LA TIMES BOOK AWARDS: Best Graphic Novel Nominee
Softcover, 188 pages
A collection of two new stories from cartoonist and Adventure Time contributor Sam Alden. In “Household,” a brother and sister deal with divergent memories of their father and grow closer than ever. In "Backyard," Vegans and anarchists share a house, small dramas and bizarre transformations (featuring a new, never before published ending). Designed as a companion volume for the critically acclaimed It Never Happened Again, New Construction cements Alden's reputation as one of the best cartoonists of his generation.
Sam Alden was born in 1988 in Portland, Oregon. He is the recipient of two Ignatz Awards, one for most promising new talent and another for best comic. Sam was an official guest at the BilBoLbul festival in Bologna, Italy. His work has been previously published in Best American Comics 2013, from Houghton-Mifflin. Sam now lives and works as an illustrator and cartoonist in Los Angeles.
Praise for It Never Happened Again:
"Two thematically divergent, but devastatingly human portraits from an emerging cartoonist displaying the sort of storytelling and artistic restraint that often only comes after years of toiling away at the drawing board. Alden is a talent to watch."
—Publishers Weekly
"His moody, nuanced visuals and intuitive, empathetic character work […] reveal an already startlingly mature young talent. It is genuinely exciting to contemplate how he will further develop in the years ahead."
—The Comics Journal
“When I first saw “Hawaii 1997” on Tumblr, I read the whole thing “without trying” — a compliment usually reserved for masters of wordless ligne claire cartooning. It’s extremely difficult to make a comic rich with atmospheric lights and shadows while remaining 100% easy to read as a comic. “Hawaii 1997” did it. “Anime” is a more complicated and nuanced story that admirably gives the reader space to form their own opinions on its protagonist. I’m excited to read whatever Alden does.”
— Dash Shaw, creator of New School, Bodyworld and Bottomless Belly Button
