Rosarium Publishing is proud to bring to the US this award-winning graphic novel adaptation of the Czech sci fi classic that first gave us the word "robot" and the foreboding robot revolution!
R.U.R.: The Graphic Novel Adaptation of the Karel Čapek Sci Fi Classic
AVAILABLE IN NORTH AMERICA ONLY
Winner of the 2021 Golden Ribbon Award Best Czech Graphic Novel
Rosarium Publishing is proud to bring this award-winning 256-page hardcover graphic novel adaptation of the Karel Čapek science fiction classic in English to the United States.
Art & Words by Kateřina Čupová Translated by Julie Nováková Lettered by Damian Duffy
Long before there was Terminator and Skynet, there was R.U.R., the Czech classic that gave us the word "robot".
The R.U.R. Factory, far from humanity on its own island, has produced the perfect product: Robots! Devoid of pain, love, and all human emotion, never tiring, never bored, unfazed by death they are the ideal worker for modern-day society!
All of this is about to change, and only Helena can see it. She is condemned to remain alone in her dread, as all of society embraces the robots and the automatons' presence increases. However, there has been a glitch in the programming. All of our assumptions may have been wrong. The robots may indeed feel pain. They may harbor passions and hatred, and the Robot Revolution may be near!
As retold and drawn by the young, award-winning Czech graphic novelist, Katerina Čupová, this seminal dystopian work by Karel Čapek (which gave us the word "robot") makes the reader question the notions of work and progress and humanity itself. Through Čupová's deft hand, R.U.R. Is a sight to behold.
Along with R.U.R., You Can Receive:
Kateřina Čupová is a Czech animator and comic book artist and a graduate from the renowned Department of Animation at the Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín. Many of her works have been published in magazines and comic anthologies. Her webcomic, The Author’s Apprentice, was published as a graphic novel following a successful Kickstarter campaign. In 2021, she won the Golden Ribbon Award for Best Czech Graphic Novel for R.U.R. In 2022, she won the Muriel Award for Best Children's Comic for her adaptation of Hrnečku vař! and for Best Short Comic for "The Horseshoe Meets Haha-Bimbi."
Julie Nováková (*1991) is an award-winning Czech author, editor, translator, scientist, and educator. Her work has appeared in Clarkesworld,Asimov's, Analog, and elsewhere, and has been translated into multiple languages. She also translates Czech stories into English (in Tor.com, Strange Horizons, F&SF, and elsewhere) and has edited or co-edited five anthologies, the most recent one being Life Beyond Us (Laksa Media & European Astrobiology Institute, 2023).
Damian Duffy is a cartoonist, scholar, writer, curator, lecturer, teacher, and a Glyph Comics, Eisner Comics, Bram Stoker, and Hugo Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novelist. He holds a MS and PhD in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches courses on computers & culture, and social media & global change.
His many publications range from academic essays (in comics form) on new media & learning, to art books about underrepresentation in comics culture, to editorial comics, to a graphic novel adaptation of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, with his J2D2 Arts counterpart John Jennings. Kindred: A graphic novel adaptation (Abrams ComicArts) was awarded the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel, and the 2018 Eisner Comics Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium. Their follow-up, Parable of the Sower: A graphic novel adaptation (Abrams ComicArts) won the 2021 Ignyte Award for Best Comics Team, and the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story or Comic.
The co-editor of the Black Comix Returns art book from the Magnetic Collection at Lion Forge Comics, Damian has given talks and lead workshops about comics, art, and education internationally.
R.U.R. is Rosarium Publishing's seventh crowdfunding campaign, though our first through BackerKit. The graphic novel has been written, drawn, translated, lettered, and is ready to go to the printer. The only problems that we can foresee are the occasional errors that may occur with the postal service (mistaken or misspelled addresses or people moving), which can be easily remedied.
R.U.R. has already been drawn, translated, and lettered. It is in final edits and will be ready for the printers by the end of the campaign. When exactly the book will be printed will be dependent upon the printer's schedule. However, we will be keeping you fully updated on the process. We fully expect to receive the books and have them out to you by the holiday season.
As stated above, Rosarium's version of R.U.R. is only available in North America, as per our licensing agreement with the original Czech publisher of the graphic novel, Argo. Therefore, we are only shipping books to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Estimates for the costs for mailing a single book are as follows:
US: $10 Canada: $15 Mexico: $20
If you add-on additional physical copies of this book or any others, your shipping costs will most likely increase. These are our best estimates only. Shipping will be calculated and collected after the campaign through the Pledge Manager.
“Somebody should do something about the lack of diversity in publishing.”
“...”
“I guess that somebody might be me.”
With that thought, Rosarium Publishing was born. Established in 2013, Rosarium Publishing is a small, independent house, publishing comics and speculative fiction focused on Brown people with an international scope. Starting with the groundbreaking Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond, Rosarium has been steadfastly “Introducing the World to Itself.”
From horror (Box of Bones) to humor (American Candide), from protest (APB: Artists against Police Brutality) to celebration (Gender Studies), Rosarium publishes a wide array of works from a wide range of places: from Uganda to Italy and Sri Lanka, from Mexico to South Africa and now the Czech Republic!
