Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis

by Dave Maass, Patrick Lay (Illustrator), Ezra Rose (Illustrator)

Mixing dystopian sci-fi, mythic fantasy, and zombie horror, Death The Emperor of Atlantis , is a graphic novel based on a suppressed opera written in 1943 by Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann, two prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The authors did not live to see their masterpiece performed.

Set in an alternative universe where Atlantis never sank but instead became a technologically advanced tyranny, the power-mad buffoonish Emperor declares all-out war—everyone against everyone. Death goes on a labor strike, creating a hellscape where everyone fights, but no one dies. Can the spirit of Life stop this terror with the power of love?

Includes designs from the original opera, historical essays, photographs, and more.

"This is beautiful and strange, both for what it is and what it isn't. As a story it's fascinating and excellently told, as an artifact it's heartbreaking and affecting. More than a footnote in Holocaust literature or a lost libretto given visual shape, it's a reminder of what art is for, and how it saves and shapes us when everything else is gone.”—Neil Gaiman

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Fiction, Dystopia, Historical Fiction, War

128 pages, Hardcover

Published January 23, 2024

Reviews

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic is grim, funny, gory, and darkly poetic. It's impossible to read it without an awareness of the history of the script, which is based on a suppressed opera written in 1943 two prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The authors did not live to see their play performed. Maass and Lay have done an impressive job transferring a story meant for the stage into a comic. The stars of the show are the characters of Life and Death who narrative and frame the story of a paranoid dictator in the fictional nation of Atlantis and his reign of terror against his own citizens.

[Jesse Hassinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The provenance of "Death Strikes" deserves its own tale (and luckily there are two afterwards that detail the story behind this graphic novel), but in short it was an operetta that was written in the Czech concentration camp Terezin, which was specifically used as Nazi propaganda to show that their work camps were "good" places where artists could create their art. Indeed that happened, but then many of the residents were then shipped to death camps to be executed. "Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis" was produced in Terezin, but never performed. In 1975 it was found again and begun to be performed on stages around the world. This is the tale's first print visual interpretation, and what an amazing edition it is.

What differentiates this from something like "Maus" is that this was written during the Holocaust, so it is not a direct parable for the atrocities enacted during those years because the full scope of what eventually happened was not known to the original authors of the operetta; however what they did envisage was something even more horrifying in that the cycle of death and destruction that is part of every war is drawn out to its bitter end. Once victory is obtained, in a totalitarian state, there is nothing to do but make more excuses for war. This death spiral that is shown in "Death Strikes" is nothing if not even more horrifying now - considering America as the neoliberal wet dream of the world's police force, there isn't a war that we don't have our hands dirty from, and there isn't a thought of peace that doesn't come with its own prerequisite for more death.

What was once a warning about the senseless loss of life and disconnection between those at the top making plans and those in the trenches enacting them, "Death Strikes" has become all to vivid a reality now that state sanctioned violence is enacted against civilians as much as those actually on battlefields. There is no stop to the juggernaut of power.

[Ondra Král · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abyste to náhodou nezapomněli, komiks před startem tak 3x zopakuje, že operní předloha vznikla v Terezíně, takže běda všem haterům.

Je to prostá protiválečná agitka, ale pár nápadů i jejich vizuální zpracování se mi moc líbilo (tamborka, samotný císař). Naopak část s hlavním poselstvím, tedy jakési uvědomění lidu, tu nejvíc skřípe a zasloužila by víc rozpracovat.
3,5*

[The One and Only Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some clever writing but not fully fleshed out and didn't like the art.

[Melanie Gaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd read about Terezin before, but I didn't know about an unproduced opera. This was an interesting and thought-provoking comic, and I enjoyed reading the pages at the end that provided important context and background information.

ARC from Edelweiss.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the textual explanation on why a nearly lost opera from Terezin, Czech Republic, was turned into a graphic novel, pgs 112-113:

