Istanbul, Turkey

Halil Karasu’s art for this volume incorporates both a pulpy aesthetic and narrative propulsiveness borrowed from comics and graphic novels. The front panel of the jacket alone contains an entire episode, where a vintage arcade game opens into a portal, a fitting metaphor for Karasu’s preoccupation and creative repurposing of kitschy retro culture. In Karasu’s work, an adolescent procures a strange coin before becoming hypnotized and absorbed into the game itself, in a scenario worthy of an 80’s action flick. Although the artist professes an affection for horror films, the mood here is more campy than frightening. The interior gatefold shows our protagonist acting out scenes in a vintage video game come to life.

Since graduating from the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Karasu has worked as both a graphic designer and illustrator. He counts 80’s horror, “weird comics,” and Metal music among his chief aesthetic preoccupations. He is based in Istanbul, Turkey.