The Origin of the World The Origin of the World

Readers have had to wait nine months for the second chapter in Mezzo and Pirus’s creepily sexy suburban soap opera ― but here at last is the second installment. (The concluding third volume will appear in 2011.) Eric the fly-head-wearing teenager is back (as well as his hapless mother and her “fiance”), as are not-quite-ingenue Marie, the worldly Sal, Denis the drug dealer and his now one-handed father, and of course the loopy retro bowling thug Ringo... plus several new cast members, including one who died at the very beginning of the first volume and has now returned to roam the earth. Once again, the story is told through a series of seemingly unrelated short stories which eventually become intricately braided into one sprawling tale of a community haunted by obsession,rage, regret and despair ― in sum, a graphic novel for the 21st century.

Pascal (Mezzo) Mesenburg (artist) was born in Drancy, France, in 1960. His French graphic novels (with Pirus) include Two Killers and Mickey Mickey. He is currently working on the third and final volume of King of the Flies.

Michel Pirus was born in Thionville, France, in 1962. He broke into comics (as a writer/artist) with his series “Champagne and Cookies” for Métal Hurlant in 1983. He was the co-writer on the Richard McGuire-designed segment of the French animated horror anthology Fear(s) of the Dark, released in 2008.