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Rumble Strip by Woodrow Phoenix Myriad Editions £12.99 If you want to get away with murder, buy a car. Rumble strips alert us to hazards. The noise, the jolt, the vibration of those grooves at the edge of the road wakes and prevents drivers from going off the edge of the road. Sometimes we all need a wake-up call: over 1.2 million people are killed in road traffic accidents around the world each year. By 2020, road traffic accidents could outstrip stroke and HIV as one of the main causes of preventable deaths. Whether we drive cars, ride motorbikes, pedal bicycles, take public transport or just walk, we all use roads and rely on each other to drive responsibly. Rumble Strip surprises, challenges, asks us questions that badly need answers and makes us think about things we may prefer to ignore. Woodrow Phoenix's dry, sometimes painfully mordant wit, backed up by accident statistics, personal observations and case histories, offers a trenchant analysis of the problems of road users everywhere and the risks we all take every day. With sharp, densely inked graphics, he immerses us in the narrative as if we are driving those cars or walking along those streets. He personalises the experience of the commuter, the driver, the pedestrian, the accident victim... because any one of them could be us. Take a sneak preview of Rumble Strip here. "For a graphic work that doesn't show a single human being, this
is an extraordinarily human book. Its ideas and questions about
how the car impacts on your life will echo in your mind long after
you've finished reading it, whether you're a driver, or a pedestrian,
or both." "Brilliant. Angry, articulate, bewildered, and beautifully drawn;
a visceral blast of truth-telling against the cult of the road.
They should be giving it away with new driving licences." |
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Tate To Tate: An Illustrated Walk Along
London's South Bank by Tommy Penton Jonathan Cape £10.00 Tate To Tate shows a group of people walking east along the South Bank of the river Thames in London - from the Tate Britain art gallery at Millbank to the Tate Modern art gallery at Bankside. As you follow their progress from spread to spread you start to notice cunning details and the beginning of a story. Behind them, in the foreground, are Lambeth, Hungerford, Blackfriars and Southwark Bridges, and the London Eye - and across the Thames a magnificent panorama of the buildings on the North Bank: Tate Britain, the Palace of Westminster, the Savoy Hotel, Somerset House. Then, arriving at Tate Modern, and the climaxes of the stories you have been following, you see that another group of characters is walking west, each with another story to follow. |
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Gentleman Jim (HC) by Raymond Briggs Drawn & Quarterly $14.95 Originally published in 1980, Gentleman Jim is the story of Jim Bloggs, an imaginative toilet cleaner who, dissatisfied with his station in life, devotes his time to envisioning a world beyond it. His walls are lined with books like Out in the Silver West, The Boys' Book of Pirates, and Executive Opportunities, which provide fodder for his ruminations on career change. Encouraged by his wife, who is also eager to incorporate more adventure into her life, Jim sets out to bring these dreams to fruition by accumulating various accoutrements, only to discover that the life of an executive, an artist, or a cowboy is more complicated and costly than it appears. Jim's childlike understanding of the world that surrounds him is enhanced by Raymond Briggs's subtle and inventive illustrations. Fantasies are portrayed as organic clouds that move between and overlap outlined panels of his reality, and myopic Jim is drawn smaller and softer than the policemen and bureaucrats interested in impeding his search for adventure. As he begins to infringe more seriously on the law, the city workers and their speech boxes become increasingly angular, much like the rigid rules and regulations restricting his sincere quest. With this playful style, Briggs expertly transforms common feelings of inadequacy into an endearing and enjoyable experience that speaks across generations, concluding with an optimistic implication that even a misfortunate outcome can be better than no change at all. "Dealing with vocational and class frustration in such an arch
and roundabout would distinguish a comic were it to be released
today for the very first time, forget about a comic that does so
in the age of Super Boxers." |
