{"product_id":"monsters-9781683964155","title":"Monsters","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe year is 1964. Bobby Bailey doesn't realize he is about to fulfill his tragic destiny when he walks into a US Army recruitment office to join up. Close-mouthed, damaged, innocent, trying to forget a past and looking for a future, it turns out that Bailey is the perfect candidate for a secret U.S. government experimental program, an unholy continuation of a genetics program that was discovered in Nazi Germany nearly 20 years earlier in the waning days of World War II. Bailey's only ally and protector, Sergeant McFarland, intervenes, which sets off a chain of cascading events that spin out of everyone's control. As the titular monsters of the title multiply, becoming real and metaphorical, literal and ironic, the story reaches its emotional and moral reckoning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eMonsters\u003c\/em\u003e is the legendary project Barry Windsor-Smith has been working on for over 35 years. A 380-page tour de force of visual storytelling, \u003cem\u003eMonsters'\u003c\/em\u003e narrative canvas is both vast and deep: part familial drama, part political thriller, part metaphysical journey, it is an intimate portrait of individuals struggling to reclaim their lives and an epic political odyssey across two generations of American history. Trauma, fate, conscience, and redemption are just a few of the themes that intersect in the most ambitious graphic novel of Windsor-Smith's career. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eMonsters \u003c\/em\u003eis rendered in Windsor-Smith's impeccable pen-and-ink technique, the visual storytelling with its sensitivity to gesture and composition is the most sophisticated of the artist's career. There are passages of heartbreaking tenderness, of excruciating pain, and devastating violence. It is surely one of the most intense graphic novels ever drawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWindsor-Smith, Barry:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Barry Windsor-Smith began his career by drawing mainstay Marvel characters such as the X-Men and Daredevil in 1969 in the traditional Marvel style. However, in 1971 he broke from the Marvel formula when he started drawing the Conan series, turning heads with a fresh and controversial stylistic approach and winning numerous industry awards. Part of a young generation of artists that included compatriots Berni Wrightson, Mike Kaluta, and Jeff Jones, Windsor-Smith proceeded to carve an independent path for himself. In the '90s, he conceived, wrote, and drew three independent series, \u003cem\u003eThe Freebooters\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eYoung Gods\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Paradox-Man\u003c\/em\u003e. In 1999 and 2001 Fantagraphics published \u003cem\u003eOpus\u003c\/em\u003e volumes 1 and 2, autobiographical coffee table art books. Monsters is his first book since \u003cem\u003eThe Freebooters\u003c\/em\u003e (2005). He currently lives in New York.","brand":"Fantagraphics Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50620210675986,"sku":"9781683964155","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_70f2fd67-c0a5-4d78-a50b-9197f2021390.jpg?v=1732561782","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/monsters-9781683964155","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}