The Envious Siblings: and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes (Hardcover)
Staff Reviews
Don't let it fool you: this curious collection may look a bit silly at first glance, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that The Envious Siblings is one of the creepiest books I have ever read. If your sense of humor is twisted enough, you might find that it is also hysterically funny. Morbid, playful, and at times genuinely unsettling, these disturbing 'nursery rhymes' and macabre illustrations dance on their pages like happy little nightmares, moving to a rhythm that is as mesmerizing as it is disorienting. Landis Blair is an immensely talented (and also probably demented) artist, and he has created something truly special. But a picture is worth a thousand words: take a look inside and see for yourself. — From Jason's Picks
Description
Eight gleefully macabre rhyming vignettes by an award-winning comics artist, as delightful as they are deadly.
Inspired by the dark imagination of Edward Gorey, Envious Siblings is a twisted and hauntingly funny debut. Comics artist Landis Blair interweaves absurdist horror and humor into brief, rhyming vignettes at once transgressive and hilarious. In Blair’s surreal universe, a lost child watches as bewhiskered monsters gobble up her fellow train passengers; a band of kids merrily plays a gut-churning game with playground toys; and two sisters, grinning madly, tear each other apart. These charmingly perverse creations take ordinary settings—a living room, a subway car, a playground—and spin them in a nightmarish direction.
Envious Siblings heralds a brilliant new cartooning talent, and will captivate readers who have thrilled to the lurid fantasies of Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake, Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein, and Tim Burton.
About the Author
Landis Blair illustrated the prize-winning graphic novel The Hunting Accident and the New York Times bestseller From Here to Eternity, and has published illustrations in the New York Times, Chicago magazine, and Medium. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Praise For…
Rarely have I seen an artist whose crosshatched phantasms are more evocative or more disturbing. Landis Blair weaves a world of dark discontents that is as disquieting as it is addictive.
— Emil Ferris, author of My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
Landis Blair is a singular, morbid talent.
— Caitlin Doughty, best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
The Envious Siblings gave me the fantods, in the nicest possible way.
— Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Bizarre Romance
Good grief, Landis, this is a bit gruesome.
— Eddie Campbell, artist of From Hell
[D]eranged and funny. … It’s like if Edward Gorey stopped playing nice.
— Hayley Campbell, author of The Art of Neil Gaiman
[A]n audacious and entertaining compilation.
— Library Journal
[A]n entertaining embrace of the dark side of humor from a rising talent in cartooning.
— Danielle Ballantyne - Foreword Reviews
[A] devilishly funny debut.
— Fred McNamara - STARBURST Magazine
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