From the Ashes

Bob Fingerman's speculative memoir (starring Bob and his wife Michelle) set in a post-apocalyptic and nuclear ravaged New York City is a surprisingly perky take on Armageddon. A hip satirical romp though Manhattan's ruins, From the Ashes is a new spin on the old autobiographical comics genre.

Publishers Weekly

This “speculative memoir” chronicles the misadventures of writer/artist Fingerman and his wife, Michele, in a postapocalyptic Manhattan. Despite being bombed out and irradiated, New York City is still rife with assorted factions representing the worst of humanity, only now those groups are writ large and lawless since the restraints of conventional civilization no longer exist. While a far cry from the all-out horror of a Mad Max–style landscape, Fingerman's wasteland is overrun with homophobic religious zealots, insane right-wing politicos and cannibalistic foodies, while the last bastions of human decency prove to be a plethora of mutants and zombies (or “reanimated Americans,” as they prefer to be called). Bob and Michele wander through all of this with a wry acceptance familiar to anyone who's ever lived in New York City, serving as the heart of an end-of-the-world narrative that wrings a wealth of humor from its potentially bleak scenario while making pointed observations about the idiocy of humanity and how it's likely never to change. A fun read, spiced with highly appealing artwork, this one's a solid winner. Plus it gets extra geek credit for inside jokes involving Zardoz and cannibal cinema auteur Ruggero Deodato. (Mar.)