Fantagraphics announces ‘The Cloven’ by Stein + Southworth

The author of ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ teams up with the artist of ‘Stumptown’ for a three-volume graphic novel series.

Earlier this week Fantagraphics announced a new three-volume graphic novel series from Garth Stein, the author of The Art of Racing in the Rain, and Stumptown artist Matthew Southworth.

The Cloven features a half-man, half-goat hybrid created in a lab who tries to live a normal life, but, you know … he’s got hooves.

“I am having so much fun working on The Cloven with my partner, Matthew Southworth; I can think of no better home for our series than Fantagraphics, a publisher with an impeccable reputation for quality stories and world-class artwork,” Stein said. “This is truly a match made in heaven.  Or in Seattle.  Any connection between ‘heaven’ and ‘Seattle’ is entirely your own…”

Here’s how Fantagraphics describes the series:

The Cloven follows James Tucker, the most successful Genetically Modified Human Organism ever created. Conceived in a privately financed, top-secret laboratory on Washington’s Vashon Island, Tucker is a cross between a human and a goat — a Cloven. Known to his friends as “Tuck,” all he wants is to live a normal life as a university student; everything is going fine, until he shows a girl his hooves… Moody and mysterious and atmospheric as a fever dream, The Cloven follows Tuck’s breakneck journey across the Pacific Northwest as he searches for his tribe — a fabled herd of feral Cloven living in the Cascade Mountains.

“For years now I’ve been filling my bookshelves with more Fantagraphics Books than those of any other publisher,” Southworth said. “I’m thrilled that what has been my favorite creative experience making comics with Garth is going to have ‘Fantagraphics’ on the spine. Good things come to those who wait.”

The first volume will be released as a 128-page, full color hardcover in July 2020.

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