...These prisoners were mostly Czech Jews, and included many intellectuals and artists, writers, composers, musicians and actors, who formed a nominally self-governed ghetto. The Third Reich used Terezin as propaganda to convince the world that the camps weren't so bad -- they were recreational. That was a heinous lie, but the art that flourished behind those walls was real. People created like there was no tomorrow -- because they knew there might not be. They performed plays and puppetry. The Ghetto Swingers band played jazz. Illustrators hid their sketches. Even the kids ran an underground magazine. In his defiant twenties, Franz Peter Kien was a creative whirlwind, illustrating and painting, penning poetry and plays. Viktor Ullmann was a middle-aged avant-garde composer and spiritualist, and a very opinionated music critic. Their paths shouldn't have crossed. But in Terezin, the unlikely duo collided, and the result was this dark, playful, fearless, allegorical sci-fi/fantasy mini-opera in which Death refuses to obey a genocidal dictator, creating a hellscape of the living dead. Der Kaiser von Atlantis is not about the Holocaust, since Kien and Ullmann could only know their small slice of the Reich's machinations, while the scale of the atrocities would only become clear years after the war. The villain, Emperor Overall, is not Adolf Hitler -- or at least not just Hitler. The opera was an open challenge to the Nazis, but it also spat in the face of all the authoritarians across history. It is a work of cosmic relevance, transcending time and place in its commentary on war, power, technology, and the value of human life. It rings as true today as it did then and will tomorrow... Deciding how close we should stick to the source material was hampered by the mystery of what exactly was the source material. Multiple drafts, including a censored version written on the back of prisoner registration papers, survived the most unlikely circumstances, but there was no final cut... In the end, I stayed true to the structure and themes, but added quite a bit toe make the story resonate as a modern graphic narrative. Working with character designer Ezra Rose, we've updated the characters and built on their dynamics, including addressing a problematic romance between an old soldier and a farmgirl. We replaced them with queer characters, with greater agency and complexity...

- Dave Maas

Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis is a remarkable, modified found work. Set in an alternate reality or dystopia where Atlantis exists and its ruler (Emperor Overall) is a Hitler-like, mathematics-obsessed overseer of an all-powerful empire; life and death are main characters, and main themes. Death, tired of Overall's mechanical mass-killing, goes on strike -- so that nobody can die, and those that are killed appear to turn into zombies. All is quite dark and grim, from the cold, calculating, and crazy Overall, to the stark lives people live in this sad reality -- none of which is surprising of course, given Death Strikes's birth in a concentration camp, created by Jews on their way to possible (in retrospect, probable) death, with little hope of freedom. Love, as they say, does find a way, however, and love becomes a dramatic and memorable centerpiece to this re-constructed graphic opera. Life and Death both get their way in the end, and the yin and yang of life and death, the necessity of death to bring life meaning -- these are conclusions which, ideally, gave hope to the work's doomed authors.

[Tim Smyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am truly thankful to the team who created this book - who is helping to bring this mind-blowing story and the historical process of its creation to us. This is a graphic retelling of the opera, Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Tod-Verweigerung by Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann. These two men were in the Nazi concentration camp/town of Terezin in modern day Czech Republic, from 1941-1945. This was a place the Nazis used as a showcase to the world as to how they were treating their Jewish victims “humanely” as part of their vast and disturbing propaganda machine. This was an opera full of sarcasm and dark humor, in a time of such death and evil. A look at when Death goes on strike because he can’t keep up with the modern war machine. A strike against the machinations and plans of the Emperor Overall and his desire to implement his twisted mathematical plans for humanity. This story has such important lessons for us today as we see totalitarianism and hatred rising in an age of constant warfare and strife. We see the character of Life working alongside of Death - not that Death is evil, but this is a normal and inspiring part of the human condition - creating art, love, laughter, and an appreciation of being alive. It’s when humans twist this relationship in an orgy of Death worship, that Death feels the need to end his role. As no one can die, the meaning of life is lost. I think about this when thinking of what the men who wrote this opera were seeing and experiencing all around them. A need to make sense of what was happening and a world that had abandoned them. The graphic adaptation is, in a word, haunting. I guiltily laughed at parts - the sarcasm of Death is wonderful - but also lost myself staring into the eyes of Death as well. This adaptation has left a deep impact on me and I will be integrating it into my classroom. That we see the Holocaust through the eyes of two men, two artists, ordinary people in unimaginable times, makes this all the more powerful. This wonderfully researched adaptation allows us to see original lettering, comics, and images from these men. I can see integrating this books as a centerpiece of a cross-curricular lesson involving social studies, English/Language Arts, German classes, art, and music classes. We can listen to the opera as we read. We can create in our minds and perhaps bring other stories to the world. Art as a method of resistance and survival.

[John Gustafson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comic book was only mildly interesting on its own merits, but it deserves 5 stars for calling attention to the work on which it's based, Der Kaiser von Atlantis. I'd never heard of this opera, created by two prisoners in the Theresienstadt Ghetto during WWII, but it's well worth a listen, at least in its original orchestration.

In a time of endless war, the Emperor escalates the only way he has left: a universal war of everybody against everybody. Death himself, already weary of the violence, quits in disgust, making it impossible for anybody to die. Unhappy zombie hordes result as well as a reemergenge of love among some of the living, until the Emperor himself convinces Death to return to work by volunteering as his first customer. It's a broad satire that lends itself well to a lush but quirky score on top of which the archetypes can declare themselves in broad strokes without being cloying (as Life, in particular, as the commedia dell'arte character Pierrot, too often is in these pages).