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Journey Vol 1 by William Messner-Loebs IDW $19.99 A realistic and absorbing account of life in the 19th century frontier wilderness finds Wolverine McAlistaire enduring tornadoes, Indians and even the walking dead, all in Messner-Loebs' unique neo-Eisnerian style. A classic adventure series from Eisner nominee William Messner-Loebs, Journey introduced the world to Joshua 'Wolverine' McAlistaire and the Fort Miami settlement populated by both real-life and fictional characters. Now, IDW is re-presenting this acclaimed work in two comprehensive volumes, the first of which collects issues #1-13. |
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Zot! Vol 1: The Complete Black & White
Stories 1987-1991 by Scott McCloud Harper Collins $24.95 Zot! is the story of an idealistic blue-eyed teenager from the future - where peace, prosperity and justice prevail - who visits our less-than-perfect world and falls in love with a disillusioned Jenny Weaver. The original Zot! series began in 1987 and reflects the influence of American superhero comics as well as the beginnings of the alternative comics movement of the 1990s (including Los Bros. Hernandez's seminal Love & Rockets series) and the influence of Japanese comics artists such as Osamu Tezuka. "The
book is about the collision of two worlds. It's
about the meeting of hope and disillusionment.... Even while I worked on
it, I was trying to figure out what makes comics tick. After I
finished Zot!, I started to work on Understanding Comics... When
I switched to black and white, the series really got up to speed.
I was exploring character, and I thought I could do more with black and
white; with tone and chiaroscuro. Black and white is so much more
like picture-writing." |
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Love & Rockets New Stories Vol
1 by Jamie Hernandez & Gilbert Hernandez Fantagraphics Books $14.99 Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez' Love & Rockets is one of the longest-running U.S. alternative comics series, with millions of books and comics sold worldwide, and is now rebooted into a fat annual with all-new stories. Love & Rockets: New Stories takes lives of Jaime's L.A. punk rockers Maggie and Hopey in a thrillingly epic direction and is the showcase for Gilbert and Mario's literary, surreal shorts. One hundred pages of Jamie and Beto at the peak of their powers. "I am of the opinion that if you two broke fully formed on the
world of comics tomorrow, like had you two never existed and the
first issue of Love & Rockets, even
if it were pretty much the same as the first issue came out in
1982, came out tomorrow, it would cause a hugh stir in the world
of comics... But I think there's this bizarre level on which you
are now almost taken for granted. You've been displaying this level
of competence and remarkable creativity, but it's kind of like,
Well, you're not new." |
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The Mammoth Book Of Best Crime Comics edited by Paul Gravett Running Press/Robinson Publishing $17.95/£12.99 Paul Gravett edits an anthology of crime comics, featuring 25 of the best graphic short stories in the crime genre, spanning all the colours of noir, from classic American newspaper strip serials and notorious uncensored comic books to today's global graphic novel masterpieces. This collection is fully loaded with some of the greatest writers and artists in comics publishing, including Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Will Eisner, Max Allan Collins, Johnny Craig, Alex Toth, Joe Kubert, Bernie Krigstein - plus adaptations of/collaborations by famous crime writers, such as Dashiel Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Lesley Charteris and Raymond Chandler. Meet a gallery of hard-boiled, iconic heroes and killers inside including: Dashiell Hammett's smooth operator Secret Agent X-9, Will Eisner's masked mystery man The Spirit, Mickey Spillane's heavyweight tough-guy Mike Hammer, Frank Miller's scarred and brutal Marvin from Sin City, Munoz and Sampayo's brooding ex-cop Alack Sinner, Abuli and Bernet's venal hitman-for-hire Torpedo 1936, Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty's femme fatale investigator Ms. Tree, and Charles Burns' Mexican wrestler and defective detective El Borbah. |
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Comic Book Tattoo edited by Rantz Hoseley, by various creators Image $29.99 Over 80 creators from every style and genre have contributed over 50 stories to this anthology featuring tales inspired by the songs of multi-platinum recording artist, Tori Amos. Featuring an introduction by Neil Gaiman, with stories by creators such as Carla Speed McNeil, Mark Buckingham, C.B. Cebulski, Nikki Cook, Hope Larson, John Ney Reiber, Ryan Kelly, and many, many others, Comic Book Tattoo encapsulates the breadth, depth, and beauty of modern comics. "One thing to make very clear - this isn't just
