“Kalashnikov is a long-form comic by the Chinese comic artist Yi Hu, created during the pandemic period and published in Chinese with Japanese and English translations. The story follows the wandering journey of a dog-headed figure drifting through the urban-rural margins of contemporary China, encountering fragments of everyday life, alienation, absurdity, and silent reflection along the way.
The comic unfolds with the raw and unstable energy of punk rock — at times chaotic, noisy, and resistant to easy interpretation. Without relying on fixed scripts or controlled narrative structures, Yi Hu allows the drawings and story itself to move instinctively, often slipping beyond the author’s control. As the protagonist Kaka wanders through small towns and desolate landscapes, the comic gradually sinks into a strange emotional gravity shaped by helplessness, uncertainty, and surreal humor. Rather than moving toward a clear destination, the work drifts forward through instinct and atmosphere, as if the story itself has taken over the act of telling.”
A gritty urban tale in the form of a comic or graphic novel, the story ends with a reference to an iconic scene from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, reproduced pen and pencil drawings, translations by Lutetia Wang and Hal Saikouu, designed by Feng Feiteng, trilingual edition in Chinese, Japanese and English.
Soft cover, 22 x 16,5 cm, 180 not numbered pages, Shanghai 2025
