Spent (HC)
by Joe Matt
Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95
Meet the original antihero Joe Matt: a master of a domain that includes over twenty-three self-edited eight-hour-long videotapes of bootlegged pornography; a penny-pincher who never fails to make a dime off his friends; a chronic masturbator who doesn't understand why he never has a girlfriend; an obsessive collector frantically searching for the toys of his childhood; a callous son who throws out every gift his mother gives him; a man so lazy that he urinates in a bottle rather than walk to the bathroom. Everyone and everything is fodder for Matt's autobiographical comics, and his biggest target for ridicule is himself. Spent collects the story originally serialized in issues #11 - 14 of his comic book series, Peepshow.

"After a long absence, Matt returns in all his absurdly conflicted, tortured glory. In the tradition of Bukowski and R. Crumb, his tale turns on his disgust with himself and all of humanity, and, like the greats, Matt entertains as he cringes. His paradoxically clean and cheerful art is as likable as his persona is unlikable in this tale of avarice, obsession and masturbation... Those hoping for uplift will go wanting."
Publishers Weekly

"It's not uncommon now for readers of literature to admire... Joe Matt with a partisan vigor formerly reserved for renegades like Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan."
The New York Times Book Review

Pulp Hope: The Art Of Paul Pope
by Paul Pope
AdHouse Books
$29.95
The first career retrospective of the Comic Destroyer, Paul Pope. Containing many unseen pieces of art and comics from the creator of THB, Heavy Liquid and 100%. This is his artistic manifesto. In America, Paul's been called the "Comics Destroyer". In France, he's been called the "Jim Morrison of comics" and "Comics' Petit Prince". His work is translated into a number of languages on three continents. He's one of a handful of young cartoonists to be consistently gaining critical praise and media attention, appearing on the Sci-Fi Channel, Much Music, and elsewhere. He's been in everything from Spin to A+F to Entertainment Weekly to Jalouse to V Magazine to The Village Voice. And he's the only American cartoonist to have worked for Japan's largest manga publisher (Kodansha) for five-plus years.

"His stated goal was to create 'World Comics, 21st century comics, stories in the comic medium that can reach and speak to people everywhere.' He is doing just that, 100 per cent."
Paul Gravett reviews the work of Paul Pope. Read the full review here.

Milton Caniff, Terry & The Pirates, & Steve Canyon: Meanwhile...
by R.C. Harvey
Fantagraphics Books
$34.95
Milton Caniff was one of the most influential American cartoonists of the 20th century. He rose to prominence during World War II when he took the characters in his Terry and the Pirates strip into the war. The trenchant pragmatic patriotism of the strip warmed the hearts and steeled nerves on the home front as well as the battlefront (one of his strips was read into the Congressional Record.) He went on to create Steve Canyon, which was syndicated from 1947 to Caniff's death in 1988. Milton Caniff, Terry and the Pirates, and Steve Canyon: Meanwhile... traces Caniff's life from the cradle to the grave, marking the milestones in the development of the comic strip that Caniff established. Caniff reshaped the medium and set standards by which all storytelling strips were subsequently judged. Although Caniff adapted to changing fashions, he is best known for innovations such as his impressionistic chiaroscuro drawing style that suggested reality economically with shadow rather than with detail; creating many colorful characters, including the stalwart Pat Ryan from Terry and the Pirates , Burma the shady lady, and, most memorable of all, the Dragon Lady, a beautiful but mysteriously menacing pirate queen who turned Chinese patriot during the War; and enhancing the melodrama of adventure strips by making character development integral to the action-packed plots.

"It's one of those classic, grand biographies that give us the subject from cradle to grave, complete. I have vicariously lived Caniff's 81 years condensed into a short span of time, in this case a couple of weeks, starting on my flight back from San Diego where I picked it up. I had waited too long for this book to not start it right away... And finishing it yesterday morning, in tears inevitably, I had to write off the rest of the day and go and have lunchtime beers with those pals of mine, none of whom have read a single page of the cartoonist I often cite as the single most important influence on my career."
Eddie Campbell - Read the full review here.

"Never one for boastful pride nor false modesty, Milton Caniff (1907-1988) would usually tell people that he saw himself as "an entertainer", first and foremost, whose role was "to force the customer to buy tomorrow's newspaper". The "customer" wasn't the kids, they didn't buy the paper; "I'm interested in pleasing their daddies". As Caniff explained to Will Eisner in a 1982 'shop talk', he and his contemporaries had few illusions that they were creating art or literature."
Paul Gravett discuss the legacy of Milton Caniff at www.PaulGravett.com

Comics Introspective Vol 1: Peter Bagge
by Christopher Irving
TwoMorrows Publishing
$16.95
Comics Introspective is a new book series that spotlights indy comics talent. Volume One features Peter Bagge, whose unique, expressive work runs the gamut from political (his strips for reason.com), to absurdist and satirical (the Batboy strip for Weekly World News), and dramatic (Apocalypse Nerd). From his Seattle studio, Bagge lets journalist Christopher Irving in on everything from just what was on his mind with his long-running Gen X comic Hate! , to what's going on in his head as a political satirist.

King City
by Brandon Graham
Tokyopop
$9.99
In King City, a young thief named Joe grudgingly returns to the city he once called home. He has a lot of history with King City and its people, most of it not good. There are few remaining he would call friends, and one in particular he grudgingly calls his ex-girlfriend. Trying to get his mind off of those facts, Joe focuses on the job that brought him here. It turns out that Joe is what's called a 'Cat Master'. Assisting him in his thievery is a special cat, who with a simple injection can be anything: a weapon, a tool or even a cuddly companion.

"King City is all about how deep a town's secret underbelly can go. Below the surface, there's betting rings on packs of man-eating wild dogs. Delve a little deeper, and there's gangs that traffic in stolen information, and deeper still there's alien porn rings. At the deepest level, there are cannibals resurrecting demon monsters to wipe out humanity. I like playing with the culture of what a city full of spy gangs would be like: spy hotels, secret bars and more. On the surface it's really just a cross between how I feel about Seattle and New York City, the two cities I've spent most of my time in. I always think about just how much is going on in a city at any given time. How many mysteries are there in a city block?"
Brandon Graham discuss King City with Publishers Weekly. Read the full interview here.

Nexus #99: Space Opera Act 1 of 4
by Mike Baron & Steve Rude
Rude Dude Productions
$2.99
Nexus returns... Ylum teeters on the edge of explosion. Duelling religion threatens to plunge the tiny planet into an orgy of blood-letting. Nexus wants only to be left alone to attend the birth of his son. Even Nexus may not be able to stop the jackals who surge back and forth like an angry sea. Assassins stalk Sundra and her child.

"The new Nexus story is about how fanatics of the Elvonic religion have somehow determined Nex and Sundra's newborn son as the anti-Christ, and set out to kill him. That sets off a civil war on Ylum, and forces Nexus to answer some serious questions about who can stay and who cannot. It's his planet, after all. Some old bad guys return, and many new ones will also come into the fold. I was shocked to see long-time cast members that actually die in this series."
Steve Rude talks with Newsarama - Read the full interview here.

"When last we saw Nexus, Sundra was seven months pregnant. I wanted to begin the new story ten years later, with the baby already ten years old, but Dude convinced me we had to maintain continuity. The story picks up with the imminent birth of Nexus' son. Ylum's community is being severely tested by the Elvonics, who wish to remake society in their own image. One of many cultures who coexist on Ylum, the Elvonics are a fanatical, largely anti-technology sect who believe Nexus' son to be a kind of anti-Christ."
Mike Baron talks with Comic Book Resources - Read the full interview here.