New Releases by Mat Johnson

Overwhelmed with grief over the death of his mother, shamed by his failures in marriage and fatherhood, and burdened by massive debt, Devin’s life is spiraling out of control. That is, until he discovers the impossible: nostalgia is his superpower. With a random touch of family memorabilia, he can mentally travel back in time, reliving the best moments of his past while finding relief from the present. With his mother gone, Devin can now investigate her greatest secret: the identity of the father he never knew. But the more Devin "backflashes" into time, the faster his present life falls apart. On this hunt for a truth that was never supposed to come to light, Devin must come to terms with his past if he wants any chance at a future. By Mat Johnson, the author of Pym, Loving Day, and Incognegro, Backflash is a riveting literary graphic novel thriller laced with sly humor and raw emotion that explores time travel in wild and un-predictable ways.

A sharp allegorical novel about a hidden human civilization, a crucial election, and a mysterious invisible force that must not be named, by one of our most imaginative comic novelists LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post When sociologist Nalini Jackson joins the SS Delany for the first manned mission to Jupiter, all she wants is a career opportunity: the chance to conduct the first field study of group dynamics on long-haul cryoships. But what she discovers instead is an entire city encased in a bubble on Europa, Jupiter’s largest moon. Even more unexpected, Nalini and the rest of the crew soon find themselves abducted and joining its captive population, forced to start new lives in a place called New Roanoke. New Roanoke is a city riven by wealth inequality and governed by a feckless, predatory elite, its economy run on heedless consumption and income inequality. But in other ways it’s different from the cities we already know: it’s covered by an enormous dome, it’s populated by alien abductees, and it happens to be terrorized by an invisible entity so disturbing that no one even dares acknowledge its existence. Albuquerque chauffer Chase Eubanks is pretty darn sure aliens stole his wife. People mock him for saying that, but he doesn’t care who knows it. So when his philanthropist boss funds a top-secret rescue mission to save New Roanoke’s abductees, Chase jumps at the chance to find her. The plan: Get the astronauts out and provide the population with the tech they need to escape this alien world. The reality: Nothing is ever simple when dealing with the complex, contradictory, and contrarian impulses of everyday earthlings. This is a madcap, surreal adventure into a Jovian mirror world, one grappling with the same polarized politics, existential crises, and mass denialism that obsess and divide our own. Will New Roanoke survive? Will we?

In this volume, England’s favorite low-rent mage skips town to avoid incarceration and heads to India. But Constantine’s quest for purity in an attempt to resurrect the love of his life is quickly interrupted when an expat friend gets him mired in a series of grisly murders. Then, Constantine reluctantly becomes embroiled with a group of anarcho-punks who worship a powerful effigy of Sid Vicious. Plus, discover the centuries-long history of the King of Voodoo, and original Hellblazer writer Jamie Delano returns to John Constantine, alongside superstar artist Jock! Collects Hellblazer #261-266, Hellblazer Special: Papa Midnite #1-5, and the Hellblazer: Pandemonium graphic novel.

A page-turning thriller of racial divide, Incognegro: Renaissance explores segregation, secrets and self-image as our race-bending protagonist penetrates a world where he feels stranger than ever before. When a black writer is found dead at a scandalous interracial party in 1920s'' New York, Harlem''s cub reporter Zane Pinchback is the only one determined to solve the murder. Zane must go "Incognegro" for the first time, using his light appearance to pass as a white man to find the true killer, in this prequel miniseries to the critically acclaimed Vertigo graphic novel, now available in a special new 10th Anniversary Edition. With a cryptic manuscript as his only clue, and a mysterious and beautiful woman as the murder''s only witness, Zane finds himself on the hunt through the dark and dangerous streets of "roaring twenties" Harlem in search for justice. In a time when looks could kill . . . Zane''s skin is the only thing keeping him alive.

The long fuse of�Incognegro: Renaissance�hits the bomb in this noir mysterys explosive conclusion. Zane Pinchback and his femme fatale Bette discover the story behind the murder that sent them on their quest, and now they must bring that truth to light without becoming its next victims. For mature readers.

Under attack, Zane Pinchback and his femme fatale are forced to flee for their lives, taking refuge in each other''s arms. Going underground Uptown, they return to Harlem to find the last pieces of the puzzle. To survive, Zane must peel back the facade of Roaring Twenties New York, and stare directly into the truth under its surface. For mature readers.

