Motel Shangri-La

James Turek’s Motel Shangri-La, launched by avant-verlag in 2016, is a singular, self-contained graphic novel that blends surrealism with the quiet melancholy of a roadside motel. Turek, the series’ sole writer and artist, crafts a haunting, atmospheric story where the boundaries between reality and dream blur within the motel’s neon-lit rooms. As a debut from the German publisher, it stands out for its evocative, minimalist art and its meditation on isolation and transient connections.