Being and Nothingness and Nothingness and Being: The Graphic Novel

9" x 6"
2023
Click thumbnail to open the book. A sample only.
Being and Nothingness and Being Nothing: The Graphic Novel

Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre, trans. by Hazel E. Barnes (New York: Citadel Press, 2001)

Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre, trans. by Sarah Richmond (New York: Washington Square Press, 2021)

Murder on the Orient Express: The Graphic Novel by Agatha Christie, adapted and illustrated by Bob Al-Greene (New York: William Morrow, 2023)

The Mythics: Apocalypse Ahead by Patrick Sobral, Patricia Lyfoung, Philippe Ogaki, Alice Pickard, Jérôme Alquié, Zimra, and Nicholas Jarry (New York: Papercut, 2020)

Invisibles: Book One by Grant Morrison (New York: Vertigo, 2017)

Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha, and Craig Hamilton (New York: Vertigo, 2012)

God Is the Game of Nothingness and Being--the box for Being and Nothingness and Nothingness and Being

The Game of Things: Humor in a Box by Playmonster (case for the box game)

God Is Nothingness: Awakening to Absolute Non-Being by Andre Doshin Halaw (Las Vegas, Nevada, 2022)

The Story of What This Is Not

This is my newest and required a lot of my . . . existence. My continuing fascination with "nothing" led me to revisit Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, which I have failed to get through several times in my life. As I was struggling with it this time, I came across an intriguing curb find, a box game ("Humor in a Box") called The Game of Things, which seems like a total nightmare of an adult party game. (Everyone names something like "A Thing you regret doing as a child," and then everyone guesses who wrote which answer. I cringe!) So I changed the title of the game to God is the Game of Nothingness and Being. It's Ontology in a Box.

Inside the box, in place of the game, I put Sartre's huge book--a foundational work of existentialism--and it fit well.

So then came the question of what to do with the book, and I arrived at the idea of turning it into a graphic novel. So now it is Being and Nothingness and Nothingness and Being: The Graphic Novel.

At 500+ pages, this project nearly crushed me, and it is, I'm afraid, somewhat monotonous. But so is Jean-Paul, also graphic novels. And life?

Feel free to ignore this.

Sartre