Graphic Novels with Medieval Themes – Uncivilized Books
A list of graphic novels with Medieval themes in our catalog, listed by genre:
Scholarly Comics
Holy Fools and Funny Gods: The Hidden Link Between Religion & Humor by Izar Lunacek
Holy Fools and Funny Gods is a PHD thesis in comics form. Philosopher & cartoonist, Izar Lunacek, explores the surprising intersections between religion and comedy. Throughout, Medieval themes abound. From the Medieval Carnival to various heroes and tricksters to religious attitudes, all part of a larger historical context that includes Antiquity, Modernity, and many non-Western stories.
ISBN: 9781941250570
History
First, There Was Chaos: Hesiod’s Theogony
by Joel Priddy
Greek myth has inspired stories and art for millennia. And yet some stories and characters remain unfamiliar. First, There Was Chaos explores the formless, primordial, and extraordinary forces that preceded the Olympian gods. These tales of Creation illustrate the creative process, giving cosmic form to the universal struggles of all creators. Theogony was primarily preserved and celebrated by Byzantine Medieval scribes. The book’s apotheosis features a beautiful accordion fold (concertina/leporello) in a nod to the medieval fold-out almanacs.
ISBN: 9781941250525
Fiction
Ex Libris by Matt Madden
A puzzlebox narrative with a dizzying array of inventive visual and narrative styles, Ex Libris continues the line of exploration and play that Madden initiated with 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style. One of the nested narratives, the enigmatic La Mulata de Córdoba, is set in Medieval Spain and provides the key to the narrative. Ex Libris is a tribute to the metafictional tradition of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Vladimir Nabokov, and Italo Calvino (whose novel If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler inspired it). The new 2nd edition is on the way.
ISBN: 9781941250693
Monday by Andy Hartzell
God’s creation has entered its second work week, the eighth day. God is busy working on a next-gen creature. It falls upon Eden’s first couple to intervene with their Maker before His latest creation makes them redundant. Yet, they must be cautious, for interfering with the creative process is a perilous game.
In brushy black-and-white, with Neo-Platonic musings, a symbolic map of Eden, and art that marries Medieval Illumination with the Sunday Funnies, Andy Hartzell has rendered the scriptures of “The People of the Eighth Day,” an ancient Gnostic sect, into cartoon form. Monday is destined to be a Pseudepigraphal classic.
ISBN: 9781941250648
Incidents in the Night Book 2 by David B.
The uncharted territories of Paris’ legendary bookshops’ overflowing, dusty shelves form the ground for an obsessive quest for a mysterious 19th-century journal: Incidents in the Night. Mountains of books become sites of archeological digs as the author excavates layers of myth, fact, and fiction in search of the elusive thread that links them all. Book 2 elaborates on the occult history of France in a beautifully digressive tale that links Royal sovereignty to the Court of Miracles, an ancient Kingdom of Argot, and the Holy Grail.
ISBN: 9780988901483
Fantasy / Dirtbag Medieval
These graphic novels twist the classic Sword & Sorcery formulas into new territories.
Clandestinauts by Tim Sievert
Hired to acquire the fabled Goblet of the Crimson Wizard, the expert dungeoneering team The Clandestinauts enters the legendary Master Wizard’s formidable fortress with visions of unimaginable treasures in their future. That is, until, like most journeys through the dreary depths of blood-soaked sepulchers, things don’t go according to plan. Filled with blood & guts, orcs, wizards, and hapless heroes, Clandestinauts evokes fun evenings spent playing classic Dungeons & Dragons games. “There are no Aragorns here, just a bunch of bickering Boromirs trying to stay alive in a world that has been conceived entirely to kill them.”
ISBN: 9781941250259
Over the Wall and Stonebreaker by Peter Wartman
In Over the Wall, great fortifications encircle a magnificent Medieval city, separating it from the surrounding countryside. All humans are banned from ever entering the city. Anya is determined to enter the forbidden city in search of her lost brother. Four years later, in Stonebreaker, Anya continues to explore the endless, twisting streets of the mystical city. With the help of her friend Toris—the demon librarian—she hunts for a cure to her brother’s amnesia. Wartman has an eye for the built environments, which can only be described as a melding of European & Aztec Medieval architecture. Symbolic maps, tapestry-flat-relief-style in-world narratives, alchemical symbols, and hints at the Middle Ages’ mnemonic arts round out the various influences embedded in the comics.
Over the Wall ISBN: 9780984681433 | Stonebreaker ISBN: 9781941250358
Horror
Damnation Diaries by Peter Rostovsky
Hell can get you down. It’s big, hot, often painful, and a hard place to get creative projects done. But something else is bothering inmate PKRx354—something beyond the unrelenting and often absurd torture routines, the demons, or the tormenting trio of his mother, father, and girlfriend also consigned to the Underworld. Luckily, there’s help: Fred Greenberg—Hell’s only psychotherapist. Combining Dante, Douglas Adams, and Freud, Damnation Diaries is equal parts horror-comedy and character-driven drama, uniquely converging the look of Bronze Age comics with sharp literary satire. Rostovky’s modern satire is set in a very Medieval, Dante-accurate hell.
ISBN: 9781941250549