Off the coast of Maine, behind flesh-eating fog, lies the island of Muderburg, less-than-affectionately dubbed Murderburg. When the notorious mobster Leo Scazzo and his wife Antonia endeavor to leave their life of crime behind them, they pack up their three children, along with their murderous ways, and head to the lush enclave of Muderburg to start anew. The Scazzo crew runs the curious little island, with Leo as mayor, Antonio as the enviable first lady, and eldest daughter Isabell serving as the intrepid publisher of the weekly paper, The Murderburg Beacon.

In this collection of six stories, alternative comix great Carol Lay illustrates a portrait of a family whose villainy is only narrowly outweighed by their devotion to each other and the inhabitants of their own little corner of hell. Even on an isle as bucolic as Murderburg, this lawless first family still manages to scandalize, vandalize, and entertain. But now that they have found the crime den of their dreams, there’s not a single trash-slinging Snobunquit neighbor or dangerously seductive arms dealer that could best these Scazzos.

Carol Lay graduated from UCLA with a B.F.A. in Fine Arts, but when a friend gave her a crash course in comics, she found her calling. Her first independent comics series, the critically acclaimed Good Girls, appeared in 1987 from Fantagraphics. She also drew commercially for Mattel; did storyboards for rock videos, feature films and commercials, later working part-time as an animation storyboard artist on several shows. In 1990, she started a weekly strip in the L.A. Weekly, Story Minute. She has contributed to numerous anthologies, including Wimmen’s Comix and Simpsons Comics. Her work has appeared in the Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Mad Magazine, and others.