In this very sharp, clean first printing, McQuade has drawn a detailed full-page specialty illustration of Misty being tied to a cross by two minions opposite the title page. In addition, the title page illustration of Misty has been exquisitely hand-colored. Mcquade art is quite scarce. Only four Misty pages are known to exist and only two other original frontis drawings have been found.

Laid in are 4 photocopied sheets of Misty art and a 6-page Misty typescript synopsis. The art sheets include alternate artwork for the last page and two pages that do not appear in the book.

James McQuade's 1972 graphic novel is a real early seventies time capsule, clearly inspired by Barbarella, with its nudity and sex intermingled with anti-establishment politics and free love philosophy. The Introduction by Gil Porter recounts the development of this story, inspired by the French albums published by Eric Losfeld. McQuade was an illustrator and art director and underground comics contributor before creating Misty and its sequel.

From the dustjacket:

You are about to enter a strange world in the future to meet Misty, a beautiful, sensitive nineteen year old girl who finds herself as out of place in her world as a flower child would be in a police training academy. The ultimate war has decimated mankind. Shattered of all confidence in the ability of man to ever prevent total annihilation of the earth, the people have turned to absolute rule by computer, a master computer that charts the destiny of every human and enforces its will with legions of soldiers and batteries of lethal machines. The citizens in this world are kept alive with transplants and plastic parts until their machine ordered destiny demands their death. But Misty is one of the few perfect humans left, devoid of any artificiality and embued with a spirit that cannot conform to the ruthlessly totalitarian world of her time. It seems predestined that circumstances will inevitably force her to become an outlaw. And the fact that she still lives, despite her computer ordered execution, threatens the vital belief among the masses in the infallibility of the machines and its deadly disciples....

Over four years in conception and production, Misty is a brilliantly drawn, deft intermingling of satire, social comment, sex, suspense and adventure. For many it will be a scathing indictment and a frightening portent of things to come.