I still don't know much about the opera's production history (other than neither composer Victor Ullmann nor librettist Peter Kien lived to see it onstage) so I don't know whether to credit the artist for one terrific aspect of the graphic art: the incorporation of the architecture of the Ghetto itself to construct the mythical land of Atlantis. The art throughout is, in fact, quite good; the book just never transcends being a copy of a work that sings so much stronger in its original incarnation.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not often does the story behind the book overshadows the book itself. Particularly when the book in question is actually good. But with this production, you really couldn’t have it any other way.
Conceived and created in Terezin concentration camp by two creators who didn’t leave to see it ever produced, this was meant to be an opera. It is a story as tragic as it is cautionary and eerily, terrifyingly prescient/timely, all these decades later.
A bloodthirsty, warmongering authoritarian dictator so out of touch with reality that he pisses off Death himself who decides to take a vacation or go on strike, but either way not do its job so that the world is at war and full of people who will not die.
Simultaneously gruesomely realistic and surreal and drawn gorgeously in black-and-white, this story is as disturbing as it is unputdownable. The most effective, affecting thing about this book and the story behind it is the undeniably hopeful note. That such beauty could be born out of a darkness so deep, that it could be found in the bleakest of circumstances is a true testament to the resiliency of the spirit. An absolute must read, this is the sort of book someone might try to ban someday. And I mean it as the highest compliment. Recommended.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terezín is a lushly landscaped town of moats and walls, located 30 miles outside of the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. This is not a name that will resonate with most laymen. But in 1939, the Czechs were overrun by the Nazis and renamed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Terezín was renamed Theresienstadt. There was a ghetto and a camp established here, but this camp had a propaganda role to show "how nice" these camps were. inmates were allowed to work on art projects as a propaganda tool. Two inmates, Jews, named Peter Kien and Viktor Ullman wrote a play (never expecting it would be published) called "Der Kaiser von Atlantis order Die Tod-Verweigerung". After their death, and upon the liberation of the camp their papers were found. This is a GN version of that play.

There are three main characters- Emperor Overall, Death, and Life. The basis is that in a totalitarian system, due to the excess of war led by Emperor Overall, Death goes on strike. This will lead to mass chaos and an overthrow of the system.

I shall not spoil this tale and it is worth your time to read it. The art is rather good and works well with this story. This volume also had some cool historical information at the end of the volume. One of the more interesting GNs I've read in awhile and one I would recommend.

[Stacey Sturgis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. I’m still in the vibrating space where you just finished a work that you know is going to affect you for a long, long time. A work that is so meaningful and multifaceted that you still want to hold it, look at it, learn about it. A work you want everyone to experience.

I have yet to listen to the opera upon which this graphic novel was based. I hope everyone who reads this review is compelled to pick up this short but important piece to learn from the men in Terezin camp through their art that they left us as their voice of reason in a world gone insane.

I feel this is a most appropriate time to get this book out into people’s hands in the US. Totalitarianism is a lesson the world seems to never want to learn from, and we are always going to need to hear these voices from history to help us understand the similarities across time.

Synopsis: Emperor Overall wreaks such havoc on the world that Death himself goes on strike, leaving the humans to struggle as living dead. They must face a decision of working together or forever suffering. Based on a 1943 lost opera written by two captives of Terezin concentration camp who never saw it performed, and eventually were murdered in Auschwitz.

[Kostiantyn Kravchenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Це перший графічний роман в моєму житті й це неймовірний досвід. Досі я звик покладатись на власну уяву для занурення в атмосферу твору, але ж тут я отримав неймовірне візуальне задоволення завдяки неймовірній увазі до деталей в кожному слайді. Розмітка сторінок, оформлення кожної сцени, ретельно промальовані емоції кожного персонажа - все це створює справжній витвір мистецтва. Чесно кажучи, я настільки захоплено вивчав кожен малюнок, що ті 140 сторінок я поглинав повільніше, ніж зазвичай читаю текстові книги

Рівень взаємодій з персонажами просто захмарний. Їх думки, відчуття та емоції передаються не тільки словами, а й жестами, виразами облич, позами та навіть найменшими рухами.

Сюжет оригінальної п'єси з'явився за дуже несприятливих для творчості умов. Цей контекст значно підсилює сприйняття роману, ризикованість створення такого твору дає розуміння того, що творчість та необхідність передати дух епохи, були важливішими за життя авторів.

Це не розважальний комікс, це декілька шарів сенсів, які накладаються один на одного, затягуючи читача у вир емоцій й дозволяючи провести власне дослідження історії та аналіз людської природи.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published at myreadinglife.com.

