Night Drive - Hardcover

Sala, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 13: 9798875000706

Publisher: Fantagraphics, 2025

Synopsis

This extremely rare, long out-of-print comic book of macabre and mysterious short stories launched the career of one of the medium's most distinctive stylists. Originally self-published in 1984 and never reprinted, this expanded hardcover represents the original Night Drive with rare art and other bonus material.

When Richard Sala passed away in 2020, he left behind a uniquely eldritch body of graphic novels and illustrations, fueled by macabre whimsy and a love of dark mysteries and vintage monsters. Like David Lynch, Sala was a painter who turned to a storytelling medium that allowed him to create inventive narratives inspired by such disparate influences as French crime fiction, the grim humor of Charles Addams, the surreal poetry of Jorge Luis Borges, and his own penchant for all things gleefully ghoulish and sinister.

Originally self-published in an edition of 500 copies in 1984, Night Drive collects several short stories inspired directly by pulp magazines, film noir, and Andre Breton ― sinister and creepy pieces heavy on the atmosphere and signaling the creative emergence of a singular talent finding his footing with the surety of an artist equipped with the innate mastery of his craft and vision. Night Drive directly led to Sala contributing to Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's Raw and the adaptation of Night Drive's “Invisible Hands” for MTV’s Liquid Television, sparking an almost 40-year career as one of comics' finest creators and idiosyncratic creators.

Edited by longtime Sala friend Dana Marie Andra (Web of Horror) and designed by Sala’s friend and fellow cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Monica, Ghost World), who also contributes the Afterword, this graphic novella is rounded out with rare artwork, interviews with Sala about the book, and an essay by Andra.

Black-and-white illustrations throughout

About this title

About the Authors

Richard Sala (1954–2020) grew up in Chicago. He had an MFA from Mills College, created over a dozen graphic novels, collaborated with Lemony Snicket, and illustrated a Jack Kerouac script. He spent most of his adult life in Berkeley, CA.

Dana Marie Andra has written for RBCC, The Comics Journal, Comic Art, Charlton Spotlight, Alter Ego, Comic Book Marketplace, Fanscene, Filmfax, and other magazines. She’s also written comics for Fantagraphics, Caliber, Comico, and Dark Horse, who published the graphic novel she scripted, Freaks’ Amour, in 2013, and wrote about Web of Horror for the hardcover edition of The Warren Companion (2001).

Daniel Clowes is a Harvey, Eisner, Ignatz, and PEN America Literary Award Winner whose comics and graphic novels have been translated into over 20 languages worldwide. He is also an Academy Award nominated screenwriter (for Ghost World), and retrospectives of his work have appeared at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Oakland Museum, and the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and son.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798875000706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 64
• Editor: Andra Dana Marie