At Harlem''s Cotton Club, the hottest scene in 1920s'' New York, Harlem''s cub reporter Zane Pinchback is on the hunt to find the femme fatale who left him for dead in the streets. To solve a murder, Zane must go ''''Incognegro,'''' using his light appearance to enter this ''''white patrons only'''' club and find the true killer. For mature readers.

Cub reporter Zane Pinchback almost witnessed a murder. Now, the only true witness thinks he''s the prime suspect. What could she be hiding? Zane will have to go ''''incognegro'''' and sneak into a Harlem jazz club to track down the truth. In a time when looks could kill . . . Zane''s skin is the only thing keeping him alive. Mature readers.

After a black writer is found dead at a scandalous interracial party in 1920''s New York, Harlem''s cub reporter Zane Pinchback is the only one determined to solve the murder. Zane must go ''''incognegro'''' for the first time--using his light appearance to pass as a white man--to find the true killer, in this prequel miniseries to the critically acclaimed Vertigo graphic novel, now available in a special new 10th Anniversary Edition. With a cryptic manuscript as his only clue, and a mysterious and beautiful woman as the murder''s only witness, Zane finds himself on the hunt through the dark and dangerous streets of ''''roaring twenties'''' Harlem in search for justice. A page-turning thriller of racial divide, Incognegro: Renaissance explores segregation, secrets, and self-image as our race-bending protagonist penetrates a world where he feels stranger than ever before. Mature readers. ''''A talented writer of both fiction and creative non-fiction, Johnson''s publications have established himself as an important new voice in the African-American tradition.''''--Walter Mosley

This tenth anniversary edition of the acclaimed and fearless graphic novel features enhanced toned art, an afterword by Mat Johnson, character sketches, and other additional material. In the early 20th Century, when lynchings were commonplace throughout the American South, a few courageous reporters from the North risked their lives to expose these atrocities. They were African-American men who, due to their light skin color, could "pass" among the white folks. They called this dangerous assignment going "incognegro." Zane Pinchback, a reporter for the New York-based New Holland Herald, is sent to investigate the arrest of his own brother, charged with the brutal murder of a white woman in Mississippi. With a lynch mob already swarming, Zane must stay "incognegro" long enough to uncover the truth behind the murder in order to save his brother -- and himself. Suspenseful, unsettling and relevant, Incognegro is a tense graphic novel of shifting identities, forbidden passions, and secrets that run far deeper than skin color.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “[Mat Johnson’s] unrelenting examination of blackness, whiteness and everything in between is handled with ruthless candor and riotous humor.”—Los Angeles Times “Razor-sharp . . . Loving Day is that rare mélange: cerebral comedy with pathos.”—The New York Times Book Review NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • San Francisco Chronicle • NPR • Men’s Journal • The Miami Herald • The Denver Post • Slate • The Kansas City Star • San Antonio Express-News • Time Out New York Warren Duffy has returned to America for all the worst reasons: His marriage to a beautiful Welsh woman has come apart; his comics shop in Cardiff has failed; and his Irish American father has died, bequeathing to Warren his last possession, a roofless, half-renovated mansion in the heart of black Philadelphia. On his first night in his new home, Warren spies two figures outside in the grass. When he screws up the nerve to confront them, they disappear. The next day he encounters ghosts of a different kind: In the face of a teenage girl he meets at a comics convention he sees the mingled features of his white father and his black mother, both now dead. The girl, Tal, is his daughter, and she’s been raised to think she’s white. Spinning from these revelations, Warren sets off to remake his life with a reluctant daughter he’s never known, in a haunted house with a history he knows too well. In their search for a new life, he and Tal struggle with ghosts, fall in with a utopian mixed-race cult, and ignite a riot on Loving Day, the unsung holiday for interracial lovers. A frequently hilarious, surprisingly moving story about blacks and whites, fathers and daughters, the living and the dead, Loving Day celebrates the wonders of opposites bound in love. Praise for Loving Day “Incisive . . . razor-sharp . . . that rare mélange: cerebral comedy with pathos. The vitality of our narrator deserves much of the credit for that. He has the neurotic bawdiness of Philip Roth’s Alexander Portnoy; the keen, caustic eye of Bob Jones in Chester Himes’s If He Hollers Let Him Go; the existential insight of Ellison’s Invisible Man.”—The New York Times Book Review “Exceptional . . . To say that Loving Day is a book about race is like saying Moby-Dick is a book about whales. . . . [Mat Johnson’s] unrelenting examination of blackness, whiteness and everything in between is handled with ruthless candor and riotous humor. . . . Even when the novel’s family strife and racial politics are at peak intensity, Johnson’s comic timing is impeccable.”—Los Angeles Times “Johnson, at his best, is a powerful comic observer [and] a gifted writer, always worth reading on the topics of race and privilege.’”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“THE SHARPEST AND MOST UNUSUAL STORY I READ LAST YEAR . . . [Mat] Johnson’s satirical vision roves as freely as Kurt Vonnegut’s and is colored with the same sort of passionate humanitarianism.”—Maud Newton, New York Times Magazine NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Vanity Fair • Houston Chronicle • The Seattle Times • Salon • National Post • The A.V. Club Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes has just made a startling discovery: the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that confirms the reality of Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Determined to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes, Jaynes convenes an all-black crew of six to follow Pym’s trail to the South Pole, armed with little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes. Thus begins an epic journey by an unlikely band of adventurers under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries. “Outrageously entertaining, [Pym] brilliantly re-imagines and extends Edgar Allan Poe’s enigmatic and unsettling Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. . . . Part social satire, part meditation on race in America, part metafiction and, just as important, a rollicking fantasy adventure . . . reminiscent of Philip Roth in its seemingly effortless blend of the serious, comic and fantastic.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post “Blisteringly funny.”—Laura Miller, Salon “Relentlessly entertaining.”—The New York Times Book Review “Imagine Kurt Vonnegut having a beer with Ralph Ellison and Jules Verne.”—Vanity Fair “Screamingly funny . . . Reading Pym is like opening a big can of whoop-ass and then marveling—gleefully—at all the mayhem that ensues.”—Houston Chronicle

