Insomnia is a story in three parts. The first installment is Eldorado, which follows Marco Clay, petty criminal, bartender and sometime corporate accountant, as he evades the forces of the law on his way to the Mexican border. In the second section, The Lock, an old man finds he is still overwhelmed by the mystery that has pursued him for his entire life. In the final episode, The Company, a down-at-heel television producer finds himself embroiled in a mystery that takes him from the glittering metropolis of Los Angeles across the American West and into the depths of his own past. The three sections are semi-independent, but fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The book is a sequel of sorts to Hawaii.

Insomnia is part of the Ignatz collection, co-published by Coconino Press in Italy, Vertige Graphic in France and Fantagraphics Books in the US; other titles in the collection include Babel by David B., Baobab by Igort, Les Innocents by Gipi and Crickets by Sammy Harkham.

Read a sample page.

The Onion AV Club: "The best of the first lot is Insomnia, by UK cartoonist Matt Broersma, who sets out on a complicated but highly readable narrative about coincidence and fate, featuring a con man on the run and a roomful of skeleton storytellers..." (link)

eBook: not available

Insomnia
32 pages
Summer/Autumn 2005
Buy the English-language version from Amazon.com (not yet available).
Buy the French version from Amazon.fr.

Go to the Web site of Coconino Press.
Go to the Web site of Fantagraphics Books.