a bunch of comic creators making a book and then slapping Tori's
name on it. She's been very involved
in the editorial process. Unlike a lot of anthologies, there have
been multiple deadlines along the production path; plot, scripts,
layouts, all of these had to be submitted so that Tori could look
them over. Not in the manner of wanting to tell people what to
do, or to make the book all 'the same,' but more to make sure that
we had all of the bases covered in terms of really pushing the
creators to work with us to make the best book possible; in order
to make sure that we had a wide diversity of styles, themes and
subjects and that the book wasn't too sweet or too dark. It was
very important to her that she see how the different creators were
treating 'her girls' (the songs), but at the same time, not
tying the creator's hands or make them feel restricted in any way
and making sure that they felt the freedom to tell the kind of
story that they felt strongly about, so that the story
they produced would be their best work." |
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Popgun Vol 2 by various, including by Dean Haspiel, Ryan Ottley, James Kolchaka, Erik Larsen, Frank Espinosa, Jim Rugg, Danny Hellman, Khary Rhandolph, Dan Hipp & Mark Andrew Image $29.99 A graphic mixtape mashing up the next generation of cartoonists with some of the medium's finest in stories covering nearly every genre and style imaginable. Cover by Paul Pope. |
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Mome Vol 12 by various Fantagraphics $14.99 Volume 12 of MOME welcomes back French great Killoffer and also features returning regulars Jonathan Bennett, Sophie Crumb, Andrice Arp, Paul Hornschemeier, Kurt Wolfgang, Tom Kaczynski, Dash Shaw, Joe Kimball, Robert Goodin and Ray Fenwick. Also, the return of fan favorite Al Columbia as well as Sara Edward-Corbett's MOME debut, plus several other surprises from some of the best new talent in comics. MOME is an accessible, reasonably priced quarterly publication running approximately 120 pages per volume, mostly in color, and spotlighting the most exciting new storytellers in comics along with special surprises. MOME has earned earning a reputation as one of the premier literary anthologies on the shelves, and the only one composed almost entirely of comics. "One of the initial goals of the series, to take a group of young
cartoonists and bring them to public attention with a high-profile
anthology, has been quite a success. That probably has as much
to do with the book market snapping up cartoonists left and right
and the expansion of publishers like FBI and D&Q, but Mome certainly
hasn't hurt in that regard. In discovering new talent, another
stated goal - making the anthology accessible to the general reading
public in a way that something like Kramer's
Ergot isn't - has started
to become less of a priority. The loosening of that priority has
only made Mome a better series, since it's not only allowed for
a greater overall diversity of approaches, it's also made room
for off-beat artists such as Ray Fenwick and the great John Hankiewicz." |
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Drawn & Quarterly Showcase Vol 5 by Anneli Furmark, Amanda Vähämäki & T. Edward Bak Drawn & Quarterly $19.95 The Drawn & Quarterly Showcase is a new talent anthology and the only annual collection to have the focused visual acumen of D&Q editor-in-chief Chris Oliveros, who scours the globe for three cartoonists to spotlight and introduce to North American readers. More often than not, it is the first time the cartoonists have had the chance to work in full-color with twenty-five pages, and on such a wide-reaching visual platform. The series is hailed for its consistent quality and for the superior editorial vision of its short stories, volume after volume. Volume 5 features Anneli Furmark (Sweden), Amanda Vähämäki (Finland), and T. Edward Bak (United States), with cover art by Vähämäki. |
