Masters of the Nefarious: Mollusk Rampage

by Pierre La Police, Luke Burns (Translator)

Overview

Two supernatural crime fighters and their Rorschach-blotted best friend stumble into a plot involving UFOs, giant mollusks, and the Maluku Islands in this vivid, madcap adventure by a contemporary French artist.

A tsunami slams into the Maluku Islands. Giant mollusks wreak havoc. An ominous, quadrilateral UFO appears in the night sky. And a mysterious villain watches and waits in the shadows… 

Twin paranormal investigators, Montgomery and Chris, and their best friend, Fongor, are on the case, delving into this unduly complicated and possibly nefarious plot. They’re the only ones who can unravel the mystery, but they might not—especially if they can’t stay on task. Between journeys to Uganda, primordial Earth, and the pants store, and confrontations with ghosts frozen in ice cubes, baby turtles, and an army of small, sinister men, the trio will be tested like never before as they search for clues, answers, and a good all-you-can-eat buffet spot.

Finally in English, Pierre La Police’s Masters of the Nefarious is one of his funniest and most irreverent comics, an unpredictable adventure pastiche that will leave you laughing to the final explosive face- (and pants-)off.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681378343
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	03/12/2024
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	469,267
Product dimensions:	5.92(w) x 8.28(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pierre La Police is a pseudonymous Paris-based artist who originated in the underground arts scene and began publishing his work in the 1990s. His comics feature Les Praticiens de l’Infernal ran in the French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles from 1994 to 1996. He works across several art forms, from comics to animation to video installations.

Luke Burns is a writer based in New York City whose work has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and New York Magazine. He teaches sketch and humor writing and co-authors a weekly newsletter, ”A Newsletter of Humorous Writing.”

Editorial Reviews

[Masters of the Nefarious] a beautiful, glossy-wrapped, full colour 165 page paperback, full of surrealism and silliness...characters, events, ideas and locations come and go as Chris & Montgomery, accompanied by their friend Fongor, engage with the fallout from a tsunami, giant mollusks and the appearance of what the blurb calls ‘an ominous quadrilateral UFO’, not to mention ‘a mysterious villain’ in the shadows.” —Rupert Loydell, International Times 

“A master of the absurd, French artist La Police delightfully defies virtually every trope and expectation in this madcap comic adventure. Take a dive into the insanity, and revel in the fact that nothing makes any sense.” —David McAllister, Prospect Magazine
  
“Masters of the Nefarious...[is] strange and wonderful, terrifically funny, and largely unlike anything else coming out of the scene at the moment. At the price, it’s both more than worthwhile and a very quick and satisfying read thanks to the narrative line, however silly and arbitrary it actually is. Some of the panels are as transcendent as Goya and as funny as a random still from Pee Wee’s Playhouse.” —Leonard Pierce, The Comics Journal

“Murderous mollusks are attacking the Maluku islands! A giant iron quadrilateral has appeared in the sky! … I really loved this strange comic, which is partially a send-up classic adventure comics and partially its own surreally stupid thing, with little echoes of Adult Swim and Far Side and even the early ZAZ comedies.” —Max Read

“Masters of the Nefarious: Mollusk Rampage is, as it sounds, a wonderfully funny series of digressions from a bizarre main plot; many of which eventually feed back into that prime narrative, landing with a witty gotcha moment. La Police makes use of one-page narrated panels that contradictorily can give the book a brisk reading pace and yet still ask us to dwell on the surreal silliness of individual images. Indeed, to a degree, each panel can feel like a discrete entity unto itself, inviting us into a moment of unfiltered and entrancing oddity.” —Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier

“Masters of the Nefarious: Mollusk Rampage’s story is told in page-sized panels, each with a caption below it. La Police is very fond of making the story pivot on a dime . . . You’ll find plenty to savor here.” —Tobias Carroll, Postcards From Komiksoj

“Is the sequential timing of these bizarre occurrences mere coincidence, or do they share some sinister secret connection? A crime fighting trio, comprised of mutant twin brothers Chris (who possesses the ability “to be in Uganda”) and Montgomery (capable of transforming into an enormous hulking monster at the site of glassware) and the enigmatic Fongor Fonzym, is determined to embark upon an epic quest to discover what is really going on and, if necessary, put an end to whatever that may be.” —Tom Batten, Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 04/01/2024

A massive wave sweeps across the South Pacific, leaving in its wake a horde of gigantic mollusks that kill people—"even people who maybe had made other plans." Then, a gigantic metal quadrilateral appears in the sky, baffling all who survey it. Is the sequential timing of these bizarre occurrences mere coincidence, or do they share some sinister secret connection? A crime fighting trio, comprised of mutant twin brothers Chris (who possesses the ability "to be in Uganda") and Montgomery (capable of transforming into an enormous hulking monster at the site of glassware) and the enigmatic Fongor Fonzym, is determined to embark upon an epic quest to discover what is really going on and, if necessary, put an end to whatever that may be. They'll get to it right after they finish eating dinner, swing through Brussels to buy new pants, visit a crew of miniature astronauts based in the Paleozoic era, and, finally, undergo unnecessary cosmetic surgery and make a full recovery. VERDICT Parisian cartoonist La Police's English-language debut pokes fun at tropes drawn from the pulpier genres, with a thrillingly unique blend of deadpan humor and surreal silliness that is both uproarious and evocative of a fascinating, singular vision.

Library Journal