the future It is a series of picture books inspired by the stories chosen by the author Francesco Verso for the project future fantasy – A cultural association that publishes international science fiction stories and novels – and comes from more than 30 different countries. The stories aim to protect narrative biodiversity, inspire a sense of “to wander” and demonstrate that quality comes from any reality, language, culture and geography.
The project contains 4 instructions:
- short stories: The collection of short stories and science fiction allows you to quickly expand an idea, giving a breath to many concepts in a small space.
- multiculturalism: To appreciate the many perspectives, approaches, and visions of the future that have been neglected or ignored in the past fifty to sixty years by mass production.
- Cultural, Social and Technological Predictions: the future It explores scenarios rooted in the present, attempting to recapture a sense of modern and contemporary science fiction that is not just entertainment, but also a tool for innovation, analysis and social criticism by exploring topics ranging from climate change to artificial intelligence, from augmented reality to Solarpunk, from technological singularity to typography. Three-dimensionality, and from transhumanism to biopolitics.
- via medial: Collaboration with other artistic and cultural realities is fundamental to the project in order to disseminate the short story not only in written form, but also in visual, audio and performative form. Specifically through the argument, the future The creator of the comic book and at the same time wanted to develop the potential of this medium. Using the typical ninth-art storytelling techniques and suggestive graphics, we want to extend our aesthetic and content vision of the future to other readers.
Because tomorrow happens today, too.
future fantasy Led Francesco Verso to win the Golden Dragon and the award as Best European Sci-Fi Publisher of 2019. Awards dictated by the quality and diversity of the proposed selection. Futuristic fiction is also published in Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Brazil and China. The hope is that the comic book proposal will follow the same fate, and advance the idea and principles of this multicultural project.
The books are designed in thin numbering, from about 36 to 64 pages. The size of the volumes is 17.78 x 25.40, in color and in black and white. The first pages are devoted to the overall project idea while at the end there are some study tables for the characters, drawings, and “making” as well as biographies of the artists and collaborators involved.
Here are the first three publications available in the series the future:
Parade of a hundred ghosts tonight
Serena Meo, Gabriele “Caelpher” Ghirelli
Taken from a short story by Xia Jia. Ning is a young boy who lives on Via dei Ghosts in the theme park of the future. He spends his time in the company of many strange friends: spirits, demons, fantastic animals and of course ghosts! But who is really Ning? And what prevents him from escaping from there and getting to know a new world? To find out, Ning will have to confront the ghosts of his past and those – more real and real – than the entire ghost path.
64 pages, paperback – €13.00
ISBN: 9788832077360
Available in print and e-book form
Buddhagram
Chen Qiufan and Jacobo Cigarini
Taken from the famous story by Chen Quofan and adapted into the comics. Zhou Chongbo, a marketing agent in Beijing, came up with an idea as absurd as it is effective in promoting Mr. Wan’s photo-editing app: The app, which has been blessed by a mysterious Buddhist teacher, has become a cult phenomenon shared by millions of users with religious fervor. However, people begin to devote everything, often to mysterious purposes, then the situation turns into a nightmare, and Chu Zhongbo has to escape … from the city, from the company and from his family, taking refuge in a Buddhist temple with unpredictable consequences for themselves … And the entire universe.
64 pages, paperback – €13.00
ISBN: 9788832077421
Available from February 2022
two worlds
Darko, 4 Jenks, Cristina Tomasini
Inspired by the story by Francesco Verso, two worlds Represents an attempt to overcome the boundaries separating science fiction from fiction through the famous quote from Arthur C Clark: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.“
The story takes place in a distant future, on a land completely different from today’s Earth that has survived the Anthropocene and undergoes thousands of years of environmental transformation. On the other hand, the development of the Chimera Project has led to human evolution down strange and bizarre paths: profound modifications of the genetic code have facilitated the emergence of other species, which possess – in their hybrid DNA – the genetic traits of birds. fish. In this solar scenario, the mysterious presence of the mythical seed constellation – forgotten from time immemorial – would revive the desire in some individuals, perhaps not very ideal, to re-establish a new ecological balance with planet Earth.
68 pages, paperback – 14.00 €
ISBN: 9788832077377
Available from February 2022
