What lies behind a fable about wolves and rabbits, an actress fleeing in terror from an underground film shoot on the slopes of Mount Fuji, a New Mexico scrap dealer serving coffee to two visitors from outer space, a fashion designer who believes she is being dreamed by a mythical figure, an antiques forger who discovers an old tale has come true, and a female cult disrupting the cosmic order with terrifying rituals?

Rhino Head is an illustrated fantastical narrative conceived by underground filmmaker and author Carlos Atanes and artist Jan van Rijn, blending eroticism, magical realism and speculative fiction into what Atanes describes as a hyperfable, a network of interconnected stories whose ultimate meaning is left to the reader. And Semper in Extremis is just the first of three Rhino Head volumes, with two more still to come.

The narrative shifts between perspectives, times and realities. Wolves and rabbits, extraterrestrial visitors, mysterious cults, dream-haunted fashion designers, counterfeit antiques, rhino heads at the ends of the earth, sentient sunflowers, and transformations between women and dolls all contribute to a richly imaginative tapestry in which myth, fantasy and desire continually intertwine.

Published in German, English and Spanish, each chapter is accompanied by three full-page illustrations by Jan van Rijn, combining colour and black-and-white artwork to create an immersive dialogue between image and text. Reviewing the book, author John Coulthart praised  its originality and execution, admiring Atanes’s range and inventiveness, while musician and literary critic Gabriel Hart liked the concept of the book as a ‘pornocracy’, a return to the unabridged original sin of Eden which essentially created the world we live in.

Rhino Head – Semper in Extremis can be bought from the Kraut and Rubies website here.