The Actus Box: Five Graphic Novellas

by Rutu Modan, Batia Kolton, Yirmi Pinkus

Their year 2001 release is a deluxe boxed set, featuring FIVE 32-page, full color, perfect bound graphic novellas. Included in the set THE PANTY KILLER by Rutu Modan -- A chain of mysterious murders terroize Tel Aviv, in which all the victims are found with their panties on their heads. The investigation leads the police to a seedy nightclub, frequented by unusual types. WE ARE SEVEN by Batia Kolton -- A unique visual interpretation of an Irish folk song, a Wordsworth poem and a pop tune. The juxtapositions of text and images infuse both with an original, contemporary meaning. CRUMPET LADIES by Yirmi Pinkus -- An amateur dog thief, a flatulent midget, a sentimental cook, and a woman with no short-term memory are just a few of the characters in this story about an old woman as an existential state. ROYAL SABLE by Mira Friedman -- A Jewish furrier from Prague and his sister escape to Tehran during WWII. Their dire situation changes when they receive a phone call from the Shah's Palace. Based on a true story. PRETENDERS by Itzik Rennert -- A bitter taxi driver, that desperately needs a change, meets a high-tech career woman and his life is transformed far beyond his wildest dreams. When forced to confront himself, he realizes he isn't really himself, or at least not his only self. ...Don't miss this excellent boxed set from the premier Israeli comics team.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Rutu Modan (Hebrew: רותו מודן) was born in Tel-Aviv in 1966. In 1992 she graduated cum laude from the illustration program at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Shortly after graduating, she began regularly writing and illustrating comic strips and stories for Israel's leading daily newspapers, as well as editing the Israeli edition of MAD magazine with Yirmi Pinkus. Together, they founded Actus Tragicus, an internationally acclaimed collective and independent publishing house for alternative comic artists, in 1995. The following year she collaborated with Israeli author Etgar Keret on her first graphic novel, Nobody Said it Was Going to Be Fun, an Israeli bestseller. Rutu has worked as an illustrator for magazines and books in Israel and abroad, with illustrations published in The New York Times, New Yorker and Le Monde, among many other renowned publications.

She has received much recognition for her work, including four Best Illustrated Children's Book Awards from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Israel Ministry of Culture named Rutu Modan the Young Artist of the Year in 1997, and she was one of the contributors to the Eisner-Nominated Actus Tragicus anthology Jet Lag in 1999. In 2001 she won the Andersen Award for Illustration from the International Board on Books for Young People in Basel, Switzerland, and was nominated for the Ignatz Award for Best Story and Promising New Talent for her story "Bygone" in Flipper, Vol. 2 (Actus Tragicus / Top Shelf.) She has been a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation since 2005, and in 2006 she was nominated for the Angoulême Festival's Goccini Award, granted to a scriptwriter whose past year's work deserves special praise.

Reviews

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grainy Creme Box 145×215×020 ¦ 265FF ¦ $47.50 Can ¦ $31.95 US
-›Why the circled lower-case italic "e" stamp on all and box?

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comic-y and tragic-y. Reminds me of Gilmore Tamny's way of seeing the world.

[quail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great comic from Tel Aviv, balances dark humor, terrific color and skilled, easy illustration.