In Transit: From Alaska to Atlantis, a search for Utopia by Tom Kaczynski
80 pages
"Tom Kaczynski produces small comics crammed with big ideas (and beautiful representations). Who knew a few tight-paneled pages of mini-book pulp could escort us across realities from Minnesota to Atlantis to the end of the world—visiting Zizek, MODOK, Solon, Gorbachev, Voltron, von Däniken, Gamera, Heraclitus, John Gray, Richard Florida, state socialism, hypercapitalism, techno-utopia, post-apocalyptic dystopia, and an optimistic Corn Belt fantasia along the way. Tom K's semiotic speedball propels the acheings of adolescent nostalgia through the epic vistas of the critical imagination to produce a more coherent expression of the maturation of the multiculturally media-drunk early 21st century self than any hardcover post-9/11 bildungsroman could manage with mere words."— Chris Brown, Tropic of Kansas, Rule of Capture, A Natural History of Empty Lots
A facsimilie digital-only collection of four mini-comics:
01 Trans Alaska
Philosophy, economics and the metaphysical crisis of the capitalist creative... or something like that.
02 Trans Siberia
Nostalgia, Communist television, Iron Curtain, the invisible hand of the market and how it all ties together.
03 Trans Atlantis
The Utopian impulse, atlantology, metaphysical maps, Jack Kirby and more.
04 Trans Utopia
The cartoon journey through philosophy, pop-culture, politics and the occult arrives at its destination: Utopia… or perhaps not. Top 25 mini-comic of 2010—The Comics Journal.
Includes new notes, unpublished work, skeches, cover archive, and more.
Tom K(aczynski) is an immigrant, cartoonist, writer, teacher, and founder of Uncivilized Books. His comics include the Eisner-nominated Beta Testing the Apocalypse (Fantagraphics) and the forthcoming Trans Terra (check progress on Instagram). Cartoon Dialectics Vol. 3 won the Dinky Award for best Mini Comic. He writes the Event Horizon column on The Comics Journal. He lives in Minneapolis with his partner Nikki and two cats, and a dog. English is his third language.
