New York Times bestselling, award winning creative team Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, We Stand on Guard, Paper Girls) and Niko Henrichon (Pride of Baghdad) are back with a provocative, hard hitting new graphic novel titled, Spectators. First serialized in Vaughan’s Substack newsletter, this jaw-dropping, lavishly hand-painted epic will be collected in its entirety at last and available in a stunning hardcover edition this September.
Spectators sees Vaughan and Henrichon together again—for the first time in nearly two decades since their award winning, contemporary classic Pride of Baghdad took the industry by storm—this time for their most ambitious project yet.
Now, Spectators promises to put the “graphic” back in graphic novel and will feature an unconventional supernatural romance, a critical exploration of sex and violence, and a deep dive into the very different ways we obsessively watch both.
Set hundreds of years in the future, New York City is haunted by many ghosts, including a voyeuristic woman who died in our present day and a mysterious gun-toting man from the distant past. Normally solo travelers, these two specters meet each other just in time to observe what might be the end of the (living) world.
“Spectators is a story I’ve wanted to tell my whole career, and after more than three years of meticulous hand-painting by genius co-creator Niko Henrichon, we’re excited to finally share our epic standalone graphic novel with all of you mature readers out there,” said Vaughan. “This is a spicy one, so thanks for supporting the retailers who bravely support comics for adults!”
Henrichon added: “The bold and unconventional script of this comic book challenged my artistic boundaries like never before. It was an exhilarating experience and a true honor to create artwork for such a distinctive story.”
Spectators hardcover (ISBN: 9781534331211, Lunar Code 0425IM287) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, September 10 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, September 23.
ABOUT BRIAN K. VAUGHAN
Brian K. Vaughan is the Eisner and Hugo Award-winning writer/co-creator of multiple critically acclaimed series including Saga, Paper Girls, and Y: The Last Man, as well as the upcoming graphic novel Spectators with artist Niko Henrichon, who he last collaborated with on Pride of Baghdad. Vaughan lives with his family in Los Angeles, where he occasionally dabbles in film and television, though he’s always happiest making comics.
ABOUT NIKO HENRICHON
Niko Henrichon is a French-Canadian comic book artist perhaps most known for his work on the Pride of Baghdad original graphic novel, written by Brian K. Vaughan. Henrichon has worked for several American companies, but also for publishers in France. He contributed to various comics like Doctor Strange, New Mutants, X-men, Spider-Man, Marvel Knights, and Fables. His work on the Meet the Skrulls comic book mini series was used to create the recent Secret Invasion Marvel TV show.
In Europe, he illustrated Noé, an adaptation of the Biblical tale by cult director Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel. He also worked on 2 albums from the Metabaron universe with Humanoids Editions from a script by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jerry Frissen. Lately, he illustrated the first album of the series Fang with American writer Joe Kelly.
At this very moment, Henrichon is busy working on the last pages of Spectators, an audacious NSFW graphic novel (available to read on the Substack platform) with long-time collaborator Brian K. Vaughan and which will be published in a print hardcover edition by Image Comics this Fall.