A hypnotist uses his powers for evil instead of good. A time-traveller goes back in time to kill Hitler as a baby. In this parodic, faux-noir collection, the award-winning and multi-talented Sherwin Tjia concocts B-movie narratives filled with serial killers, mafia soldiers, bodyguards, cops and kidnappers encountering betrayal, femme fatales, and more plot twists than a Moebius strip. The first in the Cinderblock Books Series, Serial Villain emulates the garish and lurid look of noir posters from the 50s while referencing the Moby Books Illustrated Classics for kids in which every right hand page had an illustration and a pullquote from the story underneath it. Hurtling along in quick cuts and abbreviated action, these 5-minute blockbuster movies up the ante with each diabolical development, practically with every paragraph. Immerse yourself in this perpetual dusk, where sex and violence party beyond redemption, where pathetically insignificant individuals take their revenge upon the world entire.

Sherwin Tjia is a Montreal-based poet, painter and illustrator. He is the author of Gentle Fictions, Pedigree Girls, and The World Is a Heartbreaker (a finalist for the A.M. Klein Poetry Award). The Hipless Boy, a collection of short, interconnected stories told in graphic novel form was a finalist for the Doug Wright Award and for four Ignatz Awards. His most recent offering is an interactive adventure style book told from the point of view of a housecat entitled, You are a Cat! In his spare time, he organizes Slowdance Nights, Love Letter Reading Open Mics, Crowd Karaoke singalongs, and Strip Spelling Bees as Chat Perdu Productions. His invention, The E-Z-Purr, a CD with over an hour of cats purring, is available for download from CD Baby.

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