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The Tipping Point is coming!

In addition to the regular edition, we are also releasing an Ultra-Deluxe slipcase edition (extremely limited and numbered to just 100 copies) that includes signed bookplates preceding every creator's respective story (14 bookplates total).

The Tipping Point is coming!

In addition to the regular edition, we are also releasing an Ultra-Deluxe slipcase edition (extremely limited and numbered to just 100 copies) that includes signed bookplates preceding every creator's respective story (14 bookplates total).

The Ark
Story & Art by Stéphane Levallois

A nearly silent allegorical fable of man vs. nature that explores the medium's potential in a stunning, cinematic fashion.

A lone figure in a diving suit drags an enormous wooden ark through the desert, scarring the earth with its deep furrow. A plane crashes. A zeppelin prowls the azure skies, its crew seduced by caged women, while Bedouins and soldiers clash under the blazing sun. This poetic tale entrances as it pulls all these elements and characters together into a haunting yet mesmerizing canvas.

Quick facts about The Ark:

• Stéphane Levallois is a computer games and graphic designer who has also worked in advertising. He has worked as a concept designer on such films as X-Men: Days of Future Past, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. His comics work has appeared in Metal Hurlant. While he has since done several books for French publisher Futuropolis, The Ark is his first complete graphic novel.
• Features a foreword by film director Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Clash of the Titans, The Transporter 1 & 2).
• Ideal for fans of art house cinema, Francois Boucq's Pioneers of the Human Adventure, magic surrealism, The Aviator by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and thought-provoking graphic novels

Available below is the desktop wallpaper of The Ark. Click the picture to choose your resolution

The Ark arrives in stores February 24, 2016 with an MSRP of $24.95/£16.99

Next week sees the arrival of The Tipping Point in two distinct formats (Slightly Oversized Edition and an Ultra-Deluxe Limited Slipcase Edition, limited to 100 copies with signed bookplates from all 14 creators). Both are available for purchase wherever Humanoids titles are carried.

Check out the pictures below.

The Tipping Point is coming!

In addition to the regular edition, we are also releasing an Ultra-Deluxe slipcase edition (extremely limited and numbered to just 100 copies) that includes signed bookplates preceding every creator's respective story (14 bookplates total).

With the impending release of The Tipping Point, we had a chance to speak with some of the creators behind the book. Today we interview Paul Pope, known for his work on THB, Batman: Year 100, Battling Boy, and more.

What was the "tipping point" that lead you to become an artist?

I've been drawing and painting since before I can remember, I always loved cartoons and costumes colors and science fiction. I loved music and rock'n'roll. I guess I got dedicated to the calling around sixteen, when young people have to start thinking about what they are going to do with themselves for the rest of it. I remember reading Herman Hesse and Camus around then, and grasping an adolescent yet urgent and deeply felt sense of existentialism. There isn't much time in life.  Love and beauty, invention, self-expression and self-respect are all human possibilities. Might as well dedicate yourself to what you love. For me it was in deciding to find a voice through drawing and painting, and more specifically, the graphic arts.

What were your initial thoughts when you were approached about this book and the fellow creators with whom you'd be keeping company?

I immediately wanted to be a part of this. The line up is very impressive, from Bilal on down. I have firmly stood for global comics, using graphic storytelling as an international language, and the scope of this project was very exciting. I grew up reading great European comics and later, lived and worked in Japan, I am now firmly rooted in New York City, so it felt like a proper calling.

Was there ever a "tipping point" in your career when you wished you'd taken "the other path"?

Yes, i suppose so. There was a point where I consciously chose to pursue visual art and not music. Later, comics over academics. I suppose life is a series of graduations from personal tipping points. Not sure I could point to just one. "Instinct keeps me runnin' to keep one eye open," as Iggy pop said.

Do you read comics created by authors and artists outside of the US and if so, which ones have inspired you from abroad?

I am attracted to classical drawing techniques and strong composition infused with a strong personal style. This goes for all the arts. In comics, I always return to Jack Kirby, Mezeries, Mœbius, and Alex Toth. Minetaro Mochizuki and Suehiro Maruo. Robert Crumb. Lorenzo Mattotti...so many... And that's leaving out most of the rest of the world...

Are there any foreign creators with whom you'd like to collaborate?

it would depend on the circumstances, but Sam Hiti, an American artist, comes to mind. I have worked with Spanish artist David Rubin, and hope to again.

