INFERNAL REGIONS
A Prime Minister strides into a boiling sea. And disappears.
Plunged into a slippery nightmare, he must face the consequences of an environmental war we’ve waged on a terrifying abyssal world.
This black-and-white undersea sci-fi graphic novel follows in the inkstains of Moebius, Alberto Breccia and Katsuhiro Otomo and is a love-letter to devotees of hand-inked stories.
Shortlisted in the Comic Arts Awards of Australia 2023 and longlisted for the ALIA ‘Notable Australian Graphic Novels of 2022’
“Infernal Regions is a beauty, and has to be seen in person. It’s easy to see Rebecca’s own distinct style as she moves fluidly from political cartooning to beachside idyll, underwater adventure, sci-fi vista and beyond. Perhaps what I liked most is its rejection of nature as a passive, spoiled paradise. The undersea regions are active, dynamic, adaptive, hybrid.”
— David Golding, comics editor at Scribe Publication
“Amazing. It has infinite scale. The pictures are intricate, epic and awe-inspiring. The storytelling flows like water. It’s a situation that’s both hopeless and poignant. Love it.”
— Matt Page
BACKGROUND
Infernal Regions was 102% funded in 5 hours on Crowdfundr, and a full page of the process, backers and some insight into why I made it still online here.
Watch a mini-doco called 5 Years in 5 Minutes about the making of Infernal Regions. There’s sketchbook ideas, concept art and other oddities within. If you’re on the fence about buying such a beast, there’s an unboxing video here where you get a sense of its gorgeous size and girth!
INFERNAL REGIONS REVIEWED
Creators on Comics episode #021 presented by Jordan Patrick Finn: Rebecca L. Stewart and Erik Thurman (1 hour)
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Smart Arts on 3RRR: Bernard Caleo and Richard Watts review Infernal Regions (4 mins).
“The big page spreads are like the IMAX of the graphic novel experience. The fantastical mysterious life of the deep fighting back against the impact of the human terrestrials is a potent scream to stop killing the sea. It’s a subject close to my heart.”
— Robert Stephenson, animation lecturer, cartoonist and filmmaker
“This is a beautiful piece of work that repays repeat readings and slow readings (viewings might be a better word)... Text is used sparingly but usefully, helping the story along at some points but allowing the imagery to sweep the reader along at others.”
— Meredith Lewis, author
IS IT BASED ON HAROLD HOLT?
As someone who first learned to swim at the Harold Holt Swim Centre (yep, a real place), like many Aussies I’ve always been fascinated by the tale of the Prime Minister who went for a swim before lunch and never came back. What if he’s still down there? Is he drinking cocktails, making friends? Is he lonely and in a dark place? From this point I got thinking how far, or how un-far Australia has come since Holt’s halcyon days.
Combining all our worst, complacent Prime Ministers into the one character seemed the best way to convey my disgust at the climate inaction that’s been…inactive my entire life. Written in a dark fury at the bleak future of our environment, Infernal Regions was spawned.
CREDITS (100% Australian-made)
Letterer, cover colours and logo: Simon Robins
Pre-press: Geronimo Creative Services
Printing: Printgraphics Printgreen
ISBN: 978-0-646-85290-4
“It’s so beautiful! Incredible work on the printing, the matte pages are perfection. And the size!”
— Siobhan, Cockatoo Comics
“The art in this book is just stunning! The use of scale and the large size of the pages, the negative space, the sense of movement and texture are gorgeous and enhance one’s immersion in the story. The underwater world depicted here is lovely and dangerous and it drew me in completely.”
— Madelyn, Goodreads
INFERNAL STOCKISTS
NSW
Better Read Than Dead
265 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
Ph: 02 9557 8700
www.betterread.com.au
ONLINE
Cockatoo Comics
www.cockatoocomics.com
My Kind of Weird
www.mykindofweird.net
VIC
All Star Comics
Level 1/53 Queen St
Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: (03) 8614 3700
www.allstarcomics.com.au
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
Civic Reserve, Dunns Rd
Mornington VIC 3931
Ph: (03) 5950 1580
mprg.mornpen.vic.gov.au
