If you received an invitation to attend a mysterious masked ball held by a secret organization of the rich and powerful, would you accept? Meet the five candidates who do: the scientist, the singer, the chef, the attorney, and the financier. They crave power, love, money, respect, fame — that which eludes them. Their enigmatic host, known only as Pig King, craves something more basic: salvation for his kind. But the Illuminati Ball requires a sacrifice…
I’m going to need you to brace yourself for a minute with this one. In 1972, the Baron and Baroness de Rotschild were said to have hosted a mysterious masked ball. This ball boasted guests such as Audrey Hepburn, Salvador Dali, and other powerful members of society in a mansion in France. It was called the Illuminati ball, and the only proof was a series of leaked pictures.
Author and artist Cynthia von Buhler has released a bizarre hardback graphic novel with the same name; The Illuminati Ball. This work is routinely stages as audience-participation performance art and it gets weird. In the story, several members of the intellectual elite, wealthy, or just generally powerful receive invitations to a secret ball. They are a scientist, a singer, a chef, an attorney, and a financier. All are after something that seems just out of their grasp. The ball is hosted by Pig King, and all guides at the party are masked as animals. The ball is seemingly based of the same fete held in the 1970’s. What the attendees don’t realize is that the guides are all partial animal/human hybrids.
Sound weird? I assure you, it only gets weirder from there.
Cynthia von Buhler has created a colorful and bizarre tale that is hard to put down. The art is incredible and the characters sympathetic. Be advised this comic is most definitely not for everyone. If you’ve read von Buhler’s other work, Minky Woodcock: The Woman Who Handcuffed Houdini, you’ve have an idea of her bizarre burlesque style. Von Buhler’s art is quite comfortable with nudity, which not every reader is.
The Illuminati Ball is now available from Titan Comics.
