Culturally

“Write what you know” was never really on the table for fantasy writers. At least, not in the literal sense. Trucking with elves and dragons is something sadly left up to our imaginations. But that doesn’t mean that we can just make everything up. Just like having dragons in your book doesn’t mean you can ignore the laws of physics—except, possibly, when it comes to letting dragons fly. Even when writing a fantasy book, you still have to do your best to write well-researched, complex characters who are more than the sum of their stats, whether you’re writing about someone who can play with magic, someone who is living life backward, or someone from a culture not your own—be it real, or imagined.

Creating fantasy cultures and writing cross-culturally in particular can prove a challenge. It’s also a hot subject in fantasy right now, and to address it, I knew I really needed an expert. Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of Stacy Whitman for some much-appreciated guidance.

Stacy Whitman is the editorial director of Tu Books, a multicultural fantasy, science fiction, and mystery imprint for children and young adults--an imprint she originally founded as a small press before being acquired by Lee & Low Books. She’s a veteran of publishing as well as many discussions and presentations on writing cross-culturally, and I know of no one better to help guide authors through creating their own rich, diverse fantasy worlds.

 

1. What are the benefits of writing cross-culturally?

I think anytime we reach outside ourselves and our own view of the world, we can benefit with a greater understanding of other people. Whether that’s writing the opposite gender, writing about real-world cultures other than our own, or in fantasy writing, making up a new culture entirely--or even writing within our own cultural influences, your character is not always going to think the way you do. Seeing the world through your character’s eyes will make your story richer.

Too often I hear writers say, “I don’t know anything about being [insert ethnicity or race here]. Why would I include diversity if I don’t know anything about it?” But then we run the risk of populating our books with a monoculture, and so few places nowadays are still monocultural. There are exceptions--I come from a town in the Midwest that isn’t very diverse--but even in those exceptions, when we look for diversity, we’ll find it. And we should reflect that diversity in the worlds we create.

Martha Beck on the Rebirth of Nature, Human and Wild

Few books get to linger too long in my bedside bookcase, but I haven't let Martha Beck's Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What get out of my sleepy arm's reach since it arrived three years ago. A monthly columnist for O: The Oprah Magazine, Beck is America's best-known life coach, and she speaks with a disarming blend of personal honesty and gobsmacking intelligence (the products of her own fascinating, turbulent life and a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard) that make her simultaneously accessible and awe-inspiring.

Her new book, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, is bolder, stranger, and more powerful than anything she's written before, and I finished it with a scrawled page of urgent questions, which I put to her over email and am delighted to share with you.

Mari Malcolm: More than 20 years after Bill McKibben published The End of Nature, your new book, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, proposes new methods with ancient roots for the wayfinders among us--the growing number of people who feel the pull of the shaman archetype--to thrive in a world that's deeply in need of healing. You say that for many (if not all) people, the rebirth of our true nature is deeply entwined with restoring the natural world and reconnecting with wild animals, an idea that began as a personal epiphany when you had a close encounter with a rhino. When did you realize that the implications of that moment reverberated so far beyond the boundaries of your own life?

An Interview with Lou Beach, Author of "420 Characters"

While on tour in support of 420 Characters, one of our Best Books of the Month for December, author and illustrator Lou Beach stopped by Amazon to chat about how a series of Facebook posts becomes a book, what it's like to live in a family of artists, and "the compulsion to create a narrative."

In his debut collection of microfiction, Beach builds tiny worlds inhabited by recurring characters who come to him, he says, in the space between dreaming and waking. We're not the only ones to be captivated by this approach: 420 Characters has been featured in the New York Times and USA Today, as well as (more than once) on NPR.

 

 

 

Anticipation by Design: More Details on Chip Kidd's Batman Book

Attention, Bat-fans! Back in October, we were thrilled at the news that award-winning book jacket designer and author Chip Kidd would write his very own Batman graphic novel, Batman: Death by Design, in 2012 with artist Dave Taylor. At this point, DC Comics had released precious few details about the project besides a cover (a page for the book didn’t even exist yet on our site). This week, however, DC’s blog The Source unveiled a behind-the-scenes look at Taylor’s artistic process, along with a few more plot details:

Set against the period backdrop of an expansive Gotham City construction boom, the unique take on the Batman mythology is brought to life by acclaimed writer/designer Chip Kidd and fan favorite artist Dave Taylor. Together, they weave a singular tale that captures the flavor of the city as it’s never been seen, while also creating a new look at Batman that re-imagines both the caped crusader and his iconic nemesis – the Joker.

We have a villain! No surprise that it’s the Clown Prince of Crime, but I look forward to Kidd’s take on the iconic nemesis. Plus, there’s no shortage of enthusiasm from Taylor:

“The amount of research I did on its own shows that I was into something way bigger than I’d first thought. I now know more about 1939 than I do about the year of my birth! The book contains some of the truth behind how a city is built, literally. The corruption, and misplacement of power rings true to the point of making this book a timely record. But what this book does above all is show how easy it can be to bring that corruption and power down, all you need is one hero!”

This spring release ranks among the most anticipated Batman books in 2012. For more plot points, be sure to visit the book’s newly built page on our site and check out the artistic evolution of a Death by Design panel sequence below (click images to enlarge).

--Alex

 

Ten Books to Read in the New Year

As resolutions go, the promise to read more books is pretty painless. In fact, it's quite enjoyable. Here are some book suggestions, designed to uplift and enlighten, in these first weeks of the new year.

 

The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen R. Covey

An ageless book that offers a blueprint for being more effective in your both your personal and work life, The Seven Habits provides a simple and fairly straightforward set of directions for moving forward into the new year. The main message: principles over personality.

