|
by Danny Gregory
Princeton Architectural Press
"Two years before I started drawing, my wife was run over by a subway train
and nearly killed. Well, this book is about how art and New York saved my life...
Every day matters. I think so. I do. But I really have to force myself to see
its value sometimes. And drawing has really helped me to do that... We can't
control what life deals us, just how we respond to it. And if we are monomaniacally
focused on the bad stuff, we are missing the beauty of a half-eaten apple, the
sunshine on the bedspread, the smell of warm cookies."
Danny Gregory, extract from Everyday Matters |
|
by Craig
Thompson
Top Shelf Productions
Winner of three Harvey
Awards and two Eisner
Awards, Blankets is a tale of first love,
the questioning of a religious up bringing and the diminishing power
of parents over their children as they grow up. Craig Thompson tackles
these weighty issues in a confident display of storytelling skills in
this subtle and engaging book.
"I thought it was moving, tender, beautifully drawn,
painfully honest, and probably the most important graphic novel
since Jimmy Corrigan."
Neil Gaiman
|
|
by Marjane Satrapi
Random House/Jonathan Cape
A wise, funny and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the
Islamic Revolution. Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from
the age of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's
regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects
of war with Iraq. She bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined
with the history of her country.
"I cannot praise enough Satrapi's moving account of growing
up as a spirited young girl in revolutionary and wartime Iran. Persepolis is
a disarming and often humorous, but ultimately it is shattering."
Joe Sacco, creator of Palestine
and Safe Area Gorazde
"Sometimes funny and sometimes sad but always sincere
and revealing, Persepolis will be
one of the best graphic books of the year."
Time.com Read
the full review here. |
|
by Joe Sacco
Drawn & Quarterly Books
How much does the nightly news cost? A carton of cigarettes maybe, or
a pair of Levis. When shells are falling and Western journalism is the
only game left in town 'fixers' are the people who find war correspondants
the human tragedies that make news editors happy. It's a dangerous occupation,
a little amoral and a lot desperate. Joe Sacco returns us to the dying
days of the Balken conflict and introduces us to Neven, a fixer, looking
to squeeze the last bit of profit from Bosnia before the reconstruction
begins. Thanks to Neven, Joe discovers the crimes of opportunistic war
lords and gangsters who run the countryside in times of war.
"The Fixer is more morally
complex and more artistically ambitious than many well-reviewed
novels... There are kinds of subtlety and metaphorical allusiveness
that are easier to achieve in comics than in novels. "
The Guardian Read
the full review here. |
|
by Posy Simmonds
Random House/Jonathan Cape
"Literary Life by Posy Simmonds is the must-have,
pure pleasure publication of the season. Here are all the aberrant, often scarcely
believable life forms that infest the literary circuit, drawn with pitiless accuracy.
Hats off - a genius."
Evening Standard |
|
by Chester Brown
Drawn & Quarterly Books
Martyr or madman? To some Louis Riel was one
of the founding fathers of the Canadian nation, but to others he was
a murderer who nearly tore a country apart. A man so charismatic he was
elected to government twice while in exile with a price on his head -
but so impassioned that his dramatic behavior cast serious doubts on
his sanity. Riel took on the army, the government, the queen and even
the church in the name of freedom.
"Louis Riel is a superb example
of historical storytelling... [Chester Brown] is one of the
medium's brilliant mavericks."
Andrew D. Arnold, Time.com |
|
by Chris Ware
Drawn & Quarterly Books
Chris Ware is one of the most influential cartoonists of his generation.
He is the winner of the Guardian's First Novel prize in 2001 for Jimmy
Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth, which has sold over 100,000
copies. The Acme Novelty Sketchbook contains
over 100 pages from his sketchbooks and is a fascinating look into the
mind of one of America's top cartoonists. He reveals the outtakes of
his genius in these intimate, imaginative, and whimsical sketches. Architectural
drawings from Chicago and interplanetary robot comics collide with cruelly
doodled human figures and quietly troubling studies of the still life.
A must for people with a passion for modern design and old-fashioned
style.
|
|
edited by Chris Oliveros
Drawn & Quarterly Books
An international cast of innovative artists and lovingly restored old
favorites grace this coffee-table size anthology with a mix of cartooning,
illustration and graphic design that attracts comix fans, as well as
lovers of art and graphic design. Volume 5 features work by Depuy & Berberian,
Albert Chartier, Michel Rabagliati, R. Sikoryak and Harry Mayerovitch.
"An international who's who of cartoonists producing
some of the best comics you might have read last year."
2003 Year in Review, The Comics Journal
#259 |
|
edited by Sammy Harkham
Avodah Books
Full colour, over-sized, and over three hundred pages. Featuring cutting
edge comics and art from Mat Brinkman, Renee French, Anders Nilsen, Sammy
Harkham, Leif Goldberg, Lauren Weinstein, Marc Bell, Allison Cole, C.
F., David Lasky, Billy Grant, Andrew Brandou, Josh Simmons, Genevieve
Castree, David Heatley, Dave Kiersh, Souther Salazar, Ben Jones, John
Hankiewicz, Laura Grant, Joe Grillo, Jim Drain, Stefan Gruber, Jeff Brown,
Tobias Schalken, and Ron Regé Jr.
"... when actually read, Ergot reveals
itself to be as carefully assembled and sequenced as the mix
tape you wish your lover or best friend made for your birthday.
