A WISE AND FUNNY COLLECTION OF MODERN-DAY PARABLES ABOUT THE TIES BETWEEN HUMANS AND THEIR GODS

Imagine you are Poseidon at the dawn of the twenty-first century. The oceans are dying and sailors have long since stopped paying tribute. They just don't don't need you anymore. What do you do? Perhaps, seeking answers, you go exploring. Maybe you end up in Wisconsin and discover the pleasures of the iced latte. And then, perhaps, everything goes wrong.

Anders Nilsen, author of Big Questions and Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow, explores questions like these in his newest work, a darkly funny meditation on religion and faith with a modern twist. Rage of Poseidon brings all of the philosophical depth of Nilsen’s earlier work to bear on contemporary society, asking how a twenty-first century child might respond to being sacrificed on a mountaintop, and probing the role gods like Venus and Bacchus might have in the world of today. Nilsen works in a unique style for these short stories, distilling individual moments in black silhouette on a spare white background. Above all, though, he immerses us seamlessly in a world where gods and humans are more alike than not, forcing us to recognize the humor in our (and their) desperation.

Rage of Poseidon is devastating, insightful, and beautiful hewn; it’s a wry triumph in an all-new style from a masterful artist.

PRAISE FOR RAGE OF POSEIDON

Nilsen’s attractively packaged graphic novel consists of a single, long sheet of paper that accordions together to fit between the book’s covers. Each “page” consists of a silhouetted, woodblocklike illustration, accompanied by a subtitle, and represents a single panel in a series of comic strips. Seven in all, these strips range in length from one to twenty panels, but all address the same issues: the interaction between the mythologies of ancient Greece and Judeo-Christianity, and the continuing relevance of each... School Library Journal

Whether writing through birds or gods, the mundane or the divine, Nilsen’s true subject matter remains much the same: explorations of metaphysical and existential concerns, here more directly concerned with faith and religion than elsewhere... the stories and their surface content, the writing and the illustration make this perhaps Nilsen’s most readily accessible work to date. Robot 6 - Comic Book Resources

A darkly humorous anthology of tales putting a modern twist on Greek myths and Christian religious stories. Los Angeles Times

[Rage of Poseidon is] Anders Nilsen's trenchant (and fucking hilarious) accordioned extension of Greek myths... Austin Chronicle - Best Books of 2013