My next read was one I found on Cory Doctorow's blog. It is a graphic novel based on an opera whose authors were first part of a Nazi show piece ghetto in Prague who both later were murdered in a concentration camp. This novel is the expression of people going through the worst a human can experience. It is amazing.

The story takes place in an Atlantis that never sank. In it, Death goes on strike after becoming sick of the violence and hatred among humans at the behest of the emperor. But this means that people can no longer die, leading them to even question why they are fighting. It sounds maudlin as I write that, but the art and dialog really bring it to life.

I had a hard time getting into the book at first. I considered putting it aside a few times early on. It was feeling kind of common and uninteresting to me. But as my curiosity drove me to continue, the story came together in a way that really touched me. It is ultimately a story of the triumph over death and the evil in the world, even when those obstacles seem insurmountable. It is a triumph of the human spirit.

My rating: 4/5

[Raven Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a lofty graphic novel undertaking. Over the top. Beautiful and Ugly. It is not an allegory of the Holocaust, but its roots are there. This is how the Overall Overlord takes, and his War. It is History. It is the present and the future. Bored, flamboyant Life wants something to happen to stop their boredom. And Death gives it. They are tired of the senselessness of Atlantis and its war, so one day Death decides to break their sword, and let people live. Yet, they die a little each day, without the reward of death, becoming the Walking Dead. We follow several characters who are puppets, pawns and worse, in black and white illustrations that are both over the top and simple. Written as if it was a script with illustrations that give and take from you, the reader.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrific, grim, and full of exactly the right amount of dark humor. This book is an instant and powerful classic on its own. When the history of its authors is added, it’s definitely a book I’ll recommend everyone read.
As a researcher of 20th century gothic works and also of classical music (particularly art song), I was also curious to see how much of Victor Ullman’s music and influences would make it into this version. I wasn’t disappointed. He’s extremely present in the text, as is the librettist, Peter Kien.
I’m again devastated by the losses we suffered in the Holocaust, but inspired by the absolute clarity of mind and unstoppable artistic spirit Kien and Ullman possessed. May their memories continue to bless us.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, was out of this world. What made it amazing, was where it came from... From people who endured the pain and death in a Concentration Camp. The one build in Czechoslovakia to make people think that the NAZIs were nice to people who were put in a concentration camp. What Nnedi Okafor said about this book is better than anything I even will:

“Death Strikes is biting gallows humor, audacity, rage and clarity. I had to stop and stare into space for a while after I read this book. It leaves you vibrating. And the story behind it all calls back one of humanity’s ugliest parts of history from an angle that few know about. An amazing work.”

Truly an amazing work.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unproduced opera that was never performed because the authors were killed in a concentration camp during World War II. It's a really neat idea to finally show this to the world. It does feel a bit old-timey in the dialogue. It is fantastical. Death is a character in the story. It goes on strike and people quit dying in this world where Atlantis never fell and has conquered the world. It's certainly worth checking out and it reads like a normal story instead of an opera where everyone is singing their lines.

[André · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preserving and reenacting works that nazis would have destroyed is a good action in and of itself. But this is something more. This is perfection. Well done adaptation, reminding you of a play just as much as it works as a graphic novel, an artistic piece that is at once a representation of it's time and a framework for thinking about totalitarianism at any point past or future.

Reading this in May 2024 is particularly painful.

[Michelle Morrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read free on Hoopla. This is the graphic novel adaptation of an opera written in a Nazi-controlled ghetto in the early 1940s about war, death, hope, resistance. The composers died in the camps before ever knowing their opera would survive, but indeed it did. I was not expecting to be so completely moved by this!

[Erik Federwisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to speak with the illustrator of this book at the American Library Association Conference and was immediately sold on it. This book features memorable characters, explanation of the historical influences on the story and grim humor in the face of doom.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my interview with the author at https://www.thereportergroup.org/misc...

[Cody Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute incredible, super gritty and really interesting to way to keep history in the mix. Stunning artwork as well :)

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was boring, not exciting

[Tim Rooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible work, historically important but timeless. A moving work even removed from its incredible historical roots.

[Sandra VonniessenApplebee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read, some parts hard to follow and some parts resonate with the current political climate. Makes me inspired to read more about Terezin the Nazi propaganda place.

[Millie Brazil · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Never again" means never again for anyone

[Mee Too · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ive never ever…. Read an opera (especially in GN format) and, this was absolutely great. Very fitting for current times. One idiot leading a nation of idiots 🤷🏽😂

3.4✨

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

quirky, dark and fun. I loved it. that was a wink.

[Luke Michaels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible book that really spoke to to the great irony in the horror that surrounds us. The humor really spoke to the grim person I can be when I think too hard about the world.

[VR · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely phenomenal comic with a chilling history. It should be required reading for any thoughtful comic reader and is now one of my all-time favorites.