Insomnia Café is an Original Graphic Novel written and illustrated by acclaimed Turkish illustrator and New York Times and New Yorker contributor M.K Perker (Cairo, Air). Insomnia Café is a 80-page hardcover book, and marks M.K. Perker’s America solo debut!

Insomnia Café opens on a scene of a man sleeping in a park. The man is not homeless, but we become aware that he is hiding out from both the police, and some mysterious men, who want something that is in his possession. The man is soon discovered by his shadowy stalkers, but manages to shake them off and finds sanctuary in a small café (not the one of the title.) The man goes into the bathroom to check though his possessions to see if they somehow got a tracer on him, but instead finds the contents of his bag are covered in blood. Then the police turn up and take him into custody, but when hey go through his bag they find a pair of bloody severed hands…

After this shocking opening scene, the story shifts back a few months, and gives us a proper introduction to our protagonist…

Peter Kolinsky was once among the world’s foremost experts on rare books, with a top position at a prestigious auction house. Then black marketers took an interest in him, and get him to help them find a buyer for a stolen rare text. Since narrowly avoiding jail time, Peter’s lived a lonely life in a tiny apartment, with a menial job at a book distributors, that he hates.

Peter suffers from insomnia, and one night when, looking for a late-night snack, Peter wanders into Insomnia Café and meets Angela. She takes him to a secret place called ‘the Archives’, where books currently being written by famous authors are somehow on the shelves, including the complete unpublished works of J.D. Salinger.

Then Mr Omblov, the black market dealer who caused Peter to loose his job at the auction house, turns up, asking Peter to do one last job as a personal favour. It seems that Peter cut a deal with the FBI to keep himself out of jail, but that deal resulted with Mr. Omblov’s brother going to jail, and Mr. Omblov is none to happy about that!

When Peter ignores Mr. Omblov’s job request, things start to go downhill for him very fast! And when his best friend at work turn up dead in his apartment, Peter becomes the number one suspect. There’s only one way to get rid of Mr. Omblov, and get his life back, he has to steal an unwritten book from ‘the archives’, but stealing from the archives has dire consequences…

This is M.K. Perker’s debut U.S. writing work, but he has written several stories in his native Turkey, including Türkan Şoray Dudaġı (Turkan Soray Lips), and Masal Mafya (Fairy Tale Mafia). If Insomnia Café is anything to go by, I don’t think it will be long before someone translates his Turkish stories for U.S. distribution, because M.K. Perker is a FANTASTIC writer, a truly gifted storyteller! Perker’s greatest talent is in his character work. Perker’s characters feel so fully formed and fleshed out that one gets caries away following their day to day dramas, and you end up caring for his creations like they were real life friends of yours! A truly magnificent achievement.

Perker’s artwork on this title is rather different from his work on both Cairo and Air. To start with, the art is completely black & white, and has a somewhat minimalistic linework look to it. A lot of the characters have rather exaggerated facial features, for example, Peter Kolinsky has a very long and pointy chin, with a sharp point nose, and his friend, Carlos, is a stout little man with a big bulbous nose, and ginormous ears. The artwork actually reminded me quite strongly of some of Carlos Ezquerra’s art work, and Ezquerra is one of my all time favorite artists, so that is a good association to make!

Insomnia Café is an enthralling tale, and there is far more to it than I can fit in a short description like the one above. This is the sort of book that you will read in one sitting, get to the last page, read the twist, then read it  all over again to see if you can figure it out! The story ends with one of those amazing moments that calls into questions the whole validity of the preceding story. It’s got a very David Lynch-esque moment really near the end, that just makes you slap yourself in the forehead…. I’ll stop talking about that now, as I don’t want to ruin it for readers!

Insomnia Café is an absolutely wonderful book with a fascinating and unforgettable story, and gorgeous black & white linework. This book is a true marvel,  and  is a highly recommended purchase, particularly for those who like their comics with a more cerebral, literary, quality to them. I’m glad to see Dark Horse putting out gorgeous original material like this, and I hope to see more like this from them in the future!

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Insomnia Café will be arriving in comic stores on Wednesday November 11. The book will be released as an 80-page 6″ x 9″ hardcover, and will cost $14.95

To see a three-page preview of Insomnia Café click here!

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