Nod Away by Joshua Cotter was published this February. Fantagraphic Books announced the acquisition of the new sci-fi epic in July last year.

Joshua Cotter’s work moves back and forth between physical and psychological worlds, utilizing traditional and abstract storytelling styles to explore what consciousness could be, where it’s located, and what function or point it serves.

Nod Away is set on a near-future version of Earth. Deep-space transport has been developed to take a small crew to a habitable planet in a nearby system in an attempt to begin colonization/repopulation. The Internet is now telepathic and referred to as the “innernet.” When the hub is revealed to be a human child, Melody McCabe is hired to develop the new nexus on the second International Space Station.

“Cotter is pure cartoonist, in the truest sense,” explains Fantagraphics Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “He has such an intuitive grip on the language of comics that he makes it look easy, creating these fully realized characters in a fully realized world.”

Cotter garnered international acclaim in 2008 with his original graphic novel Skyscrapers Of The Midwest, released by AdHouse Books. For the past seven years, comics fans and critics alike have been calling out to Cotter for a new book. Nod Away is shaping up to be the most highly anticipated graphic novels of the year.

Nod Away is the first installment in an ongoing, multi-volume series and fans can look forward to more releases to come in the near future.