While no individual piece stands out from the rest, there's
a cumulative effect that's greater than the sum of its parts."
2003 Year in Review, The Comics Journal
#259 |
|
by Alan Moore & Kevin
O'Neill
DC/ABC
A Victorian adventure story set in the late 1800's starring a cast of
familiar characters from Victorian literature - Mina Murray (Dracula),
Allan Quatermain (King Solomon's Mines), Captain
Nemo (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea), Dr.
Jekyll & Mr Hyde and The Invisible Man.
This unlikely cast of characters join together to protect the British
Empire from extreme dangers, and in Volume 2 this turns out to be invaders
from Mars, as foretold by H.G. Wells in War Of The
Worlds. Don't be put off by the inferior Hollywood film version
of Alan Moore's masterpiece.
|
|
adapted by Spain
Fantagraphics Books
Nightmare Alley is the story of Stanton Carlisle,
aka The Great Stanton, who begins as a successful magician and mentalist
but winds up an alcoholic, rapist, murderer, and, in the ultimate degradation,
a carnival geek. Renowned underground cartoonist Spain Rodriguez captures
the brooding, unforgiving atmosphere of carny life in William Lindsay
Gresham's cult classic Nightmare Alley, and
renders an unforgettable portrait of the amoral Stanton Carlisle's rise
to bogus spiritualist and fortune teller and ultimate descent into degradation
and 'geekdom'.
|
|
by Gilbert
Hernandez
Fantagraphics Books
Imagine a novel by Gabriel Garciá Marquez told in comic form,
with the depth and vibrancy to bring a fictional Latin American village
and it's people to life. Palomar is the intricate
tale of the relationships between the citizens of that town - their lives,
loves and deaths. This volume collects all the Palomar stories
by Gilbert Hernandez including the essential classics Blood
Of Palomar and Poison River .
|
|
by Michael Rabagilati
Drawn & Quarterly Books
This is the coming-of-age story of Paul, a 1970's Montreal teenager,
who tastes the freedom and responsibilities of adulthood for the first
time. Thanks to plummeting grades, Paul defiantly quits high school and
takes a job at a factory. Disillusioned and depressed by his grim future,
Paul accepts a strange job offer to be a counselor at a summer camp run
by a freewheeling Catholic priest and free-spirited hippies. At camp
Paul finds himself guiding a motley bad of kids - misfits, loners and
troublemakers - kids like himself, through the rough terrain of growing
up.
|
|
by 22 creators
AdHouse Books
An anthology with a robotics theme featuring the work of established
and new comic creators, put together in a very smartly packaged book.
Includes contributions from Jeffrey
Brown, Dave Cooper,
Paul Rivoche and John Pham.
|
|
by Dave Cooper
Fantagraphics Books
The psychosexual story of Martin, a painter, who falls into a bizarre
relationship with his uncouth female model, Tina.
|
|
by Adrian Tomine
Drawn & Quarterly Books
With a deft and romantic touch, Tomine portrays the emotional lives of
drifting, urban twenty-somethings. His fans accuse him of eavesdropping
on their most intimate moments, revealing truth with forensic detachment
and surprising compassion.
|
|
by Scott Morse
Top Shelf Productions
"It is a rare instance when a given piece of work from master filmmaker
Akira Kurosawa fails to enrapture an audience with multiple layers of meaning
and symbolism. With The Barefoot Serpent, I attempted
to replicate this dynamic, juxtaposing biographical material about Kurosawa himself
with a fictional story that echoes many of the themes, symbols, and events associated
with the man. The astute reader may notice certain occurrences of familiarity
with many of Kurosawa's films. These occurrences were woven into the fabric of
the fictional tale to honor and support an over-all theme of Kurosawa's work:
hope."
Scott Morse, from the Afterword
|
|
by Jim Woodring
Fantagraphics Books
Frank is a generic anthropomorph who lives
in a world of mysterious and dangerous beauty. Propelled by forces beyond
his control, including his own unquenchable curiosity, he finds himself
in one bizarre escapade after another, frequently involving the loathsome
Manhog or the power hungry Whim. Luckily, Frank has
a protector and ally in the form of his feisty godling companion, Pupshaw. Frank's
adventures are told in a series of nearly wordless cartoon stories that
draw the readers deep into a hallucinatory mindscape governed by a profound
interior logic.
|
|
by Jason
Fantagraphics Books
Who killed the game warden Blinde? Why won't he stay dead? What dark
secrets cause landowner Gjaenes and his butler to act so suspiciously?
And what precisely is the invisible Iron Wagon whose clatter and tumult
accompanies these sinister occurrences. A classic detective yarn by Stein
Riverton receives a faithful, yet idiosyncratic updating in the hands
of Jason.
|
|
by Jeffrey
Brown
Top Shelf Productions
The subtitle Or How I Lost My Virginity gives
you a big clue as to Jeffrey Brown's follow up book to Clumsy. Unlikely is
a tale of young love, sex, drugs heartbreak and comedy.
"Mr Brown seems to understand perfectly the day-to-day
rhythms of the modern young adult relationship. Unlikely,
like his first book Clumsy, is pretty
much impossible to put down."
Dan Clowes
|
|
by Frederic Boilet
Fanfare/Ponent Mon
A Frenchman in Japan is transfixed by the beauty of Yukiko. But his affections
are not totally reciprocated. Yukiko's Spinach is
a tale about the uncertainties that exist in all tentative relationships.
|
|