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Meathaus: SOS by James Jean, Brandon Graham, Shaun Kessler, Farel Dalrymple, Ross Campbell, Corey Lewis, Jared Purrington, Tomer & Asaf Hanuka, Marian Churchland, Matt Furie, Jeff Kilpatrick, Edie Fake, Andy Ristaino, Stefan Gruber , Chris McDonnell, Arik Roper, Chris toph Mueller, Rebecca Dart, Ronald Wimberly, Peter Herpich, Sheldon Vella, Jason Sacher, Jesse Moynihan, Jim Campbell, Cameron Michel, Mu Pan, Thomas Herpich, Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca, Jonny B, Dave Kiersh, Dash Shaw, Celia Bullwinkel, Jeremyville, Zohar Lazar, Zachary Baldus, Ralph Bakshi & Black Dice Nerdcore $30.00 Meathaus has been a comics anthology since the year 2000, a website, some art shows, and a plate of novelty shaped cookies. Since its founding days its pages have been filled with comics sensations such as Farel Dalrymple (Pop Gun War, Omega the Unknown), James Jean (Process: Recess, Fables), Tomer Hanuka (Bipolar), Thomas Herpich (Cusp, Gongwanadon), Brandon Graham (Escalator, King City) and Dash Shaw (The Bottomless Belly Button). Now a new gang of young creators have joined the Meathaus to form the largest group of awesome dudes who like to rock yet. |
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Flight Vol 5 edited by Kazu Kibuishi Villard Books $25.00 A full-color graphic anthology of short stories by some of the hottest creators in the field. Since 2004, when the first Volume of Flight burst on the scene, the publication of subsequent volumes has become a highly anticipated annual event. "With truly stellar art from masters of the field, this fantasy anthology is a must for comics connoisseurs and a delight to readers who like pretty stories." Publishers Weekly on Flight, Volume Three |
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Humbug (HC) by Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee & Arnold Roth Fantagraphics Books $50.00 Harvey Kurtzman changed the face of American humor when he created the legendary MAD comic. As editor and chief writer from its inception in 1952, through its transformation into a slick magazine, and until he left MAD in 1956, he influenced an entire generation of cartoonists, comedians, and filmmakers. In 1962, he co-created the long-running Little Annie Fanny with his long-time artistic partner Will Elder for Playboy, which he continued to produce until his virtual retirement in 1988. Between MAD and Annie Fanny, Kurtzman's biographical summaries will note that he created and edited three other magazines, Trump, Humbug, and Help!, but, whereas his MAD and Annie Fanny are readily available in reprint form, his major satirical work in the interim period is virtually unknown. Humbug, which had poor distribution, may be the least known, but to those who treasure the rare original copies, it equals or even exceeds MAD in displaying Kurtzman's creative genius. Humbug was unique in that it was actually published by the artists who created it: Kurtzman and his cohorts from MAD Will Elder, Jack Davis, and Al Jaffee, were joined by universally acclaimed cartoonist Arnold Roth. With no publisher above them to rein them in, this little band of creators produced some of the most trenchant and engaging satire of American culture ever to appear on American newsstands. At last, the entire run of 11 issues of Humbug is being reprinted in a deluxe format, much of it reproduced from the original art, allowing even owners of the original cheaply-printed issues to experience the full impact for the first time. |
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Little Nemo In Slumberland: Many More
Splendid Sundays (HC) by Winsor McCay, edited by Peter Maresca Sunday Press Books $125.00 The second volume full-sized reprint of 120 pages of the classic Little Nemo strips. "This heartbreakingly beautiful book is the reinvention of Winsor
McCay - as if he was being published for the first time. Only better." "Every time I look at it I get inspired... It's the 'book of
the year.'" "It is every bit as gorgeous as inspiring and as necessary as I had hoped." |
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Terry & The Pirates Vol 4: 1941-1942
(HC) by Milton Caniff IDW $49.99 America's premiere adventure comic strip thunders to its pre-war crescendo in an October, 1941 storyline so powerful creator Milton Caniff was forced to take to the radio airwaves to explain why he chose to shock the nation with the death of a major character. In the 1942 strips, the World War drives Terry Lee to join the military, where he meets nurse Taffy Tucker and Army flight instructor Flip Corkin, then gets into plenty of trouble investigating a spy ring. And then there's the women - the strong, beautiful and independent Caniff women! IDW Publishing's Library of American Comics has collected over 700 newspaper strips, including more than 100 Sunday pages restored to their original luster, in this pivotal volume in the Terry & The Pirates saga. |
