Jamie Mustard

Hybred

“Sci-fi that might just save you.”—Black Nerd Problems ”Immediately engrossing . . . powerful.”—Multiverse of Color “The textured world . . . does a job of messing with your head as your brain sees these stylized images and instantly associates them with a kid's bedtime book, if they were Guillermo del Toro or Tim Burton.” —The Comics Beat “Mustard pairs a heady script with Filomena's introspective paintings in this gloomy-mythic tale set in a bleak futuristic version of Los Angeles.” —Publishers Weekly Set in a future-adjacent, alternative Los Angeles, this is a story of staggering poverty, drugs, and violence and of an artistic child who finds beauty in the ugly and sublime hope in our conflicts. HYBRED shows us how in our most marginalized communities lies an astonishing amount of genius which goes unnoticed and is so often tragically wasted. Nine-year-old Johnny James lives in The Casque, the poorest neighborhood in Greater Angeles, where he shares a one-room apartment with his mother, stepfather, two brothers, and an army of cockroaches. He spends his days in the sweltering heat of the neighborhood, at the movie theaters, playing tackleball, or drawing – but there’s no money for him to go to school. As death, addiction, and violence swirl through the neighborhood, Johnny grows up with friends, adventures, and magic around him. And he discovers how to use art, beauty, and personal strength to transcend the forces destined to hold him back.