Petrograd

by Philip Gelatt, Tyler Crook

Overview

During the height of the first World War, a reluctant British spy stationed in the heart of the Russian empire is handed the most difficult assignment of his career: orchestrate the death of the mad monk, the Tsarina's most trusted adviser and the surrogate ruler of the nation. From the slums of the working class into the opulent houses of the super rich, he'll have to negotiate dangerous ties with the secret police, navigate the halls of power, and come to terms with own revolutionary leanings, all while simply trying to survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620100677
Publisher:	Oni Press
Publication date:	08/03/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	175 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Philip Gelatt has worked in film, TV, comics, and video games. His work as writer and director includes the award-winning thriller They Remain, and the rotoscope-animated fantasy epic The Spine of Night. He was the writer of the 2013 sci-fi film Europa Report, and is the lead writer on the adult-animated Netflix series Love Death + Robots.

In video games, he received a WGA award for his work on Rise of the Tomb Raider and has been working with Frictional Games on their follow-up to Soma.

Gelatt lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife and son.

Tyler Crook is a comic book artist and illustrator. For over two decades, he has worked as a comics creator, artist, and 3D modeler in the video game industry. Released in 2011, Petrograd was Tyler’s first published comic and earned Tyler the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award. Since then, he has worked on dozens of comics titles including B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth, Witchfinder, Bad Blood, and The Sixth Gun. In 2016, Harrow County, the horror comic he created with Cullen Bunn, was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series, and his Comixology Original book, Stone King, was nominated for Best Digital Comic in 2019. Tyler lives in rural Oregon with his wonderful spouse and many terrible pets

Editorial Reviews

"A sharply executed graphic novel, good for more than just historical espionage fans."

Booklist

Petrograd feels a lot like a Will Eisner graphic novel–and that’s about the highest praise I know.

Mike Mignola (Hellboy)

BOOKLIST-There aren't many murders with more intrigue attached to them than the 1916 assassination of Grigori Rasputin—poisoned, stabbed, shot,
and drowned in short order. Gelatt turns this still-unresolved event into a tight, dialogue-heavy spy thriller built on evidence that the plot to kill the mad monk was stirred up by the British SIS, intent on keeping Russia at war with
Germany. The hero of sorts is British spy Cleary, who uses his connections in the aristocracy to hatch the plot and his romantic dalliances with a young
Bolshevik to help turn the revolution. Even with the inevitability of the outcome, the drama stays propulsive, shifting the focus to how Cleary can escape the tightening noose once he's left out to dry by his country and his Russian allies. Talented newcomer Crook, newly enlisted for Mike Mignola's B.P.R.D.,
drapes the period settings in moody shadows and grim orange hues, while the smart layouts and craggy-featured faces grind out tension by the pound. A
sharply executed graphic novel, good for more than just historical espionage fans.—Ian Chipman

LIBRARY JOURNAL-It took conniving Russian aristocrats numerous attempts with poison, knife, gun, fists, and icy water to murder mad monk
Grigori Rasputin. But the lethal bullet was English, per recent findings. Gelatt fictionalizes the alleged shooter as Cleary, a young British intelligence agent who must supervise this assassination but finds himself an unwilling collaborator. While history presents a nasty-enough thriller to work with,
Gelatt's command of character makes this attempt particularly successful. From hapless Cleary to the perverse yet likable nobles, the swaggering chief of the tsar's police, and Cleary's prickly Bolshevik crush, the characters seem to wear their dialog, not just speak it. Their grimy romanticism conjures an unsavory history when nobody had clean hands. VERDICT Gelatt never lets us forget that real people create history, and he asks, What if those people were us? Crook's semirealistic, sepia-washed art lends just the right aura of a dangerous time that we may want to glimpse but certainly not relive. Recommended for history buffs and thriller lovers, as well as a curative for those who think history is boring. With violence and some sexual situations.

From the Publisher

12/01/2021

As World War I rages across Europe, a combat veteran-turned British Intelligence officer named Cleary splits his time between parties with members of Petrograd's aristocracy and infiltrating revolutionary groups determined to end the Russian empire. After his superiors discover that Russia may declare peace with Germany, thus dooming hopes of a British victory, they charge Cleary with carrying out a plot to destabilize the monarchy by encouraging his friend Prince Yussopov to assassinate the Tsar's most trusted advisor, Grigori Rasputin. Cleary's horrified but follows orders nonetheless, only to find the prince both enthusiastic and fantastically ill-equipped for the bloody task. Soon, Cleary finds himself caught between the machinations of his own government and the opportunistic leader of the Tsar's Secret Police force. Cleary is a fascinatingly conflicted protagonist, haunted by memories of combat and increasingly aware of how those in power too willingly shed blood to preserve the status quo. VERDICT A tense, compelling espionage thriller woven together from real events, invented characters, and speculation. Gelatt ("Pariah" series) imbues even minor characters with rich inner lives, and Crook's (B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth, Vol. 1) moody illustration imbues scenes of sly manipulation and thrilling action with a sense of impending doom and moral decay.

Library Journal