“Every word is an accusation…and every whisper kills.” MORE WEIGHT: A SALEM STORY by Ben Wickey is a staggering graphic novel that explores the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they cast more than 300 years later.
In Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 is a year of terror. When accusations of witchcraft plunge the community into paranoia and death, curmudgeonly farmer Giles Corey and his great-souled wife Martha are forced to confront their troubled pasts, fighting to hold onto their principles even at the cost of their lives. In the 1860s, famed writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stroll the streets of Salem together, reflecting on their own dark connections to those wicked days. Today, graphic novelist Ben Wickey wrestles with the complex legacy of “the Witch City” and what it shows us about the best and worst of humanity.
Based on true events, set in three centuries, and hand-drawn over a decade, More Weightis a stunning visual symphony — a unique and profound inquiry into the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they still cast on us all.
Releasing September 23, More Weight is the debut graphic novel from Wickey a Massachusetts-born artist, writer, and animator – an eye opening read of a horrifying series of events. He has crafted a stunning work of historical fiction featuring beautiful artwork and HAND LETTERED.
Wickey is one of the contributing illustrators of Alan Moore’s The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, the illustrator of Ki Longfellow’s The Illustrated Vivian Stanshall, and the director of several stop-motion animated short films, including the award-winning The House of the Seven Gables.