Best Seller
The Awakening and Other Stories
Hardcover
$39.99
Available on May 18, 2027 | 152 Pages
RICHARD CORBEN’S LEGENDARY UNDERGROUND WORK COLLECTED AND RESTORED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE AWAKENING AND OTHER STORIES!
Dark Horse Comics continues its archival program with The Awakening and Other Stories, a new volume in the Richard Corben Library devoted to the artist’s most haunting and imaginative science fiction work.
Few creators shaped the visual language of dystopian comics like Richard Corben. With his unmistakable painted technique, three-dimensional figures, and luminous color, Corben built futures that feel tactile, strange, and uncomfortably plausible. This collection focuses on his darker visions, stories depicting ecological disaster, technological overreach, and human folly.
Drawn from Corben’s groundbreaking underground comics (from the legendary anthology Slow Death) and later independent comics, the volume showcases his gift for blending sharp social satire with pulp adventure and existential unease. These are not sleek utopias or remote galaxies but flawed futures populated by ordinary people, grotesque mutants, malfunctioning machines, and moments of surprising tenderness. Corben’s science fiction has always been less about technology and more about the consequences of humanity’s actions.
Featuring an introduction from science fiction author Jeff Vandermeer (Annihilation, Authority), the book also highlights Corben’s rich creative partnerships with his friends and frequent collaborators, including writers Jan Strnad (The Last Voyage of Sindbad, Mutant World) and Bruce Jones (Rip in Time). In addition, readers will find Corben’s distinctive visual interpretations of classic prose science fiction by authors such as Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles).
Collects Going Home, Encounter at War, The Wreck of the Katerra-Dan, Donneman’s Bluff, Planetoid, A Sound of Thunder, Flys, How Howie Made It in the Real World, A Dumb Story, Heirs of the Earth, The Awakening, Mangle, Robot Mangler, Melton’s Big Game, Bug, Night of the Monkey, Garbage Man.
Dark Horse Comics continues its archival program with The Awakening and Other Stories, a new volume in the Richard Corben Library devoted to the artist’s most haunting and imaginative science fiction work.
Few creators shaped the visual language of dystopian comics like Richard Corben. With his unmistakable painted technique, three-dimensional figures, and luminous color, Corben built futures that feel tactile, strange, and uncomfortably plausible. This collection focuses on his darker visions, stories depicting ecological disaster, technological overreach, and human folly.
Drawn from Corben’s groundbreaking underground comics (from the legendary anthology Slow Death) and later independent comics, the volume showcases his gift for blending sharp social satire with pulp adventure and existential unease. These are not sleek utopias or remote galaxies but flawed futures populated by ordinary people, grotesque mutants, malfunctioning machines, and moments of surprising tenderness. Corben’s science fiction has always been less about technology and more about the consequences of humanity’s actions.
Featuring an introduction from science fiction author Jeff Vandermeer (Annihilation, Authority), the book also highlights Corben’s rich creative partnerships with his friends and frequent collaborators, including writers Jan Strnad (The Last Voyage of Sindbad, Mutant World) and Bruce Jones (Rip in Time). In addition, readers will find Corben’s distinctive visual interpretations of classic prose science fiction by authors such as Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles).
Collects Going Home, Encounter at War, The Wreck of the Katerra-Dan, Donneman’s Bluff, Planetoid, A Sound of Thunder, Flys, How Howie Made It in the Real World, A Dumb Story, Heirs of the Earth, The Awakening, Mangle, Robot Mangler, Melton’s Big Game, Bug, Night of the Monkey, Garbage Man.
Author
Richard Corben
Richard Corben was born on a farm in Anderson, Missouri, and went on to get a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1965. After working as a professional animator, Corben started doing underground comics, including Grim Wit, Slow Death, Skull, Rowlf, Fever Dreams, and his own anthology Fantagor. In 1970 he began illustrating horror and science-fiction stories for Warren Publishing. His stories appeared in Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, 1984, and Comix International. He also colored several episodes of Will Eisner’s Spirit. In 1975, when Mœbius, Druillet, and Jean-Pierre Dionnet started publishing the magazine Métal Hurlant in France, Corben submitted some of his stories to them. He continued his work for the franchise in America, where the magazine was called Heavy Metal. In 1976 he adapted a short Robert E. Howard story in Bloodstar. In 2012 he was elected to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.
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