A Fine Mess #2

by Matt Madden

"Prisoner of Zembla" tells the tale of Alina Zek, an exiled philologist who makes a doomed last stand to save the written alphabet of her native language. The concern with the alphabet leaks beyond the story and into the very structure of the the careful reader will find a hidden layer to the story, the "prison" which holds Prefessor Zek captive. "The Envoy" is the tale of four hardy seamen who accompany an eminent scientist and his young daughter on a perilous mission to uncharted Arctic waters. "La Mulata de Cordoba" is a retelling of a legend from colonial Mexico about a witch who conjures magic from a source we are all close the drawn line. Rounding off the issue will be another installment of Madden's acclaimed "Exercises in Style."

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Matt Madden is an American cartoonist as well as comics teacher, editor and translator. He is best known for the book 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style (2005), an experimental comic based on the idea of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style.
Madden was born in New York City in 1968 and has lived in Michigan, Texas, Pennsylvania, and abroad in Mexico and France. From 2012 to 2016 he had an extended residency at La Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême, France. He has also received the title of knight in the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. Since 2016 Madden lives in Philadelphia with his wife, fellow cartoonist Jessica Abel, and children.
As a translator, Madden has translated graphic novels from Spanish and French for American publishers First Second and New York Comics Review. He also teaches comics at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and at Yale University.