In 2013, Aaron Dietz will produce 12 books in 12 months. Find out more here.

Super

Super is a novel by Aaron Dietz from Emergency Press.

Buy a Copy
Download a Chapter
Read the Book
Discussion Guide
Awards, Reviews, Mentions
Synopsis
Blurbs
Events
Other Promotion
Blog Posts
Media Kit
Quotes From the Book
Author Bio
Book Designer Bio
Specs

Awards, Reviews, Mentions

A few of the special honors Super has achieved:

Voted one of the best books of the year at the 2010 Nobbie Awards by The Nervous Breakdown

Selected as a 2010 favorite by Jonathan Evison, author of All About Lulu and West of Here

Midwest Book Review: “Super is a highly entertaining and quirky read…. Highly recommended.”

American Book Review: “Genre-wise, the novel takes its cues from the SAT and a Super Mario Bros. video game.”

The Black Sheep Dances: “As an experimental novel, you can’t get more creative than Aaron Dietz’ Super.”

Super: The Synopsis

Do you need a new job? Does the world need another superhero?

You see the connection, don’t you? If you had the chance to save lives…could you handle the adventure? The pressure, the risk, the grotesque, the insane? Most of all, could you handle your humanity? Update your resume, ‘cause here we go. Either stick with being sucked down further into your life, or earn the lift-off of the elite.

Aaron Dietz’s debut novel moves with an experimental edge into America’s heroic mythology. Structured as a novel-length job application for a superhero agency, Dietz uses his iron touch to explore themes that go far deeper than the swashbuckling world of comics and costumes. It’s a story about commitment, ability, bureaucracy, possibility, crisis, and heartbreak. Super.

Super: The Blurbs

Most books spiral downward, but this one spirals up, building ever more fanciful and heartbreaking worlds as it goes, chapter after chapter. In the end you’re left with a view of life–almost a philosophical system; yet it’s the most fun I’ve had reading a book in years. It’s like Shazam and the X-Men teaching Zen.

— Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

It’s not just a book — it’s an experience that presents the notion that every superhero is human, and every human is super.

— Lauren Hoffman, author of When You I Feel Because

It’s an experimental, literary look at superheroes that would no doubt outrage superhero traditionalists. It will probably charm anyone who used to spend a lot of time reading about men and women in tight outfits who like to hit each other with their fists.

— Paul Constant, The Stranger

It is the sneakiest most seductive witty and weird book I have ever come across. I mean really. How the hell does this guy sleep? He must be as strange as Christopher Moore and as sick as Tom Sharpe with the Federal Housing Administration Manual for Single Family Construction Lending thrown in.

— Jim Burrows

Aaron’s debut novel is the most fun you will have reading a book since that summer when you first discovered comic books in 1979.

— Mende Smith, host of Writing On Demand and author of Hollywood Land

Finally, someone has noticed that new media is no longer new.

— Alexa D. O’Brien, content strategist

Super: The Events

Click the first link for a list of upcoming events.

Super: Other Promotion

Super is being presented for free, one page per day, in both digital image and printable PDF format, at aarondietz.us. Emergency Press will also be accepting applications for the position of Superhero throughout 2010 and 2011 (for an application, write to super.services.division@gmail.com). Further events may be planned for a Recommended Battle Zone area near you.

Super: The Blog Posts

The Super Blog Posts – The latest news, information, and insights about Super are posted here.

Super: The Media Kit

Super: The Quotes

“You’d think time travel would be a pretty cool power to have but it’s not. Most of the time, you’re told what to do by various versions of yourself who are from some future time in which you’ve really messed things up.”

-Apostolos

“I’ve become stupid from the drinking. And I’m the only one who can tell.”

-Alabaster Wight

“On short notice, people must sometimes be thrown to the ground in order to save them (if you are a Superhero).”

-an EMT

“Sometimes I have powers that make me dangerous to everyone around me. But only sometimes.”

-Protea

“Don’t make me laugh. I might drop a building on our heads.”

-Alabaster Wight

“We face Class C villains all the time. We almost die on a regular basis.”

-Praxis

Super: The Author

Aaron Dietz is an instructional designer for online high schools and has written courses in game modding, computer programming, green design, and 3-D video games. It’s natural for him to write quizzes. He’s worked a decade in libraries. He’s also been paid to count traffic and once failed a personality test.

Dietz’s super powers include a high metabolism and the ability to put things back where he got them. He’s also pretty good at math.

Dietz writes for TheNervousBreakdown.com, blogs at aarondietz.us, is the founder and editor of SPAM Publishing, and serves as an advisory editor of KNOCK Magazine.

Contact Aaron Dietz at writer@aarondietz.us.

Find Aaron Dietz on these sites.

Photo by Pei-Yu Lin.

Super: The Book Designer

Charlie Potter, book designer for SuperCharlie Potter is an illustrator, animator, and graphic designer who graduated with a BFA in animation and design from the Art Institute of Seattle.

Potter has illustrated over nine children’s books and is the Lead Graphic Designer for an online curriculum provider.

His animated short As The Crow Flies appeared in Ball of Wax Volume 7, special DVD edition.

For fun, he watches birds. The birds don’t seem to mind.

Read an interview of Charlie Potter here and view his portfolio here.

Super: The Specs

November 9, 2010 (U.S. release)
Trade paper
ISBN 978-0-9753623-9-6 / 5.25” x 8” / 236 pages
Fiction / $16.00 (U.S.)
Editor: Bryan Tomasovich
Book design & cover: Charlie Potter

Available at Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell’s, and more.