Your story has a "fairy tale" element about it, with the repetition of the threat to the main protagonist. Was that deliberate?

yes. Consort... is a dreamlike allegory or personal myth, rooted in the story of Parvati, the Hindu goddess, as filtered through Kipling and Jack London. I am intrigued by the idea in the incarnation myths of India that a god or goddess can have many names and aspects, some loving and creative, some destructive and life-altering, always changing and transforming. Parvati has many other names and aspects, she is not always what she is taken for. Nor, for that matter, are her adversaries.

What went into your process for your story on The Tipping Point?

I think it's a very classic early 20th century American-style short adventure story, which hopefully buttresses these other more arcane elements. I am very glad to have the chance to create this story, built out of elements gathered for my other projects, Battling Boy and Psychenaut. I had a hunch doing something with a sense of "high pulp adventure" might be a good move for this project. I began building upon the image of a sinking life raft with two people onboard, chained together. The ancient shark appeared next, and it went from there.

What is next for Paul Pope?

I am primarily working on the second Battling Boy book for :01, and a book about dreaming, called Psychenaut, for Dargaud. As well as a cover for Thousand Faces from Humanoids (Coming soon).

Thanks to Paul Pope for answering some questions. The Tipping Point will be available February 3, 2016 on our store and wherever Humanoids titles are carried. Check out previous interviews with other creators by clicking here.

The Tipping Point is coming!

In addition to the regular edition, we are also releasing an Ultra-Deluxe slipcase edition (extremely limited and numbered to just 100 copies) that includes signed bookplates preceding every creator's respective story (14 bookplates total).

Here is the (unsigned) book plate from Enki Bilal:

With the impending release of The Tipping Point, we had a chance to speak with some of the creators behind the book. Today we interview Eddie Campbell, known for his work on From Hell, Alec: The Years Have Pants, Bacchus and more.

What was the "tipping point" that lead you to become an artist?

I forget stuff like that. And so I dredge up some earlier answer to the question? and I can no longer remember whether it's true or I made it up. I say that knowing well that most people reading this still have their brains kept in an orderly manner and have no notion of what I'm talking about. One day I noticed somebody had scribbled their name on the comic I was reading. At first I was annoyed that some bastard had been rummaging in my schoolbag. But then when I zoomed in close I judged that the scribbled name was part of the printed stuff and not an extraneous addition as I had first thought. In this instant I deduced that the story on the paper had been thought up and drawn by a person and was not a window into another universe as I first imagined. It was a crushing blow in a way, discovering that the story wasn't real, but in another way it was liberating because I thought I could be the bastard who can put it over on some other people who would think it was real. it gave me something to aim for in life. A kind of power over people. Such is the naivete of childhood.

What were your initial thoughts when you were approached about this book and the fellow creators with whom you'd be keeping company?

Again, the reader has no idea of the permanent weight of insecurity that the author/artist lives under. The first thought I had was that I was not yet out of work. And then look, all these other great guys are still hanging in there too. Paul Pope… Frederik Peeters...Taiyo Matsumoto... "What makes us do it?" I thought to myself. Is it the glory? The money? There's no explaining it.

Was there ever a "tipping point" in your career when you wished you'd taken "the other path".

Oh yeah, I get that every day.

Do you read comics created by authors and artists outside of the US and if so, which ones have inspired you from abroad?

There are few people in Spain I've been keeping an eye on, including Paco Roca and Alfonso Zapico. They have an exciting scene happening over there. Or so it looks from far away. I'm sure somebody somewhere thinks there's an exciting scene happening in my living room.

Are there any foreign creators with whom you'd like to collaborate?

Since you mention it, I'm working on a book with the American novelist, my sweetie Audrey Niffenegger, in which I'm adapting to comics form a number of her short stories. Does America count as foreign? Do I count as British, after living in Australia for 29 years?

What do you feel are the primary differences between your solo work and collaborating with others, such as Alan Moore?

Well, I've always got something to say, so if I'm illustrating somebody else's story I have to keep quiet and do the right thing by it. I'll get to do my own story next week. I can be thinking about that while I'm filling in blacks or drawing bricks.

What do you think about your comics work being adapted into other media?

I quite like the idea in the abstract. It can be done. Finding people you can trust is the challenge.

Thanks to Eddie Campbell for answering some questions. The Tipping Point will be available February 3, 2016 on our store and wherever Humanoids titles are carried. Check out previous interviews with other creators by clicking here.