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In its latest effort to creatively combine print and digital editions in one project, First Second, the graphic novel imprint of Macmillan Publishing, is launching Zahra's Paradise, an unusual project that combines a real-time nonfiction narrative in a fictional setting. Zahra's Paradise is a graphic novel about the current political and social situation in Iran, written by Amir, a human rights activist, and illustrated by Khalil, an artist who works in a variety of media. It will be serialized as a Web comic at www.zahrasparadise.com beginning February 19 and will be published as a book collection by First Second in 2011.

The Web comic will be published simultaneously in English, Farsi, Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch, with other languages to come. Mark Siegel, editorial director of First Second, said the comic is about a blog called Zahra's Paradise and tells the story of the blogger's brother, a 19-year-old Iranian political activist who disappears after the political demonstrations in Tehran in June 2009. In their effort to locate the missing activist, the blogger and his mother, Zahra, come face-to-face with the brutality of the Islamic Republic and the fate of other missing Iranian dissidents. While the characters are fictional—the full names of the creators have been left out to protect them—Siegel said the events are real, and he called the comic "a roman à clef of history as it is happening."

"Some say that for the truth of history, look to fiction," Siegel said. "As the world witnessed what could no longer be kept from view, through YouTube videos, on Twitter, and in blogs, so this project was born. The blogger as citizen-journalist is at the center of the story." And along with the serialized comic there will be blog entries by the comics creators as well as by real and current Iranian political activists and expatriates.

Zahra's Paradise is the latest effort by First Second to combine online and print publication. Siegel, an acclaimed comics artist himself, is serializing his own strip, Sailor Twain or the Mermaid in the Hudson, as a Web comic, and it will be published as a book collection by First Second once it is complete.

However, Zahra's Paradise is very different and combines real-time reporting with fictional invention and illustration to tell a story as it is happening. "Sometimes a proposal comes along that leaves you no choice: it must be told, it must get into the world. Zahra's Paradise is one of those," Siegel said. "The story's complex loom weaves together many topical threads, from the social media and technology element, to the role of women at the heart of Iran's freedom movement, the political, legal, and human rights issues. And by returning the focus to human rights, art becomes a player, a participant, a voice adding to the chorus of voices in the streets and on the rooftops of Iran."

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