Petrograd

Introducing the untold tale of the international conspiracy behind the murder of Gregorii Rasputin!

Set during the height of the first World War, the tale follows a reluctant British spy stationed in the heart of the Russian empire as he is handed the most difficult assignment of his career: orchestrate the death of the mad monk, the Tsarina's most trusted adviser and the surrogate ruler of the nation. The mission will take our hero from the slums of the working class into the opulent houses of the super rich... he'll have to negotiate dangerous ties with the secret police, navigate the halls of power, and come to terms with own revolutionary leanings, all while simply trying to survive!

"In this historical thriller, Gelatt and Crook vividly depict the 1916 events in Russia that led to the murder of Rasputin. Gelatt carefully weaves together several threads into a tense, taut tale, as peasants, members of the Russian aristocracy, and the British Secret Service plot to kill the Mad Monk. This version is inspired by a longstanding rumor that a British spy participated in the assassination--a rumor that has recently developed more historical credence through the discovery of forensic evidence. Crook is a rising comics star; his sepia artwork, full of shadows, sharp angles, and anguished expressions, does much of the storytelling; particularly noteworthy are the panels without dialogue that brilliantly portray the complex emotions of a people at war and on the verge of revolution." --Publishers Weekly

"An excellent example of taking real events to tell a gripping story. Especially in light of how much Rasputin floats in the public perception as this vague and mysterious, almost mythical, villain, I think Petrograd does a superb job of showing what people really thought of him and what he was really like. Oh, he's still plenty villainous, and that helps to make this a compelling story, but he's villainous in a decidedly more debauchedly human way than he's often depicted. Writers don't NEED to make embellishments to make Rasputin the bad guy, and that's part of what makes Petrograd successful." --Kleefeld on Comics