Simon Hanselmann's 'Special K' Collects Megg & Mogg Misadventures

Coconino Press has released 'Special K', a 300-page color volume collecting Simon Hanselmann's comic strips featuring Megg, Mogg, Owl, and Werewolf Jones. The book, sized 21.5 x 29 cm, gathers stories previously published in various magazines and blogs that caught the attention of American critics and underground icons like Robert Crumb and Daniel Clowes. The protagonists are the orange-haired witch Megg, who abuses antidepressants and listens to Placebo; her cynical black cat Mogg; the sociopathic werewolf Jones with a taste for expired ketamine; and Owl, the intellectually aspiring roommate constantly bullied by the others. Their days are spent shoplifting, smoking marijuana, having sex, and avoiding any form of productive occupation. Hanselmann (born 1981 in Launceston) creates grotesque, boundary-pushing scenes that blend laughter with existential reflection, depicting apathetic, angry suburban creatures adrift in a limbo of drug-fueled paranoia. The book is priced at €24 and published by Coconino Press, Bologna, 2017.