Below Ambition (Megg, Mogg and Owl) (Paperback)
Following Simon Hanselmann’s 2021 smash hit graphic novel Crisis Zone — which captured the zeitgeist of life under Covid and the New York Times Book Review called “the first great work of pandemic fiction” — things settle down, and Megg the Witch and Werewolf Jones get the band back together.
Megg and Werewolf Jones are Horse Mania. Horse Mania is a test of the audience’s patience, proudly the “worst band in town,” without any ambition to make it. Join the musicians as they battle through shoddy, distracted practice sessions, a squalid house show, and a doomed interstate tour. Watch as they drunkenly flail through their sets amidst toothaches, nervous breakdowns, suicide attempts, mounting hatred, and a galaxy of benzos. This is music and performance in its most primal, multifaceted, and pure form. Feel the tension. See the dirty looks. Taste the pain. Smell the depravity. Hear the veiled beauty. Horse Mania wants you to lose your mind.
Below Ambition is a meditation on youth, performance, and memory as only Simon Hanselmann, the best comedic writer in comics, is capable of. The book will also include a flexidisc single by Horse Mania, "Stick It In for the Ambient", which is tipped into the front cover for easy removal and play.
Simon Hanselmann hails from Tasmania but resides with his family in Los Angeles, CA. His bestselling New York Times series Megg, Mogg and Owl has been translated into thirteen languages, nominated for multiple Ignatz and Eisner awards, and won Best Series at the Angouleme International Comics Festival in 2018.
Hanselmann proves the perfect author to capture American life in late 2020. [Crisis Zone] escalates the depravity at a relentless pace and delivers both laugh-out-loud gags and genuine pathos.
— Library Journal, Starred Review
Hanselmann may be the funniest cartoonist working today, writing and illustrating comics that revel in a comedy of cruelty.
— Jacob Brogan - The Washington Post
Astoundingly well-crafted and punishingly heartfelt.
— Vulture
Hanselmann is one of the most gifted cartoonists alive.
— The A.V. Club
— Library Journal, Starred Review
Hanselmann may be the funniest cartoonist working today, writing and illustrating comics that revel in a comedy of cruelty.
— Jacob Brogan - The Washington Post
Astoundingly well-crafted and punishingly heartfelt.
— Vulture
Hanselmann is one of the most gifted cartoonists alive.
— The A.V. Club