Mark Schultz, the creator of Xenozoic Tales and current writer of the Prince Valiant comic strip, has taken a walk on the factual side of the graphic novel street, and written The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA.  The Stuff of Life is a 136-page fact-based graphic exposition that covers DNA and genetics on the molecular, cellular and practical levels, while exploring the laws of genetics and heredity, and examining how the growing knowledge of genetics is being utilized in a wide range of technical applications.

Hill and Wang, the publishing house that specializes in factual graphic novels (The 9/11 Report, Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography, J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography), is publishing The Stuff of Life in January.  Zander and Kevin Cannon (Replacement Gods, Top Ten) provided the art work.  Mark Schultz told ICv2: “Their visual storytelling, in my opinion, is brilliant, especially as many of the concepts we are illustrating are very abstract and its content needed to be aimed toward readers starting at square one.”

Although the subject matter of The Stuff of Life is complicated and in some ways daunting, Schultz told ICv2 that he believes that he and the Cannons were able to create a work that is “both accessible and engaging.”