Three high school jocks in the 1980s are accidentally frozen by an experimental cryogenics device, only to be revived in the computer-driven, superhero movie-loving world of 2019--an era ruled by nerds! "Evokes vintage Hollywood hits such as Revenge of the Nerds, Weird Science, Real Genius, Back to the Future and The Breakfast Club. The story: Three high school jocks in the 1980s are accidentally frozen by an experimental cryogenics device, only to be revived in the tech-driven, superhero-loving, empathy-counseling world of 2019 - in other words, an era shaped by the nerds they once tormented... the art team of Alan Robinson and Randy Elliott (with covers by David Nakayama) have plenty of fun with scenes keyed to 1980s popcorn classics.."--DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD "PLANET OF THE NERDS #1 captures the goofy joy of 80s classics like Revenge of the Nerds, Back To The Future, and Real Genius. Then, with the most elegant of plot twists, it updates the story for a different age. Smart, fast paced and beautifully drawn."- Gene Ha (Mae) "Highly satisfying.... (with) sharp writing from Constant and well-executed art from Robinson and Elliott, plus spectacular coloring from Sobreiro."-- COMICS BEAT "We all know that nerds won the great nerd/jock battle of the 80s, but what if a bunch of Jocks were frozen in time and emerged not knowing the war was over? That's the question Planet of the Nerds asks, and the answer is, ironically, delightfully nerdy nerdy fun."-Arthur Wyatt, (Judge Dredd) "Clever and profound." - io9 "This is a really good bit." - Daniel Kibblesmith (Santa's Husband) "Ahoy has found a way to simply revitalize comics by going back to basics. Amazing writing and stunning interior artwork."- READING WITH A FLIGHT RING "Paul Constant's writing is witty and insightful." - POP CULTURE SQUAD "The art by Robinson and the colors by Sobreiro conspire to provide just the right retro look reminiscent of the work of Ed Piskor."-- COMICS GRINDER "AHOY's offerings so far have been a celebration of a comic world won by all us geeks. Planet of the Nerds continues that creatively invigorating streak while also serving as a cleverly written, beautifully illustrated cautionary tale for non-comics bullies everywhere." - Chris Ryall, President & Publisher/CCO, IDW Publishing

After answering a classified ad placed by an import-export company looking for energetic young men willing to take on responsibilities for its African branches--no diploma required--Victor finds himself on "The Will of God," a dilapidated boat heading into the heart of darkness as even Conrad couldn't have imagined. With the piquant mixture of hilarity and painful disenchantment characterizing Paule Constant's vision of the "colonial novel," "White Spirit" follows three innocents--Victor; Lola, a mulatto prostitute; and Alexis, who does not know he's a monkey--as they negotiate the perverse system of desires and hatreds on an African banana plantation.
Selling what no one wants or needs, Victor takes delivery of a barrel of mysterious powder promptly christened "white spirit" for its ability to bleach the black arms of the workers handling the shipment. To become whiter and worthier of love, Lola buys some--and then the rest vanishes. In this nightmarish Africa where colonized and colonizers have each other in a stranglehold, the "white spirit" unleashes an obsession that merges whiteness with a return to paradise--an obsession that can only end in catastrophe. Through it all, with her characteristic caustic language, fierce irony, and enormous tenderness for human frailty, Constant portrays the ridiculous without ridicule--and, miraculously, sparks a light of hope in the midst of the torment and suffering.

Winner of the Prix Goncourt in 1998, this book is the work of one of France's most celebrated and interesting novelists writing at the height of her powers. It is fiction that leads readers through fascinating chambers of life where autobiography is constantly reimagined. A darkly comic novel about four women aging less-than-gracefully, "Trading Secrets" takes us to an academic conference in Kansas where, in an encounter between Aurore, a French woman, and her American counterpart, Gloria, the differences between their two cultures become sharply apparent. The result is a bitingly funny portrait of painfully complex, psychologically damaged individuals, all of whom have been, in some sense, "colonized." The novel also offers an incisive picture of a French posture toward things American, from race relations to feminism to academia. As Paule Constant herself has said: "C'est un livre en miroir." The book is a mirror, both in how its characters reflect one another and in what it shows us of ourselves and our world.

Paule Constant's OUREGANO, originally published in France in 1980, received the Prix Valery Larbaud and was a finalist for the prestigious Prix Goncourt. The novel is a scathing indictment of the self-absorbed consciousness responsible for individual and collective social failure in 1950s central Africa. The narrative threads through the minds of its diverse characters French and African, young and old with a sharp needle, skewering the contradictions between intent and action. At its heart is Tiffany Murano, who with her parents arrives at this fictional French colonial outpost where her father is named the hospital's chief medical officer. Bitter, sometimes hilariously funny, and ultimately achingly sad, the novel not only traces seven-year-old Tiffany's development of identity, loss, and memory but also serves as a massive critique of colonialism. OUREGANO was Constant's first novel. Since its publication she has gained fame in France for her disturbing, anticolonial, and feminist writing. Her characters do not just represent the particular condition of the feminine; in fact, Constant insists on the value of female characters to express the full human condition. OUREGANO is essential to an appreciation of Constant's oeuvre as it lays out themes and establishes key scenes she develops in later novels, and it introduces characters who reappear in subsequent books (some of which are available in translation). In this first English-language edition of OUREGANO, Claudine Fisher provides a concise introduction to Constant, including biographical details, literary influences, and key themes. With her elegant and poetic translation Margot Miller renders the novel accessible to all readers, adding helpful annotation to explain unfamiliar or untranslatable terms.