Massam, the slave that Poppaea uses to do her dirty work, is given the order to exterminate Balba the gladiator and his accomplice Evix, the woman who dared better Nero in a chariot race. The pair of them are considered dangerous enemies of the emperor.
At the imperial palace, while Nero is making plans for a whole new Rome, Poppaea lounges around with her entourage. Arsilia, one of those closest to her, is secretly summoned to meet Petronius the poet in a rough part of town. There she finds Murena, with whom she was rather enamored in the days when he was close to the emperor.
Murena is convinced that Arsilia is implicated in the kidnapping of the only woman he’s ever loved, and that she knows where she’s been taken. Murena is determined to find his lover, and so decides to leave for Gaul. Balba and Evix say they’ll accompany him, but on one condition: when they come back, Murena must help them eliminate Nero, the tyrant who killed Britannicus.
This collected edition features the first four volumes of the best-selling erotica series, as well as exclusive new content, including lavishly illustrated behind-the-scenes accounts by the authors.
The series follows the paths of two different women, in two different eras. One is the exquisite Kim Nelson, a young English woman on a quest for a treasure she believes is rightfully hers. The other is her legendary ancestor Jade, a djinn of the utmost expertise in the art of love, who, through the power of her body, holds the whole world in the palm of her hand. Her quest? To make her mark on the memory of the world by passing into legend. But both women must withstand many trials in order to attain their goals. This is a series constantly in movement, migrating from Turkey and the harems of the Ottoman Empire, to Africa and the magic of ritual, and then on to India and the glittering Pavilion of Pleasures. A captivating tribute to the power of desire, sensuality, and the instinct to love.
A Norman by the name of Tancred makes landfall in Sicily with a motley international mercenary crew. A figure of mystery and danger, he soon proves himself a fierce blade and a cunning strategist, but why has he come? Revenge on the embattled Lord Harald now besieging Taormina? The fabulous wealth of the Qaids hidden within the city? Why does Tancred travel with a papal legate who calls him Robert? What disgraceful past is he trying desperately to hide? It’s every man for himself in this intrigue of shifting alliances and sudden death, set against the backdrop of Sicily’s Norman conquest.
“This is a book that all adventure fans should read. I can see it having a cross border appeal with anyone who loves fantasy and those that have a yearning for this sort of historical setting. It also has on show the ethical ambiguity that you saw in a movie like Flesh and Blood. Remorselessly violent and brutal. Everyone is at risk of falling to the swing of an axe.” Never Iron Anything
Let the games begin! Fired from gangster Gus Greenbaum’s casino, Dottie is now working for Hugh Hefner, owner of the Playboy empire of a thousand women. The company’s cardinal rule: “Your most precious possession is your little cotton tail. You must always be sure to keep it fluffy and white.” Of course a slew of wrongdoers want Hefner’s skin, in particular a nasty fellow who doesn’t hesitate to go to extreme lengths to achieve his malicious ends. Hefner’s very survival will depend on none other than Dottie, as events start to spiral out of control.
It is the winter of 1937, and Aimé Louzeau lives with his mother and their servant. One day, he goes to the Quai des Orfèvres, the police prefecture of Paris, to speak with the vice squad. He currently works in the Criminal Investigation department, but crimes of passion and back alley stabbings really aren’t his thing, so he requests a transfer from Chief Inspector Séverin. The atmosphere immediately darkens, as Louzeau is thrown straight into the interrogation of a pimp called Guapito and his prostitute.
“A stunning illustrated peek behind the curtains of pre-war Paris.” Comic Book Daily
Nanami is trapped. The future of the invisible Kingdom is in her hands, but she is starting to lose her grip on the way that events are unfolding. The fairy tale is turning into a nightmare… A riveting ending to an engrossing tale!
President Truman drops two atomic bombs on Japan, and Dottie cuts ties with Milton and begins posing for lowlife cheesecake photographer, Irving Klaw. In the meantime, a shadowy figure with a vendetta against ex-Yoyo Club girls persists in evading police. While Colonel Eigrutel shows a marked interest in Talullah, Milton tries to track the increasingly bitter Dottie down, and a war-injured Joe wastes away in a squat for the homeless. Everything comes to a head one dark night in the New York City.
It’s 1943 and all-American Joe is heading off to fight the Japanese. His distraught fiancé Dottie Partington is fired from her job as a movie usher, and a friend helps her find employment at the Yoyo Club, a cabaret favored by soon-to-be-deployed US Air Force personnel. In the meantime, Joe is marooned on an atoll in the South Pacific, where he experiences firsthand the terror of war, and encounters a motley crew of fictional and real-life characters. Back in the States, famed cartoonist Milton approaches Dottie and uses her as the model for his new comic strip, “Poison Ivy,” which centers on the adventures of a patriotic vamp capable of making soldiers “forget their girlfriends back home.” The strip is a runaway success and kindles the fantasies of GIs across the globe, eventually reaching even Joe.
When he was a kid in the slums, Tsagoï would do everything in his power to avoid violin classes. He’d rather be having a punch up with some poor unsuspecting victim. He dreamed of owning his very own truck, while his cousin Mirno dreamed of marrying Milena and getting rich.
Twenty-five years down the line at the Czech border, “little” (nearly two meters tall) Tsagoï is at the wheel of a truck full of Slovakian caviar, renowned for its inedibility, and Mirno, dressed like a lord, spends his time buying fur coats for Milena.
It’s the day of the football world cup finals, and all the cops are glued to their TV screens. So of course everyone’s making the most of it—the Russian mafia, all manner of degenerates… and Mirno. But the day gets off to a bad start. It then has a bad middle, and not such a good ending either…!
1843, Paris. A sensational trial stuns the art world and has the streets of the capital buzzing. Is the famous art dealer Daniel Northbrook nothing but a swindler? Count Skarbek, a rich Polish businessman, will do everything he can to prove it, revealing a sensational tale of love, hatred, passion, and revenge. A gripping thriller in the vein of the great popular fiction by Hugo and Dumas. Includes a new preface from scriptwriter Yves Sente and exclusive extra content from artist Grzegorz Rosinski (for mature readers only).