Chris Jones has a gift for creating desire-a result of his own passionate desire to be anywhere but where he is, to be anyone but himself. Sick of the constraints of his black working-class town, he uses his knack for creating effective ad campaigns to land a dream job in London. But life soon takes a turn for the worse, and Chris finds himself back in Philly where his only job prospect is answering the phones at the electric company. Surounded by the down-and-out, Chris hits rock bottom. Only a stroke of inspiration and faith can get him back on his feet. The funny and heartfelt tale of a young black man who, in the process of trying to break free from the city he dispises, comes to terms with himself. ''Nuanced, elegant and witty'' -Publishers Weekly ''A very humorous debut novel... Johnson''s poetic reflections recall the work of James Baldwin....Wonderfully written.'' -Library Journal

Hurricane Katrina chrashes into New Orleans and while everybody is trying to get out, two ex-cons sees the perfect oppertunity to rob a bank. So contrary to every man woman and child, Emmit Jack and Dadny Arceneaux wiil do whatever it takes to get into the city.

Horizon Realty is bringing Harlem back to its Renaissance. With the help of Cedric, Bobby, and Horus-three ex-cons trying to forge a new life-Horizon clears out the rubble and the rabble, filling once-dilapidated brownstones with black professionals handpicked for their shared vision of Harlem as a shining icon for the race. And fate seems to be working in Horizon''s favor: Harlem''s undesirable tenants seem increasingly clumsy of late, meeting early deaths by accident. As an ambitious reporter, Piper Goines, begins to investigate the neighborhood''s extraordinarily high accident rate, Horizon''s three employees find themselves fighting for their souls and their very lives-against a backdrop of some of the most beautiful brownstones in all of Manhattan.

In 1741, New York City was thrown into an uproar when a sixteen-year-old white woman, an indentured servant named Mary Burton, testified that she was privy to a monstrous conspiracy against the white people of Manhattan. Promised her freedom by authorities if she would only uncover the plot, Mary reported that the black men of the city were planning to burn New York City to the ground. As the courts ensnared more and more suspects and violence swept the city, 154 black New Yorkers were jailed, 14 were burned alive, 18 were hanged, and more than 100 simply "disappeared"; four whites wound up being executed and 24 imprisoned. Even as the madness escalated, however, officials started to realize that Mary Burton might not be telling the truth. Expertly written by the acclaimed author of Drop and Hunting in Harlem, The Great Negro Plot is a brilliant reconstruction of a little-known moment in American history whose echoes still reverberate today. Mat Johnson is the author of the novels Hunting in Harlem and Drop. He received his M.F.A. from Columbia and now teaches at Bard College. He lives in New York''s Hudson Valley with his family.

Spinning out from the popular ''Hellblazer'' series, the origin of the master of all things voodoo, Papa Midnite, is finally revealed. Aimed at adults only, this graphic novel written by acclaimed novelist Mat Johnson also features the chain-smoking jaded mystic John Constantine.