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Coraline by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell Harper Collins $18.99 P. Craig Russell brings Neil Gaiman's enchanting nationally bestselling children's book Coraline to new life in this graphic novel adaptation... When Coraline steps through a door in her family's new house, she finds another house, strangely similar to her own (only better). At first, things seem marvelous. The food is better than at home, and the toy box is filled with fluttering wind-up angels and dinosaur skulls that crawl and rattle their teeth. But there's another mother there and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and all the tools she can find if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life. "It has the delicate horror of the finest fairy tales, and it
is a masterpiece." |
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The Alcoholic (HC) by Jonathan Ames & Dean Haspiel DC/Vertigo $19.99 Jonathan A. is a boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic and, of course, entirely fictional novelist who bears only a coincidental resemblance to real-life writer Jonathan Ames, critically acclaimed author of Wake Up, Sir!, The Extra Man and What's Not to Love?. For the fictional Jonathan, writing and drinking come easy. The hard parts of life are love and hope. From a touching relationship between Jonathan and his aging great aunt, to an inebriated evening with an amorous, octogenarian dwarf, to the devastating aftermath of 9/11, Ames's first original graphic novel, with gritty, poignant art by Dean Haspiel, tells a story at once hilarious, excruciating, bizarre and universal, about how our lives fall to pieces and the enduring human struggle to put things back together again. |
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Criminal Vol 3: The Dead & The Dying by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips Marvel/Icon $11.99 Winner of the Eisner Award for Best New Series, and Winner of the Harvey and Eisner Awards for Best Writer! The third collection of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' critically-acclaimed noir series follows a different twist of the knife this time -- telling three interlinking stories that take place during the early 1970s and swirl around the fate of a hard-luck Femme Fatale, a boxer and a thief and killer just home from Vietnam. Each story is told from a different narrative point-of-view, so we can see the varied secrets and hidden desires that ultimately lead to a lot of murder and mayhem. Collecting Criminal Volume 2 #1-3 |
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Too Cool To Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson Top Shelf Productions $14.95 Andy Wicks is a forty-something father of two who's tried everything to quit smoking - from going cold turkey, to the latest patches and nicotine chewing gums - so he figures he'll give this hypnosis thing a try. What's the worst that could happen? Unfortunately, Andy gets dealt a fate worse than death - high school! Transported back to 1985, Andy returns to his formative years as a gangly, awkward teenager. Is he doomed to relive the mistakes of his past, or has he been given a second chance to get things right? One thing's for sure, this time he's going to ask out that girl from math class. Presented as a gorgeously formatted hardcover graphic novel. "This is Alex Robinson's best book, and one of the rare comics
not written by Stan Lee to perfectly capture the tragedy and triumph
of being a teenager. Totally recommended." |
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Magic Trixie Vol 1 by Jill Thompson Harper Collins $7.99 Magic Trixie is a first-grade student at the Spectral Park Monstersorry School, and her friends are a sort of 'monster Little Rascals'. The supporting cast includes a pair of vampire twins; Loupie Garou, a werewolf girl who excels at everything; Stitch Patch, the Frankenstein boy next door; Princess Nefi, a mummy who's the rich girl in the neighborhood; and Magic Trixie's little sister, Abby Cadabra. Their teacher is Ms. Spectre, a ghost who haunts their brains with learning. In the first book, Show & Spell, Magic Trixie struggles to find something new to bring for show and tell. "Obviously,
being a little witch, Magic Trixie doesn't know much magic... Magic Trixie
is always trying to impress the kids with the stuff she knows, but they've
seen her tricks one too many times." |
