Rights sold: French (IMHO), Korean (Marco Polo), Polish (timof i cisi wspólnicy)

Full Content Avaiable in English

2020 Taipei Book Fair Award (Fiction)
2020 Golden Comic Award (Best Comic of the Year)

First graphic novel recognized with a literary award in Taiwan

Trapped in a nasty asylum, a young man who considers himself perfectly healthy discovers that escaping is nearly impossible, as everyone seems determined to keep him confined.

Amidst the company of his sister and niece, a young man reluctantly checks into a mental institution for a short-term recovery. The tranquility of the place quickly becomes unbearable. The friendliness and peculiarity of fellow patients only fuel his agitation, compelling him to escape at all costs. Yet, the exit seems non-existent, and even those he conversed with are claimed to be his hallucinations. In a basement, he encounters his younger self, engaging in a blame game, but neither can lead the other to freedom. They watch memories unravel like film reels, revisiting the multitude of traumas endured throughout his life. Rejecting this review, he seeks out other patients, hoping to find a way out together. However, his sole like-minded companion meets a tragic end. Disillusioned, his violent acts intensify, culminating in an attempt on another patient's life. Now, united against him, they expose the truth: he is not a victim but a perpetrator, and they wish for his demise. Scarred and broken, he realizes the world harbors no kindness, succumbing to complete collapse.

Ten years in the making, A Trip to the Asylum incorporates Pam Pam Liu’s personal experiences as well was extensive research into the literature of mental illness, including works such as Erving Goffman’s Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates and Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. With its indy comic aesthetic, absurd humor, and fast pacing, A Trip to the Asylum delivers deep issues in an entertaining package, bringing mental illness out of the shadows and into the realm of relatable, everyday interactions.

1 Volume (end)

170 x 230 mm

Four colors