The first installment in an ongoing storyline from one of comics greatest auteurs! Charles Burns brings us X'ed Out. A mysterious story of young performance artist/poet – Doug, whom is somehow unable to leave his basement bedroom and pills and fades in and out of consciousness traveling between a dream world (where he takes the form of french comic icon Tin-Tin) of big eggs, alien language, mutants, filled with hidden visual metaphors, and his own past, slowly piecing together the mysterious reasons he is in the state he is in. At its core as with most of Burns work it seems it is a tale of love or of lost love as it may be. Published by Pantheon Books in an over-size hard covered, full-color book. Burns' work still holds all the magic it always has. It is quite amazing… but not as amazing as… Johnny 23 Charles Burns other simultaneously released comic, hand printed by the French printing/publishing wizards of Le Dernier Cri. Printing in one color(purple) and written completely in an Alien Text, it inverts and reuses images and scenes from X'ed Out while adding to it as well, creating a companion piece or even an alien handbook (or language key) to learning this new language… By matching up scenes from either comic, one can start to decipher the alien letters and words…. Creating a deeper level to both worlds this story inhabits, even breaking down the boundaries between them. I'm glad to see Charles Burns creating a new world for his fans to explore and I cannot wait to see more.