Science Fiction

by Joe Ollmann, Joe Ollmann (Artist)

Overview

What would you do if someone you trusted asked you to believe what you thought was impossible? When high school science teacher and pragmatic realist Mark is inexplicably drawn to renting a cheesy sc-fi flick, it sets in motion a chain of events that makes him rethink everything he has ever believed. After a hysterical breakdown while watching the movie, he reveals to Sue, his longtime girlfriend, that he suddenly remembers being abducted as a child… by aliens. He becomes obsessed with alien-abduction chat rooms and stops leaving the house. As Mark becomes more heavily immersed in his inner world, their relationship slowly disintegrates. All he wants is for her to believe him. But how can she believe him, when it’s just science fiction after all? Joe Ollmann, winner of a Doug Wright Award, has created another page-turner of a graphic novel – a book that is not science fiction, but at the same time asks us to believe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781894994750
Publisher:	Conundrum Press
Publication date:	07/08/2013
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Joe Ollmann is the author of four other critically acclaimed graphic novels, Chewing on Tinfoil, This Will All End in Tears, The Big Book of Wag! And Mid-Life.

Joe Ollmann is the author of four other critically acclaimed graphic novels, Chewing on Tinfoil, This Will All End in Tears, The Big Book of Wag! And Mid-Life.

Editorial Reviews

It’s next to impossible to read Ollmann’s latest effort without comparing it to the phenomenally insightful Mid-Life of two years ago. However, instead of the typical midlife crisis that book’s hero went through, the protagonist of this book, a science teacher and skeptic named Mark, faces a predicament that’s out of this world. After renting a forgettable sci-fi flick to watch with his girlfriend, Sue, Mark suddenly finds himself in the fetal position, having come to the realization that he has repressed his memories of being abducted by aliens as a child. Normally a staunch pragmatist, Mark is soon reaching out to online support groups while his personal and professional lives take a nosedive, and the reader is left to wonder how long Sue will choose to stay with someone whose story she can’t possibly believe. Whether readers can accept the premise or not, this once again shows Ollmann’s uncanny ability to expose the reality of contemporary relationships—not just how couples relate to one another but how they talk, how they stop talking, how they fight, and how they make up. It’s almost more impressive here than in Mid-Life given that the story’s premise is so out of the realm of the ordinary. (July)

Publishers Weekly