Novelists and writing duo Owen King (Sleeping Beauties, The Curator) and Jesse Kellerman (The Genius, The Golem of Hollywood) team up with artist Marianna Ignazzi (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bram Stoker Award nominated An Unkindness of Ravens), colorist Fabiana Mascolo, and designer/letterer Ian Chagren for the upcoming five-issue comic book miniseries titled, Self Help. This new launch out of the Syzygy line at Image Comics will hit shelves in June.
Chagren will also be creating unique popular-crime-fiction-inspired logos and design pages for each issue. Issue #1’s design pays homage to legendary Hollywood noir poster artist, Saul Bass.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Jesse Kellerman on Self Help,” said King. “He’s one of my favorite novelists and one of my favorite people. We’re both incredibly lucky to have the brilliant Marianna Ignazzi bringing our sun-baked noir comedy to life.”
A California noir story with a wicked sense of humor, Self Help is a surreal and colorful world populated with two-faced talk-show hosts, cheerful Finnish mobsters, bloodthirsty white supremacists, snide English butlers, and panther-wielding Euro-trash assassins.
Kellerman added: “Writing Self Help has been nonstop fun—and the credit for that goes to my amazing co-writer, Owen King. This story is the product of two good friends cutting loose and letting our imaginations run wild. And we’re thrilled by the beautiful, stylish, vivid genius of Marianna Ignazzi. We can’t wait for you to get your hands on it.”
In Self Help, readers are introduced to down-on-his-luck rideshare driver Jerry Hauser, whose existence is a bleak one…especially because every fare he picks up tells him how much he looks like ultra-successful self-help guru Darren Hart. But in a twist of fate, Jerry is given the chance of a lifetime…which, if he’s not careful, may well end his lifetime. So begins this rollicking and gleefully lurid pulp crime story.
“I am beyond thrilled to be part of the incredible team behind Self Help,” said Ignazzi. “Working alongside such talented individuals has been an absolute joy. Get ready for a wild ride as we dive into a gripping crime story filled with unexpected twists and turns.”
From there the story races ahead at an ever-increasing speed, and with an ever-increasing body count, as Jerry assumes his rival’s identity, fights to keep a lid on the murder, fends off the Euro-gangsters to whom Darren was heavily indebted, placates Darren’s calculating assistant Cassandra, and rebuilds his relationship with his estranged ex-wife Michelle and daughter Amelia. Oh, and he also needs to avoid the white supremacists that hold Jerry’s personal marker—except to them, he’s Danny McClure—and keep up his Drÿvÿr rating.
Self Help #1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, June 19:
- Cover A by Ignazzi – Lunar Code 0424IM224
- Cover B by Stephen Byrne – Lunar Code 0424IM225
- Cover C (1:15 copy incentive) by Steven Russell Black – Lunar Code 0424IM226
- Cover D (1:25 copy incentive) by Ashley Wood – Lunar Code 0424IM227
Self Help will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
ABOUT OWEN KING
Owen King is the author of Double Feature, and We’re All in This Together: A Novella and Stories. He is the coauthor of Sleeping Beauties and Intro to Alien Invasion and the coeditor of Who Can Save Us Now? Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories. His latest novel, The Curator, was published in March 2023. He lives in upstate New York with his family.
ABOUT JESSE KELLERMAN
Kellerman is a writer. He has published five solo novels; six novels in collaboration with his father, Jonathan Kellerman; a bunch of plays; and a handful of essays. You can learn more about him by Googling his name. Everything that comes up is true.
ABOUT MARIANNA IGNAZZI
Marianna Ignazzi is an Italian comic artist based in Rome. Ignazzi made her debut in a cartoon strip on the second issue of Mostri from Bugs Comics. This was followed by Fuori la Notte and Malattie D’Amore for I Ragazzi di Pasteur series from Carocci Editore. For Edizioni Star Comics, she illustrated Il ritratto di Dorian Gray in I Maestri del Mistero series. Since 2016 she’s been working on the series Julia by Sergio Bonelli Editore. Ignazzi has also illustrated comic book series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated original series An Unkindness of Ravens from BOOM! Studios.