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Heavy Liquid (HC) by Paul Pope DC/Vertigo $39.99 New York, Paris, Rome. S is on the run and in possession of a large quantity of stolen Heavy Liquid - a bizarre metallic substance that's like lava at room temperature, heavy as a bar bell and corrosive to the core. He is hired by The Collector to find the artist Rodan - the best young artist in a generation - who can turn the Heavy Liquid into an art object. The only problem is, Rodan disappeared five years ago. Paul Pope's Eisner award-nominated epic is collected in hardcover for the first time, completely recolored, with bonus sketch material. |
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Moresukine: Updated Weekly From Tokyo by Dirk Schwieger NBM $15.95 German cartoonist Dirk Schwieger has recently moved to Tokyo, and is keeping a fantastic diary of his time there. Documenting everything from his visit to the Ghibli Museum to awkward social interactions with the public toilets, it's a wonderful exploration of an expatriate's view of Tokyo and Japanese culture, all of it drawn into a little Moleskine. |
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Fart Party by Julia Wertz Atomic Book Company $13.95 The Fart Party is an online comic by Julia Wertz that is a great snapshot of life in San Francisco as seen through the eyes of a highly sarcastic and sometimes deadly up-and-coming comic artist. The book includes the 80% of comics NOT posted online, interviews, funny fan letters and never before seen illustrations! It chronicles Wertz's first year of making comics, living in San Francisco, going to conventions, moving apartments, finishing college, the demise of a relationship, all that typical stuff but nicely wrapped up into tiny little boxes on paper! Includes an introduction by Peter Bagge. |
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The Night Of Your Life (HC) by Jesse Reklaw Dark Horse $15.95 Cartoonist Jesse Reklaw turns the dreams of strangers into the most insightful, humorous, and clever four-panel comic strips you have ever read in The Night Of Your Life. This hardcover volume captures the sublime pleasure of tumbling through the freewheeling narrative of our sleeping lives. Each strip is an adaptation of the many dreams submitted to Reklaw from all over the world, every one a unique and compelling journey into a landscape to which we all travel but each explore alone. Sometimes playful, sometimes thought-provoking, but always entertaining, The Night Of Your Life is a testament to the ability of comics to illuminate the corridors of the imagination with wit, sincerity, and joy. |
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Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight by Chris Onstad Dark Horse $14.95 Since 2001, cult comic favorite Achewood has built a six-figure international following. Intelligent, hilarious, and adult but not filthy, it's the strip you'll wish you'd discovered as an under appreciated fifteen-year-old. "Onstad is our greatest living cartoonist." |
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The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack
(HC) by Nicholas Gurewitch Dark Horse $24.95 The second (and likely final) collection of strips from the award-winning comic series The Perry Bible Fellowship. Spans the entirety of the strip's print run. Bonus features include lost strips, sketches, and a behind-the-scenes interview by Wondermark's David Malki. "A work of sheer brilliance." Jim Woodring "PBF is hilarious and fucked-up in a very sublime way." Scott McCloud "Nick Gurewitch's strip is one of the few strips that makes me laugh out loud. It's really funny and if newspapers still cared about funny strips, he'd be in more papers, as he should. Except if they bump mine for him." Tony Millionaire |
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Nothing Nice To Say by Mitch Clem Dark Horse $9.95 Punk-rock culture has a rich, longstanding tradition of anger, nihilism, and good old-fashioned suburban teenage angst, and no one is more headstrong and humorless about punk rock than the punks themselves. Enter Nothing Nice to Say. Mitch Clem's Nothing Nice to Say leaves no mohawked, leather-jacket-clad stone unturned in its mission to expose the awesomeness and the absurdity of punk culture. Sometimes esoteric and always hilarious, Nothing Nice is so punk you'll think the book was bound with safety pins. |
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Gotham Central Vol1: In The Line Of Fire (HC) by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka & Michael Lark DC $29.99 The first ten issues of the Eisner and Harvey award-winning series is collected in hardcover. The series pitted the detectives of Gotham City's Special Crimes Unit against the city's greatest villains - in the shadow of Batman himself. |
