Out today, Salamandre is an evocative graphic novel about family, loss, and the freedom of art from award-winning writer and artist I.N.J. Culbard (The Umbrella Academy: You Look Like Death, Everything, Brink, The New Deadwardians). To gain insight into the project, AIPT can exclusively reveal Culbard’s Spotify playlist with songs used while crafting the book.
Published by Dark Horse Comics under the Berger Books label, Culbard is writing a story based on a summer afternoon of his own life. Only in this case, it’s formed from the jigsaw puzzle of his memories growing up on both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
“Writing what you know is really about writing what you think you know,” said I.N.J. Culbard.
So what’s Salamandre about?
Kaspar Salamandre is a bereaved young artist who is sent to stay with his enigmatic grandfather who lives behind the Iron Veil—a land lorded over by an oppressive emperor. In this foreign place where flowers are contraband, music is illegal, and art is created in hiding, Kaspar seeks to heal his grief—discovering a world of art revolutionaries, espionage, and the Secret Police—who are not what they seem.
“I was blown away when I first heard I.N.J.’s thrilling graphic novel idea inspired by his unusual travels as a child,” said Karen Berger. “It has a real European comics feel—kind of like an off-beat Tintin, panoramic vistas mired by underlying political danger, sparked with dashes of wonder and the fantastic. Ultimately, it’s about perseverance of love, and the power that memory and stories have over us. It’s I.N.J. Culbard’s immense storytelling talent as never seen before and I’m so excited to be sharing it with the world.”
Check out the playlist below.
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