Kingdom/Order - by Reid Psaltis (Paperback)

About the Book

Kingdom/Order wordlessly follows a nameless man as he searches for meaning in his life. Through symbols and sounds, he is reminded of his part in the greater, natural world, just as he is slowly divorced from the modern world surrounding him. Mysteriously, our hero discovers he can understand the calls of the animals around him - but how much of this is real, and how much is delusion? Whatever the case, Psaltis will leave you speechless."--Amazon

Book Synopsis

If you could talk with the animals, walk with the animals, could you ever go home? Run wild with Kingdom/Order.

Kindgom/Order wordlessly follows a nameless man as he searches for meaning in his life. Through symbols and sounds, he is reminded of his part in the greater, natural world, just as he is slowly divorced from the modern world surrounding him. Mysteriously, our hero discovers he can understand the calls of the animals around him - but how much of this is real, and how much is delusion? Whatever the case, Psaltis will leave you speechless.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Order of Things:

"A field guide to spotting and identifying mystery fauna, this fancifully illustrated work illuminates a menagerie of creatures, from the possibly extinct Ivory-Billed Woodpecker to the impossibly ubiquitous Jackalope." -- Nicholas Mott, National Geographic

"Psaltis mixing things up keeps the reader off-balance in that regard, as one never knows what's coming next. The commentary gets stranger and funnier as the book goes on, like the remarkable drawing of the Great Horned Owl where its bones are arranged to form the shape of the animal, with only its piercing eyes appearing as per normal. The only comment is "Nightmare fuel for all species of rodents." -- High-Low

"Psaltis's artistic style recall's Charles Burns's Black Hole: entirely black and white, near-oppressively the former, and macabre in its magic. The breezy, expressive facility with which he renders deer, wolves, and pigeons is impressive, but the true skill lies not in Psaltis's knowledge of anatomical drawing, but in his ability to convey each animal's "language" through symbols and variations. It's a rare talent who is able to make a reader "hear" sounds on a page without resorting to onomatopoeia. This innovative graphic novel--a somber, sober reflection on humanity's contentious relationship with nature--won't soon lose relevance." - Publishers Weekly

"In the end, the man opts for the human world by exhibiting one of the main differences between human and animal, at least, apparently -- abstract thought. It's this ability of humans to conceive of a world and then make it possible, to conjure the intangible as a real world presence on a grand scale, that separates us. And this reality separates us not only neurologically and culturally, but physically, and it creates myths about the animal world that work to separate us further from it." - Comics Beat

"Visual polemics don't come much more arresting or fascinating than this one, and Psaltis' cartooning skills are strong. He goes into Kingdom/Order with a very clear message of what he wants to convey, and furthermore with a very clear idea of how he wants to do so, and at the risk of engaging in painfully obvious wordplay, he succeeds wildly at both. By the time you reach the end, you'll be wondering why the hell we ever came down from the trees." - The Comics Journal

About the Author

Reid Psaltis is an illustrator from the Pacific Northwest. He has always been fascinated by animal life and compelled to draw. Psaltis majored in oil painting at Western Washington University, completed the science illustration graduate program at California State University - Monterey Bay. Psaltis interned in the Exhibitions Department at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, participating in the creation of the museum's world famous dioramas. Reid's book, the Order of Things: A Bestiary was published by Secret Acres in 2016. work has been featured online at the Rumpus, Top Shelf 2.0, Study Group Comics and Trip City. His work has been published by Scout Books' Good Ink series, Science Notes and Alternative Comics, and he is the illustrator of Dan Bern's the Gods of Second Chances (Forest Avenue Press). Reid currently lives in Portland, Oregon.