About this item
An Afrofuturist horror-comedy about gentrification, hip hop, and cultural appropriation. Once a thriving working class neighborhood on Chicago's south side, the "Bottomyards" is now the definition of urban blight. When an aspiring fashion designer named Darla and her image-obsessed friend, Cynthia, descend upon the neighborhood in search of cheap rent, they soon discover something far more seductive and sinister lurking behind the walls of their new home. Like a cross between Jordan Peele's Get Out and John Carpenter's The Thing, Daniels and Passmore's BTTM FDRS (pronounced "bottomfeeders") offers a vision of horror that is gross and gory in all the right ways. At turns funny, scary, and thought provoking, it unflinchingly confronts the monsters -- both metaphoric and real -- that are displacing cultures in urban neighborhoods today. Full-color illustrations throughout.
About the Author
EZRA CLAYTAN DANIELS is a writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles, CA. His critically acclaimed graphic novel series, The Changers, began a unique career peppered with a number of collaborative multimedia projects ranging from video games to animation to feature documentaries.Ezra is the creator of the popular live art spectacle, The Comic Art Battle, which is a staple of the Stumptown Comics Festival and the template for countless iterations at comics and art events throughout the country, as well as Loaded Blanks Greetings, a line of fill-in-the-blanks comic-art greeting cards featuring both established as well as up and coming comics artists.Ezra collaborated with Chicago-based chamber group Fifth House Ensemble on the narrative concert series, 'Black Violet', which the Chicago Sun-Times called "a modern classic". He also contributed animation to experimental hip hop luminary Alexis Gideon's Video Musics series of animated rap operas and has worked on several interactive projects with esteemed interactive artist Erik Loyer. His most recent collaboration, 'The Golden Chain', an animated short film with experimental video artist Adebukola Bodunrin, has screened at the The Whitney Museum, The British Film Institute, The International Film Festival Rotterdam, MFA Boston, REDCAT Theater, ATA San Francisco, and at Art Basel, Switzerland. In 2017, 'The Golden Chain' was acquired by The Whitney for their permanent collection.Ezra's latest graphic novel, 'Upgrade Soul', began life as a pioneering immersive serialized graphic novel for iOS in 2012. 'Upgrade Soul' has been frequently featured on the Apple App Store, was named a 2013 IndieCade Finalist, and has exhibited at The Hyde Park Art Center, the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. 'Upgrade Soul' was a featured project at the Fantoche International Animation Festival in Baden, Switzerland, Haarlem Stripdagen in Amsterdam, and the Fumetto International Comics Festival in Lucerne. 'Upgrade Soul' was released in print by Lion Forge Comics in 2018. It was the recipient of the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics, and was named one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2018.
