Eric Haven Livres

There are dinosaurs, murder fantasies, and secret wars in this collection of short comics stories. Compulsive Comics collects the very best of Eric Haven’s singular brand of inverted-comic-book-consciousness and genre-bending short stories. “The Glacier” is about a lone scientist making a startling discovery. The volume’s most controversial story, “I Killed Dan Clowes,” is an epic conflation of autobio and fantasy. While driving around Oakland, ruminating on the history of underground comics in the Bay Area, the main character fatally hits acclaimed graphic novelist Daniel Clowes, and the absurdity only escalates from there.

While experiencing a succession of bewildering parallel universes, a solitary figure has telepathic encounters with a demonic aviatrix, a wandering crystalline being, a flaming sword-wielding warrior, and a mysterious sorceress, all within the confines of his own apartment. Vague Tales is the debut graphic novel from Eisner Awardnominated cartoonist Eric Haven (UR), who moonlighted as a three-time Emmy nominated producer on the TV show MythBusters and has contributed short comic stories for years to esteemed publications such as The Believer and Kramers Ergot. Haven’s work is dark, absurdist, and deadpan, reflecting the apocalyptic undercurrent of modern times. His inky, rubbery drawings buttress his black, absurdist humor.

This is a literary collection of interconnected comics stories about monsters ― giant monsters, tiny monsters, robot monsters, cosmic monsters ― some of whom work for the benefit of humankind, others as agents of chaos. Taking place over different planes of existence, trippy and deadpan, the stories share a perspective seen from a world gone horribly wrong. Worlds behind worlds are revealed ― including our own.