From award-winning authors Charles Johnson and Steven Barnes comes a
graphic novel anthology of interconnected Afrofuturistic parables
inspired by the teachings of Buddha
Eight strangers looking for enlightenment from an ancient spiritual
teacher are trapped in a cave high in the mountains on their way to his
temple. One of his acolytes directs them to each tell a story that the
group can learn from as they wait out the horrible snowstorm that rages
outside the cave's entrance.
One by one the travelers each share a story that, unbeknownst to them,
is actually a morality tale representing one of the aspects of final
enlightenment as taught in Buddhism. As the wind howls through the
night, they tell symbolic stories of horror, dystopia, high adventure,
cyberpunk, and urban fantasy. Each story is a spoke on the symbolic
Dharma wheel, and each interlocking tale gets the travelers closer to
their true destiny--unveiling the future of the entire human race.
This remarkable collection borrows heavily from the traditions of
pop-culture morality anthology series such as The Twilight Zone, The
Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Lovecraft Country, and the
publications of E.C. Comics. Heavily influenced by the science fiction
pulps of the 1950s and 1960s, this brilliant collection remixes classic
social narratives such as Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Chaucer's The
Canterbury Tales, and The Arabian Nights, through an edgy,
contemporary, yet spiritually centered lens. In The Eightfold Path,
our destinies lie in heeding the lessons given in every one of these
entrancing tales.
