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by Eric Drooker
Harcourt Books
In a realm beyond words, Blood Song is a moving
pictorial journey through an island forest to another island on the far
side of the ocean, where the secrets of a young girl's past and the secrets
of an unknown future await.
"The drawings of mountains, seas, and urban streets are
breathtaking. Drooker's use of light and dark accentuate mood,
and his occasional and precise touches of colour in this black
and blue tale are refreshing to the point of invoking joy.
For all the glories of Drooker's previous work, Flood!,
that book was partly a proving ground, a place where he learned
his craft. Blood Song is the work
of an artist of the first order at his maturity."
Joe Sacco, from the introduction |
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by Phoebe Gloeckner
Frog Ltd
Adapted from her own teenage diaries, Phoebe Gloeckner tells the brutal
and dramatic story of troubled teenager Minnie in 1970's San Francisco
and of her secret love affair with her mother's thirty-five year old
boyfriend, Monroe. Using a combination of prose, illustrations and comics,
Gloeckner captures the awkwardness of a young woman trying to make sense
of a disastrous situation and of her own angst, self-absorption, and
self-degradation.
"Phoebe Gloeckner's deliberately tough, difficult Diary
Of A Teenage Girl feels totally authentic because
it is. As such, it makes such sanitized, safe books about
teen's real problems, the Judy
Blume-type material, seem utterly out of touch. Ironically,
thanks to its uncompromisingly explicit details of rape and
drug abuse, Diary may be completely
inappropriate for anyone under 18. But for everyone else, Diary
Of A Teenage Girl reveals a reality that I fear more
teenagers than we know have experienced."
Andrew D. Arnold, Time.com Read
the full review here.
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by David B
Fantagraphics Books/L'Association
David B's tribulations with his brother's epilepsy, the way in which
the illness determined the author's artistic vocation, with, as a backdrop,
a sharply delineated parade of the chimera of the 70's, from the promise
of communal living to the infatuation with macrobiotics, all combine
to make this graphic novel one of the most distinctive autobiographical
works of contemporary comics.
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by George Herriman
Fantagraphics Books
"Herriman's deco doodle Navajo rug of a comic strip just gets better with
age... The infernal triangle of Mouse, Kat and Pupp has been interpreted as the
forces of Anarchy, Democracy and Fascism by some; as Ego, Id and Super-ego by
others. It is of course, all that and blissfully less. What Picasso and Braque
did to wine bottles and guitars in their Heroic Cubist days, Herriman did to
narrative itself. He gives us all our stories simultaneously. Behold the comic
strip's proudest achievement: Brickism!"
Art Spiegelman, from the back
cover blurb
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by Lynda Barry
Sasquatch Books
Winner of the 2003 Eisner
Award for Best Graphic Album, One! Hundred! Demons! is
a collection of semi-autobiographical comic strip stories, in which Barry
wrestles with some of her own demons in her signature, quirky, irrepressible
voice. Funky boyfriends, innocence betrayed, and small cruelties we perpetuate
on others. As she delves into the delights and sorrows of adolescence,
family, identity, and love, the tales are at once hilarious and heartbreaking.
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edited by Ng Suat Tong
Alternative Comics
A superb comics anthology with contributions from the best alternative
cartoonists, including James
Kochalka, Tom Hart, Megan Kelso, Ron Rege Jnr, John Porcellino, Matt
Madden, Renee French and many others. |
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by Debbie Drechsler
Drawn & Quarterly Books
"Armed with a great ear for dialogue, and a mesmerising style which balances
contour and texture, Drechsler is already a master."
100 Best Comics, The Comics Journal #210
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by Jeffrey
Brown
Top Shelf Productions
Immerse yourself into the painfully human and autobiographical universe
of Jeffrey Brown. Clumsy is the bittersweet
story of a year long, long distance relationship, told through snippets
of everyday life, drawn in a simple and elegantly awkward style that
heightens the emotional impact and leaves you reminiscing about your
own past love affairs. It also has a lot of sex.
"My favourite graphic novel ever."
James Kochalka |
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by Larry Gonick
Bantam/Doubleday
"Imagine trying to describe a thousand years worth of human activity from
three different continents. Wars, religions, acts of genius, the origin and evolution
of cultures; and how all these things interrelate. Imagine trying to fit it all
into 300 pages of comics. That's Book III of Larry Gonick's Cartoon
History Of The Universe... And it's a success."
The Comics Journal #250
"Obviously one of the great books of all time."
Terry Jones, Monty Python |
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by Dan Clowes
Fantagraphics Books
The definitive collection of the best of Dan Clowes' short humor strips
from Eightball.
"Curdlingly good..."
Art Spiegelman |
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by Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell Comics/Top Shelf Productions
"No other English-language cartoonist is reformatting his life into such
expansive and engaging autobiographic comics than Eddie Campbell. His latest
compilation is a trove of stories and snippets, observations and episodes, that
run from one to ten pages... However mixed and matched across time and topic,
they dovetail smartly and the book carries strong narrative and thematic momentum
from start to finish. Mapped-out fiction created from whole cloth should have
it so good."
Best Comics Of 2002, The Comics
Journal #250
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