Below Ambition

Simon Hanselmann

Fantagraphics

Following Simon Hanselmann's 2021 smash hit graphic novel Crisis Zone — which captured the zeitgeist of life under Covid and the New York Times Book Review called "the first great work of pandemic fiction" — things settle down, and Megg the Witch and Werewolf Jones get the band back together.

Megg and Werewolf Jones are Horse Mania. Horse Mania is a test of the audience's patience, proudly the "worst band in town," without any ambition to make it. Join the musicians as they battle through shoddy, distracted practice sessions, a squalid house show, and a doomed interstate tour. Watch as they drunkenly flail through their sets amidst toothaches, nervous breakdowns, suicide attempts, mounting hatred, and a galaxy of benzos. This is music and performance in its most primal, multifaceted, and pure form. Feel the tension. See the dirty looks. Taste the pain. Smell the depravity. Hear the veiled beauty. Horse Mania wants you to lose your mind.

Below Ambition is a meditation on youth, performance, and memory as only Simon Hanselmann, the best comedic writer in comics, is capable of. The book will also include a flexidisc single by Horse Mania, "Stick It In for the Ambient", which will be tipped into the front cover of the book for easy removal and play.