Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

A gripping and lushly illustrated tale of love and lies set between 1930s Chicago and New York’s criminal underworld, perfect for fans of manga like Banana Fish and readers of graphic novels like Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me who are looking for adult LGBTQIA+ fiction

Chicago, 1930. Jules Tivoli is a penniless Italian immigrant doing odd jobs to make ends meet. A twist of fate causes him to cross paths with Adam, a kingpin in Chicago’s criminal underworld who sees something in Jules that nobody else does--something special.

Under Adam’s wing, Jules becomes somebody and falls in love hard with the man who made him. But after an FBI crackdown, Adam and Jules must flee to New York to escape being caught in the ensuing chaos.

In New York, Jules’s Italian heritage gains him access, recognition, and power in the Cosa Nostra crime family. As he becomes more important in a city where Adam can’t seem to catch a break, he meets Eufrasio--his handsome, violent, and ambitious new partner who insists that Adam is holding Jules back. But Jules would be nothing without Adam--wouldn’t he?

Torn between his past and his future, a sudden betrayal forces Jules to find a way to protect his love and prove his loyalty--if he can even manage to make it out alive.

Anaïs Flogny is an illustrator and cartoonist based in France whose work is inspired by artists like René Gruau, Austin Briggs, Kamome Shirahama, and Cyril Pedrosa. She loves to draw intimate moments, cars, goats, historical fashions from the medieval era to the 1950s, and everything in between. Smoke gets in Your Eyes is her debut graphic novel.