This cinematic tale opens surrealistically: with a traffic jam caused by a wounded elephant. Our heroine, Carice, abandons her car and walks trancelike through a wood to visit her husband in the hospital. Along the way she meets a few odd characters, including a blind pig keeper and an alien-looking baby. The surreal encounters do not stop there. The hospital is eerie and foreboding. When Carice’s whistling wakes up an apparently dead body in the morgue, she soon realizes that the aged cadaver she’s talking to is her future self.
Praise for Pachyderme:
“Peeters’ tale of self-discovery is enthralling; in the author’s hands, Cold War paranoia and thoughtfully subverted realist art provides commentary on other kinds of secrets, other kinds of betrayals and the conflict between duty and need.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Peeters’ evocative artwork―inspired equally, it seems, by classic Hollywood and the great horror comics of mid-century―makes every page eye-catching.” ―Slate
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Frederik Peeters has been nominated five times at Angoulême in the best book category, and won the best series prize in 2013. He lives in Geneva, Switzerland.
Peeters’ autobiographical award winner, Blue Pills (2008), ended with him chatting with a mammoth. The fictional Pachyderme begins in a traffic jam created by an elephant in the middle of the road. Out of the fray walks a stylishly dressed woman en route to her hospitalized husband. Cut to that institution’s surgical theater, from which the surgeon, who’s also the director, literally dances away from another successful procedure. Even before she reaches the hospital, the woman begins to see things (alien-looking babies) and when she wanders the building there is more: a spy-type capable of emerging from a pipe in the wall and, in the morgue, the reanimated corpse of an old woman who may be herself-to-come. She also encounters the surgeon-director, who comes on to her, and, briefly, her husband. Flashbacks to her just-earlier life, in which she gave up a concert pianist’s career for marriage, also feature in Peeters’ surreal, dreamlike tale, immaculately rendered in the cinematic realist manner typical of mainstream European comics. What it means exactly is up for grabs, but it has a happy ending. --Ray Olson
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hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_407753444
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: No Dust Jacket. Color Comics (illustrator). First Edition. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. In color pictorial boards, 4to, 88pp. Illustrated with color comics. Seller Inventory # 0849012
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Hardcover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9781906838607
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Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR006571537
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Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: As New. Unread book in perfect condition. Seller Inventory # 18239722
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Seller: Ergodebooks, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. Illustrated. This cinematic tale opens surrealistically: with a traffic jam caused by a wounded elephant. Our heroine, Carice, abandons her car and walks trancelike through a wood to visit her husband in the hospital. Along the way she meets a few odd characters, including a blind pig keeper and an alien-looking baby. The surreal encounters do not stop there. The hospital is eerie and foreboding. When Carices whistling wakes up an apparently dead body in the morgue, she soon realizes that the aged cadaver shes talking to is her future self.Praise for Pachyderme:Peeters tale of self-discovery is enthralling; in the authors hands, Cold War paranoia and thoughtfully subverted realist art provides commentary on other kinds of secrets, other kinds of betrayals and the conflict between duty and need. -Publishers Weekly (starred review)Peeters evocative artwork-inspired equally, it seems, by classic Hollywood and the great horror comics of mid-century-makes every page eye-catching. -Slate. Seller Inventory # SONG1906838607
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Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
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Seller: Grand Eagle Retail, Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. A sci-fi tale which has all the echoes of a David Lynch film. Almost cinematic in style, in the breathless opening to this graphic novel we get a traffic jam due to a wounded elephant; a blind pigkeeper; an alien-looking grey baby; a cavalier and alcoholic skirt-chasing surgeon; and a beanpole of a Swiss secret policeman. Our heroine, Carice, walks from her car through the woods, as if in a trance, to a hospital to visit her diplomat husband, indisposed from a car accident. Her goodbye note, which she intends to deliver in person, is in her purse. The hospital is vast, remote, and foreboding, filled with suitable loonies. The book's first third ends with Carice waking an apparently dead body in the morgue with her whistling. Chopin? the body asks. Carice nods. We learn of her too-early marriage, her dashed dreams as a concert pianist, and in the course of conversation realize that the aged cadaver she's talking to is her future self. A sci-fi tale for fans of existential cinema and literature (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, American Beauty, Fight Club, etc). In the opening of this graphic novel, the reader gets a traffic jam due to a wounded elephant, a blind pigkeeper, an alien-looking green baby, a cavalier and alcoholic skirt-chasing surgeon, and a beanpole of a Swiss secret policeman. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781906838607
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Seller: CKR Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Pachyderme (SelfMadeHero)hardcover in very good condition. Minor tear on the bottom side of font cover. Seller Inventory # 2865
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Seller: GoldenDragon, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: new. Buy for Great customer experience. Seller Inventory # GoldenDragon1906838607
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