HOUSE ON FIRE, the debut graphic novel by writer and artist Matt Battaglia, forces us to confront a dystopian future that’s dangerously closer than we want to believe.

In HOUSE ON FIRE, Battaglia conjures up his world – our world – with wild two-color brushwork reminiscent of the great Paul Pope and a minimalist writing style that evokes and questions rather than lectures.

Battaglia’s protagonist leaves his rural home to travel to the lawless land that was once a bustling metropolis, in an attempt to obtain black-market medicine for his wife – sick with the unnamed contagion that brought the world to its knees.  As we journey along with him, we learn just how sick the whole world has become. He presents his papers and medical clearance to pass military checkpoints, he makes deals in the new barter economy, he falls in with the criminal underworld, he makes split-second decisions about life and death.

Matt Battaglia is an artist and video producer. His work in comics started from coloring for BOOM! Studios and Roche Limit at Image Comics. He collaborated with author Michael Moreci for their book Indoctrination at Z2 Comics. After a multi-year hiatus from making comics, he returned with his solo work Ghosts of the Carousel published by Dauntless Stories.

HOUSE ON FIRE will be available in a 100-page softcover and will retail at $16 USD. The book will be released in stores March 28, 2023. Living the Line’s website will also feature a signed version by writer/artist Matt Battaglia.