Flux House, an imprint of Dark Horse Comics set up to house the writing (and sometimes art) of acclaimed cartoonist Matt Kindt, has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive look inside of Mister Mammoth, the first original graphic novel from the imprint. Written by Kindt (Mind MGMT, BRZRKR), Mister Mammoth features the U.S. debut of internationally-acclaimed artist Jean-Denis Pendanx (Mentawaï !, A Fake Story). It's an eccentric noir mystery that asks some puzzling questions not just of the audience, but of the "world's greatest detective" at its core.
Pendanx studied graphic arts in Toulouse, and later in Paris. He started his career designing covers for magazines about role playing games. His first comic album, Diavolo le Solennel, was written by Doug Headline and was published by Editions Zenda in 1991. Between 1993 and 1997, Pendanx illustrated four books of the exotic fantasy series Labyrinthes, written by Serge Le Tendre and Dieter. During this period, Pendanx's style evolved significantly, becoming the more identifiable "nervous" line he uses today. Together with Alain Brézault, he made a comic adaptation of Brézault's novel Les Corruptibles for Glénat (2002-04). Pendanx moved over to Futuropolis in 2006 to make Abdallahi with Christophe Dabitch. Pendanx and Dabitch continued their collaboration in 2008 with the trilogy Jéronimus. When this series ended in 2011, he teamed up with Kris to create Svoboda!, a comic about Eastern Europe during World War I, as well as the one-shot Tsunami with Stéphane Piatzszek. Jean-Denis Pendanx has also made comic adaptations of novels for Je Bouquine and works in animation (Corto Maltese).
"Mr. Mammoth literally tells you what it the book is in the first scene – an 'existential crime/romance' – but I wouldn't take any part of that at face value. Maybe the sneakiest book I've ever done," Kindt told ComicBook.com.
Here's the official synopsis, which lays out pretty clearly why it's such a different kind of mystery story:
"Mister Mammoth is the world's greatest detective. The only mystery he can't seem to solve? How, exactly, he became the world's greatest detective... This spring, Dark Horse will publish the clever existential noir Mister Mammoth, the first-ever original graphic novel from bestselling cartoonist Matt Kindt's all-new imprint, Flux House. Writer Matt Kindt will be joined on Mister Mammoth by internationally acclaimed artist Jean-Denis Pendanx in his U.S. debut.
"Mr. Mammoth is the world's greatest detective and the kind of person you don't forget. Being a seven-foot-tall pacifist who's covered head to toe with an impressive collection of horrific scars makes quite the impression. But he might be losing his edge. He can't seem to solve his latest case and he's distracted with a strange obsession with a soap opera actress who doesn't even know he exists. His new case holds clues that might finally unlock the secret of his traumatic childhood. The question is: is he solving a crime-or planning one?"
Mister Mammoth hails from Flux House, a new boutique imprint that will feature the work of Matt Kindt, with crime, science fiction, and humor stories, all told and presented in startling and untraditional ways, following the release of Mind MGMT: Bootleg. Dark Horse will publish Mister Mammoth on March 29, 2023.
