Written by Dave Maass. Illustrated by Patrick Lay. Character design by Ezra Rose. Lettering and book design by Richard Bruning. Edited by Karen Berger. Published by Dark Horse Comics.
Named one of New York Public Library’s Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2024.
Mixing dystopian sci-fi, mythic fantasy, and zombie horror, Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis, is a graphic novel based on a suppressed opera written in 1943 by Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann, two prisoners at the Terezín concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The authors did not live to see their masterpiece performed.
Set in an alternative universe where Atlantis never sank but instead became a technologically advanced tyranny, the power-mad buffoonish Emperor declares all-out war—everyone against everyone. Death goes on a labor strike, creating a hellscape where everyone fights, but no one dies. Can the spirit of Life stop this terror with the power of love?
Purchase links:
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Collaboration with the Louisville Opera
The Louisville Orchestra, led by creative director and conductor Teddy Abrams, staged a production of Der Kaiser von Atlantis in January 2025 using our graphic novel as inspiration. Pages from our book were projected on a massive scrim, while the costumes were modeled after Ezra Rose’s character designs.
Praise and Reviews:
“Lay’s art, tinted in smoky gray ink washes, evokes a landscape of desolation and smog that echoes the battlefields, ruined cities, and prison camps of WWII. Maass’s playful script, with its pitch-black humor and fiendish turns of phrase, honors the original opera without being overly reverent. A grim but ultimately hopeful glimpse of an age when “humanity is in freefall,” this parable captures the defiant spirit of artists during the Holocaust.” — Publishers Weekly
“Death Strikes is a story both hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure. In light of its tragic back-story, the book is a critical reminder of the power of art to uplift and inspire in our darkest moments.” – IGN (Runner Up, Best Comic Book Series or Original Graphic Novel of 2024)
“The story with its mix of sci-fi, horror, satire and comedy is instantly gripping in a way you may not expect with fact and fantasy, satire and sadness sitting side by side. And the art is a mix of shadows and light, of exaggeration and starkness, bringing the world of the graphic novel alive. But, more importantly, it transports one to the terrible place where it was imagined, created and yet….never performed. The book is also, quite simply, a work of art unto itself. And at the same time it is also an important historical artifact, bringing this so very little-known opera to the attention to both fans of the genre as well as the larger audience of those who care about art, its history and its special role in human existence.” – Opera Wire
“Death Strikes is biting gallows humor, audacity, rage and clarity. I had to stop and stare into space for a while after I read this book. It leaves you vibrating. And the story behind it all calls back one of humanity’s ugliest parts of history from an angle that few know about. An amazing work.” — Nnedi Okorafor (The Binti Trilogy, LaGuardia)
“A beautiful story of defiance that resurrects and honors literature composed under the most horrific of circumstances. To stage an opera from the Terezin Ghetto within the pages of a graphic novel, where it can live forever upon bookshelves, is more than an artistic achievement, it’s a mitzvah.” — Spencer Ackerman (Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump)
“From the minds of artistic geniuses Peter Kien and Victor Ullmann came a searing tale born in the anguish of the Terezín concentration camp, where both men were imprisoned before perishing at Auschwitz. I cannot imagine a more powerful retelling of the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis than this extraordinary graphic novel by Dave Maass and Patrick Lay. Set in a world that is both ancient and futuristic, this dystopian nightmare presents humanity at its very worst, yet in the end offers the hope of the invincibility of the human heart. The book succeeds in adapting the operatic stage to the illustrated page and will encourage classical fans to emotionally connect to the music in a thrilling new way.” — JoAnn Falletta, Multiple Grammy-winning Conductor and Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
“This new telling of The Emperor of Atlantis is astonishing and compelling both for its lucid, powerful prose and dynamic, dystopian art. Maass and Lay present a creative reimagining of the original operatic narrative where the metaphors and warnings resonate within its historical context while also feeling frighteningly prescient and meaningful today.” — Teddy Abrams, Music Director, Louisville Orchestra
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