I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!

Paul Karasik’s long-gestating graphic novel, published by Fantagraphics in 2007, adapts the outré 1930s newspaper strip The Adventures of Patsy into a deadpan, surreal satire of pulp heroics. Karasik, the sole writer and artist, reimagines the original’s bizarre premise—a young woman who gains cosmic powers from a floating brain—as a pointed critique of imperialism and media spectacle. This singular, self-contained work stands as a cult artifact, celebrated for its meticulous period style and its unflinching, darkly comic subversion of the superhero genre.