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Simon Dark: What Simon Does by Steve Niles & Scott Hampton DC $14.99 Acclaimed horror writer Steve Niles teams with artist Scott Hampton in this title collecting issues #1-6 of the hot new series. Simon Dark is an urban legend - a modern-day Frankenstein monster. But is he enough to stop a vicious Gotham City serial killer? |
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The Spirit Vol 2 (HC) written by Darwyn Cooke, Walter Simonson, Gail Simone, Jimmy Palmiotti & others art by Darwyn Cooke, J. Bone, Chris Sprouse, Jordi Bernet, Eduardo Risso & others DC $24.99 The second volume of Darwyn Cooke's Eisner award-winning new Spirit tales collects issues #7-13 of the ongoing series, and includes short stories by some of comics' biggest names. |
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Superman: Kryptonite (HC) by Darwyn Cooke & Tim Sale DC $24.99 The story from Superman Confidential #1-5 and #11 by Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale is collected in hardcover. While Superman attempts to survive his first encounter with Kryptonite, will Lois Lane fall prey to a mysterious stranger? |
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Waiting For Food Vol 4 by Robert Crumb Oog & Blik $25.99 "I'm earning money while waiting to be served! I'm actually getting paid for it! Can you imagine?? You see, recently I had an art show of placemat drawings at a gallery in New York and some of these things sold for thousands of dollars apiece! I was flabbergasted! The foodstains on the paper (which don't show up on the reproductions in these books) actually enhance the value, according to the gallery owner. The grease marks gave then an ambience that had an uncanny appeal to art buyers. That's the art world for you. To think I used to just walk out and leave these drawings on the table, or give them to anyone who asked for them! What a fool! Well, those days are gone! Think of it! I could earn good living just by going out and eating in restaurants every night, and making placemat drawings!" Robert Crumb, form the introduction to Volume 3 |
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Steranko (HC) by Jim Steranko Vanguard Productions $34.95 A career spanning volume of the controversial creator's career with hundreds of images, many never before collected in book form. Includes behind the scenes stories and analytical insights about one of comics' most innovative artists. |
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Jonah Hex #33 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray & Darwyn Cooke DC $2.99 A special issue drawn by Eisner award-winning artist Darwyn Cooke. Jonah Hex travels to Canada on the trail of his latest bounty. But with the Mounties hot on his heels, this isn't going to be an easy job. |
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Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1 of 3 by Mike Mignola & Richard Corben Dark Horse $2.99 In 1956, somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia, Hellboy encounters Tom, a man who in his youth sold his soul to a backwoods demon known as the Crooked Man. Together they travel back into the dark heart of the Appalachian mountains to confront that demon and see if Tom's soul can't be saved. The three-issue series reunites Mignola and legendary horror artist Richard Corben in a tale of witchcraft rooted in Appalachian folklore. |
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I Kill Giants #1 of 7 by Joe Kelly & J M Ken Niimura Image $2.99 I Kill Giants finds a young girl struggling with the pressures of growing up - and giants. "I Kill Giants is the sort of
book I've wanted to write for a long time. It's
the comic equivalent of an indie film - funny, raw, starring real
people going through real problems - with a twist. I couldn't
be more proud of the story and the book itself, which is going
to be gorgeous. The story follows Barbara Thorson, a troubled
but resilient fifth grader who's a bit of an outcast -- Dungeons & Dragons,
fantasy and general mopery are her hobbies. But it looks like she's
taking the fantasy thing a little too far. She's always talking
about giants, reading books on giants, setting traps for giants,
getting ready to kill a giant. Almost the entire story is told
from her point-of-view, so we see what she sees: pixies, critters,
and a monster that lives upstairs in her house, so terrifying that
Barbara only sleeps in the basement. So is she crazy, or does she
know something that we don't? Does she have an active imagination,
or does she see another world?" |
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Billy Batson & The Magic Of Shazam!
