In the immediate future, an alien race of religious zealots plans to honor their god through the ritualistic annihilation of our planet. Only one person knows this: Milan Marlowe, the world's most powerful man, a megalomaniacal media baron with ideas about how to turn the end of the world into a profit for the company. The only hope for the planet is to meet the invaders according to their own customs and set forth “The Challenge of the Heretic”—a one-on-one gladiator battle for the right to exist. Marlowe launches Beast Wars, a televised interspecies death match tournament to determine Earth’s strongest creature. Enter Bruno Bolo—a brutish but lovable Florida alligator trainer who finds himself navigating a world of feuding black-belt gorilla trainers, corporatized killer sharks, on-call blues combos, phony volcanoes, great space arks, Yeats-quoting pit fighters, and looming alien eradicators. Following the end of a shocking chain of hard knocks, Bruno emerges as Earth’s last, desperate hope. Shot through with sly social commentary and eye-popping action and populated with the most bizarre—yet utterly compelling—cast of characters in recent memory, Nature of the Beast is a stunning visual and literary tour de force.

Adam Mansbach’s recent novels are The End of the Jews and the critically acclaimed bestseller Angry Black White Boy, and he writes a weekly political column for NewsOne.com. Douglas Mcgowan works as a record producer and screenwriter in Los Angeles. Owen Brozman lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife. This is his first graphic novel. You can see more of his work at owenbrozman.com.