Wonderful news for our graphic novel department: two new deals have been finalised for The Natural Comedy by Ulla Donner!
World Spanish rights have been acquired by Liana Editorial, while the French rights were secured by Atrabile. The latter previously published Donner’s graphic novel Crap.
Both publishers specialise in comics and quality graphic novels: Liana has released the works of Nora Dåsnes, Adam O. and Jenny Jordahl, while Atrabile is the home for Frederik Peeters, Jason, Alex Baladi, Ibn Al Rabin, Peggy Adam and many others.
The Natural Comedy is a playful twist on Dante’s Divine Comedy, told from the perspective of the creatures of a forest that has been destroyed by humans. In it, it’s autumn, and the leaves have started to fall. One of them, a leaf called Birch, makes a crash landing on a mushroom, Candy, while en route to the Great Autumn Feast. The unlikely duo start a perilous journey through the forest, or rather what is left of it, trying to make it to the party on time.
As Birch and Candy try to make their way à la Dante, they come across the ancient, grimy Mother Nature, a wellness cult headed by a Kombucha mushroom, as well as other woodland dwellers forced to adapt to their new habitats.
The sylvan fairytale grows into a hilarious satire about the Finns’ “special” relationship with nature. It is a tale about a society in which nature is subordinate to the human pursuit of profit and in which heaven and hell are only separated by how well each species manages to fit around people’s needs.
The author also touches on such themes as xenophobia, comical features of young people’s dating rituals, and the societal terror of old age and hagsploitation in her characteristically wry manner.
The Natural Comedy is the third graphic novel of Ulla Donner, winner of the Finlandia Comics Prize for Best Graphic Novel in 2020. Foreign rights of the book have previously been sold to Germany and Poland.
Warm congratulations to the author and the publishers!