#1 by Mike Kunkel DC $2.25 Welcome to the brand-new, all-fun adventures of Billy Batson as the World's Mightiest Mortal - Captain Marvel, from acclaimed writer/artist Mike Kunkel. Thanks to a magical rift created when Captain Marvel battled Mr. Mind's monsters, 14-year-old Theo Adam has been returned to Earth from banishment. For Theo, there's just one problem: He can't remember the magic word that gives him the powers of Black Adam. There's only one solution: follow Captain Marvel and get the word out of his alter ego, 11-year-old Billy Batson. |
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Captain America: White #0 by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale Marvel $3.99 Captain America: White is Loeb and Sale's newest creation, peeling back an untold tale of Captain America and Bucky during World War II. Their unique combination of in-depth characters and high stakes action shines here with Cap's deadliest mission of all. Captain America: #0 features an all new full story about the Origin of Bucky Barnes and how he came into Cap's life, this special edition features a cover gallery, sketchbook, script samples, and an interview with the creators. |
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Universal War One #1 of 6 by Denis Bajram Marvel/Soleil $5.99 In the midst of a latent civil war between the core planets and outlying planetary settlements, an immense wall has cut our solar system in two. The black wall absorbs all light and matter, and it's up to a band of soldiers facing courts martial to investigate the phenomenon. They're the men and women of the Purgatory Squadron. For which crimes are they here? And can they work together long enough to stay alive once they enter... The Wall? |
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The Comics Journal #292 Fantagraphics Books $11.95 The essential magazine of comics news and criticism. In this issue: - An interview with father and son cartoonists Gene Deitch and Kim Deitch. - Grant Morrison discusses his run on X-Men, All-Star Superman and Seven Soldiers. - Classic comics by Puck cartoonist F.M. Howarth. - Plus the usual news, reviews and elitist criticism. - Find out about the latest issue here. |
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Tripwire 2008 Annual edited by Joel Meadows Tripwire Publishing $14.95 Britain's leading comics-related magazine. In this issue: - A look at the history of Doctor Who on TV and in comics. - A review of the UK's hit genre TV shows Primeval, Ashes To Ashes, Life on Mars. - Martin Asbury talks about his work as a storyboard artist in movies. - Matt Groening and David Cohen discuss the return of Futurama. - Michael Moorcock talks about his extensive writing career. - A career retrospective on Posy Simmonds. - Superman's 70th anniversary with Grant Morrison and James Robinson - Strips from Roger Langridge, Jamie McKelvie and the Punx guys. |
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Expressive Anatomy For Comics by Will Eisner WW Norton $22.95 The third and final volume of Will Eisner's instructional series explores the critical principle of body grammar in comics storytelling. Designed and outlined by Will Eisner before his death in 2005, this posthumous masterwork reveals the secrets of Eisner's own techniques and theories of movement, body mechanics, facial expressions, and posture: the key components of graphic storytelling. From his earliest comics, including the celebrated comic The Spirit, to his pioneering graphic novels, Eisner understood that the proper use of anatomy is crucial to effective storytelling. His control over the mechanical and intuitive skills necessary for its application set him apart among comics artists, and his principles of body grammar have proven invaluable to legions of students in overcoming what is perhaps the most challenging aspect of creating comics. Buttressed by dozens of illustrations, which display Eisner's mastery of expression, both subtle and overt, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative will benefit comics fans, students, and teachers and is destined to become the essential primer on the craft. |
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Black Lagoon #1 by Rei Hiroe Viz $12.99 The story follows a team of mercenaries known as Lagoon Company, who smuggle goods in and around the seas of Southeast Asia. Their base of operations is located in the fictional city of Roanapur in Thailand, and they transport goods in the PT boat Black Lagoon. Lagoon Company does business with various clients, but has a particularly friendly relationship with the Russian crime syndicate Hotel Moscow. The team takes on a variety of missions - which may involve violent firefights, hand-to-hand combat, and nautical battles - in various Southeast Asian locations and when not doing much, the members of the Lagoon Company spend much of their down time at The Yellow Flag, a bar in Roanapur. |