 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Looking for something more prosaic and allegorical? The Alchemist is a bestselling fable about an Andalusian shepherd boy who comes to learn what might be called the original law of attraction when he is told "when you want something, all the world conspires to help you achieve it."

 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

A number of successful people make a habit of every so often reading Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. This collection of the great leader's thoughts, beliefs, and personal struggles amounts to one of the first recorded self-help books. It's also a classic.

 

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

Maybe you don't want to think so deeply about your own life, but you still want to read an inspiring story full of greatness, intrigue, sorrows, and triumphs. Catherine the Great is a recent biography that reads like a novel and may even provide unexpected fodder for your own life.

 

Eugenides at Amazon

If only our company shared its name with one of the biggest rivers in Mesopotamia-- then this post could have been titled "Eugenides at Euphrates." (Cue rimshot and grimaces.) To ring in the New Year we're posting a few of our favorite author visits, and one of my favorite authors is Jeffrey Eugenides. His novel The Marriage Plot was a Top-10 selection in the 2011 Best Books of the Year list. I hope he doesn't wait another ten years to write his next novel.

 

 

National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Announced

This morning award-winning author Walter Dean Myers was announced as the 2012-13 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.  I had the good fortune to be a part of the selection committee this year, and it's been exciting (and a little agonizing) to keep the secret of our unanimous choice over the last few months (we met in August).

Walter Dean Myers was the very first author to receive the Michael J. Printz award (for Monster) and his body of work is amazing.  Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, books for children, and books for teens--if ever there is a fitting successor to the legendary Katherine Paterson, who held the post from 2010-2011, Myers is it.  As National Ambassador, Myers will help to raise national awareness of the importance of young people's literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.  And he gets a really cool medal at the inauguration ceremony on January 10th at the Library of Congress.  Here is a sampling of some of Walter Dean Myers's books, or you can visit his author page to see more. -- Seira

• Monster
• We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart
• Sunrise Over Fallujah
• Brown Angels: An Album of Pictures and Verse
• Jazz
• Bad Boy: A Memoir

Resolve to Write: 52 Writing Exercises to Hone Your Craft

Want to be a better writer? Resolve to write! Writing regularly is the single most important thing you can do to improve your craft. After all, practice does make perfect. Of course, this obvious answer is easier said than done. The muse is notoriously fickle, and half of just about anyone’s dedicated writing time gets compromised by a lack of inspiration, by more “important” things to do (dinner, laundry, work…), and by the lure of the ever-present internet.

So, this year, to help make resolving to write easier, I’ve pulled together 52 writing exercises inspired by some of my favorite books. Each of these is intended to go from one paragraph to around a page, and there are 52 of them so that you, too, can write every week. Remember, these are just writing exercises—if you want to turn them into a full-length project, please make sure you’re not violating any copyrights.

Happy New Year, and most importantly, happy writing!

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Week 1: Write a haunting description of the eldritch beauty of an abandoned elf kingdom. (Inspired by The Lord of the Rings)

Week 2: Write a page of dialogue between a dying but powerful dragon and the boy who stumbled into his lair in search of something with which to save his people. (Inspired by The Riftwar Saga)

Week 3: Write a fight scene between a priest wielding a holy spiked chain and a vampire. (Inspired by Realms of the Dead)

Week 4:  Write a humorous scene about a warrior who is brave in battle getting all nervous when getting her ears pierced in preparation for a ball. (Inspired by Song of the Lioness Quartet)

Week 5: Write a description of a macabre party in the catacombs under Paris. (Inspired by Revolution)

Graphic Novel Friday: Happy New Year with Comics, Beer, and the End of Days

So long, 2011, and hello, Apocalypse. Much has been made of our collective demise in the coming twelve months of 2012 (John Cusack starred in a film adaptation, after all), but nothing has been crafted quite like the combined creative and delicious efforts of publisher Fantagraphics, Elysian Brewing Company, and artist Charles Burns. Together, the three forces are ringing in the new year with the “Twelve Beers of the Apocalypse,” celebrating the Mayan calendar’s predictions with thematically grim beers, brewed especially for the occasion and released every month in 2012. Elysian’s bottles will feature Burns’ artwork from his seminal Black Hole (one of our Best Comics of the Decade) in the limited runs of each handcrafted treat.

On the 21st of each month, Elysian will toast the release of that month’s beer at their Seattle locations and Fantagraphics’ storefront in Georgetown. “These limited brews will be available in bottles and draft and at select bars and bottle shops,” Fantagraphics announced, so order ahead—because once they are gone, folks, they are gone.

In January, the end time festivities begin with "Nibiru" (see label at left, click to enlarge), a “Belgian-style Tripel, flavored with an infusion of yerba mate,” followed by "Rapture" in February and "Fallout" in March. Each brew promises decadent flavors and collector appeal.

Fantagraphics published three of Burns’ earlier collections, El Borbah, Big Baby, and Skin Deep—all three in magazine-sized format and full of unsettling stories riddled with anxiety and doom (but every bit must-reads). Black Hole and Burns' latest, X’ed Out, came from Pantheon—the latter was also one of our picks for Best Comics and Graphic Novels in 2010—and present disaffected youths with problems far exceeding their respective suburban abodes. The kids are not all right.

A trifecta of this magnitude only forms once a Ragnorak, and comics and beer aficionados will have much to salute whether or not everything we hold dear collapses in 2012. For more on the individuals releases, ingredients, and brew plans, visit Fantagraphics' FLOG! blog.  

Happy New Year!

--Alex