'Simon Hanselmann’s previous three Megg & Mogg books—2014’s Megahex, 2016’s Megg & Mogg in Amsterdam, and 2017’s One More Year—have all been international best sellers that have cemented Hanselmann as one of the most exciting graphic novelists of his generation. Bad Gateway is the magnum opus that those three books have been building towards, as Megg and Mogg’s fraught relationship careens into psychological depths that Hanselmann has previously only hinted at.
'Perpetually drunk and high, lovable degenerates Megg and Mogg have drifted through a life full of raucous antics and free of consequences. But their heavy drug use, once a gateway to adventure, has begun to take a grim psychological toll. As her unstable lifestyle finally catches up to her, Megg must turn to her past to uncover the roots of her self-destructive habits that have led her down this dark path.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Megg the witch, Mogg the cat, and their friends Owl and Werewolf Jones are imbued with far more pathos and depth than seems plausible given the stock comic premise — drugged-out, slacker roommates. Depressing, hilarious, and exceedingly human — despite being about a witch, a cat, and an anthropomorphic owl — One More Year continues to give more substance to the characters and personalities of its protagonists in ways that never fail to surprise, delight, and horrify.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Megg the witch, Mogg the cat, their friend Owl, and Werewolf Jones struggle unsuccessfully with their depression, drug use, sexuality, poverty, lack of ambition, and their complex feelings about each other. It’s a laff riot! Fresh off their star turn in the New York Times best seller Megahex, Megg and Mogg decide to take a trip to Amsterdam for some quality couple time, although the trip gets off to a rocky start when they forget their antidepressants. They need Owl to come and help them save their relationship. But why does he have a suitcase full of glass dildos? And what will they do when they realize that the housesitting Werewolf Jones has turned their apartment into a “f#@k zone”?'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'A spectacular omnibus of never-before-collected Megg, Mogg & Owl shorts, and more!
'Since 2014, Simon Hanselmann has established himself as one of the first rank storytellers of our time with his four graphic novels about the funny and poignant lives of Megg, Mogg and Owl: Megahex (2014), Megg and Mogg in Amsterdam (2016), One More Year (2017), and Bad Gateway (2019). Hanselmann's cast of characters — the depressive Megg (a green-skinned witch), her abusive boyfriend Mogg (an actual cat), their submissive roommate Owl (a vaguely humanoid owl), and the self-destructively hedonistic Werewolf Jones (half human, half wolf) — brilliantly exist within the archetypes of the multi-camera sitcom, yet their stories brim with exceptional pathos and insight.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Megg is a depressed, drug-addicted witch. Mogg is her black cat. Their friend, Owl, is an anthropomorphized owl. They hang out a lot with Werewolf Jones. This may sound like a pure stoner comedy, but it transcends the genre: these characters struggle unsuccessfully to come to grips with their depression, drug use, sexuality, poverty, lack of work, lack of ambition, and their complex feelings about each other in ways that have made Megg and Mogg sensations on Hanselmann’s GirlMountain tumblr. This is the first collection of Hanselmann’s work, freed from its cumbersome Internet prison, and sure to be one of the most talked about graphic novels of 2014, featuring all of the “classic” Megg and Mogg episodes from the past five years as well as over 70 pages of all-new material. Full color illustrations throughout' (Source: Publisher's website)
'This paper examines the Megg, Mogg and Owl stories of Simon Hanselmann, an Australian artist whose serialized comics both depict acts of contemporary roguery committed by a group of friends in an inner city sharehouse and test the generic limits of its own storytelling conventions, thereby becoming contemporary instances of “rogue texts.” The paper positions the adventures of Megg, a witch, Mogg, her familiar, Owl, their housemate, and associated characters including Booger and Werewolf Jones as contemporary variations of both the Australian genre of grunge fiction and the broad international tradition of rogue literature. It shows how Megg, Mogg, Owl and their friends use the structure of the sharehouse to make their own rules, undertake illegal behaviour, and respond to the strictures of mainstream society, which alongside legal restrictions include normative restrictions on gender and behaviour. It shows the sharehouse as a response to their economic, as well as cultural and social conditions. The paper then shows how Megg and particularly Owl come up against the limitations of the permissiveness and apparent security of their “rogue” society, and respond by beginning to “go rogue” from the group. Meanwhile, the text itself, rather than advancing through time, goes over the same chronology and reinscribes it from new angles, becoming revisionist and re-creative, perhaps behaving roguishly against the affordances of episodic, vignette form. The paper argues that Simon Hanselmann’s Megg, Mogg and Owl comics can be understood as contemporary rogue texts, showing characters responding to social and generic limits and expressing them through a restless and innovative comics text.'
Source: Abstract.
'This paper examines the Megg, Mogg and Owl stories of Simon Hanselmann, an Australian artist whose serialized comics both depict acts of contemporary roguery committed by a group of friends in an inner city sharehouse and test the generic limits of its own storytelling conventions, thereby becoming contemporary instances of “rogue texts.” The paper positions the adventures of Megg, a witch, Mogg, her familiar, Owl, their housemate, and associated characters including Booger and Werewolf Jones as contemporary variations of both the Australian genre of grunge fiction and the broad international tradition of rogue literature. It shows how Megg, Mogg, Owl and their friends use the structure of the sharehouse to make their own rules, undertake illegal behaviour, and respond to the strictures of mainstream society, which alongside legal restrictions include normative restrictions on gender and behaviour. It shows the sharehouse as a response to their economic, as well as cultural and social conditions. The paper then shows how Megg and particularly Owl come up against the limitations of the permissiveness and apparent security of their “rogue” society, and respond by beginning to “go rogue” from the group. Meanwhile, the text itself, rather than advancing through time, goes over the same chronology and reinscribes it from new angles, becoming revisionist and re-creative, perhaps behaving roguishly against the affordances of episodic, vignette form. The paper argues that Simon Hanselmann’s Megg, Mogg and Owl comics can be understood as contemporary rogue texts, showing characters responding to social and generic limits and expressing them through a restless and innovative comics text.'
Source: Abstract.