What They Did to Princess Paragon (Robert Rodi Essentials)

Robert Rodi's 1994 cult sensation is a scathing satire of corporate rapaciousness, sexual identity, and pop-culture absurdity. Long out of print, it now returns to enjoy a new lease on life as a definitive skewering of one of America's more brazen epochs. Brian Parrish is a very successful, bottomlessly ambitious cartoonist. When Bang Comics, publishers of the country's most iconic superheroes, begins redesigning its "properties" to compete on a grittier, harder-edged pop-culture landscape, Brian signs on to rescue the stodgy, virginal Princess Paragon. His solution? — Turn her Sapphic. This brings him into direct conflict with Jerome T. Kornacker, an unhinged fan who's in love with the Princess. Their battle of wits (and ultimately of weapons) plays out like Stephen King's "Misery" in reverse — and raises the question: Who really owns a fictional character? Her creator? Her copyright-holder? Her loyal fans? And will anyone survive long enough to find out? "An extremely enjoyable satire on today's comic industry … Of course, it's worse than this in real life, but it's seldom as funny." – Neil Gaiman "A delightful comic novel that's also faintly terrifying … forces us to recognize the bit of obsessive fan that perhaps lurks within all of us." – Charles Busch