More Weight: A Salem Story

"Every word is an accusation...and every whisper kills." This staggering graphic novel explores the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they cast more than 300 years later.

In Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 is a year of terror. When accusations of witchcraft plunge the community into paranoia and death, curmudgeonly farmer Giles Corey and his great-souled wife Martha are forced to confront their troubled pasts, fighting to hold onto their principles even at the cost of their lives. In the 1860s, famed writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stroll the streets of Salem together, reflecting on their own dark connections to those wicked days. Today, graphic novelist Ben Wickey wrestles with the complex legacy of "the Witch City" and what it shows us about the best and worst of humanity.

Based on true events, set in three centuries, and hand-drawn over a decade, More Weight is a stunning visual symphony -- a unique and profound inquiry into the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they still cast on us all.

Author: Ben Wickey
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Published: 09/23/2025
Pages: 532
ISBN: 9781603095600


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/23/2025
Booklist 08/01/2025

About the Author
Ben Wickey is a Massachusetts-born artist, writer, and animator who graduated from the California Institute of the Arts. He is one of the contributing illustrators of Alan Moore and Steve Moore's The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, the illustrator of Ki Longfellow's The Illustrated Vivian Stanshall, and the director of several stop-motion animated short films, including the award-winning The House of the Seven Gables. In 2025, after a decade of development, he made his solo graphic novel debut with More Weight: A Salem Story. He lives in California with his beloved wife and cats.