comics

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
Thoreau at Walden	John Porcellino	Hyperion		$15.25 ($16.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Thoreau & Porcellino:  a perfect match if there ever was one!  We have nothing but good things to say about this, the third volume in the Center of Cartoon Studies series of American Biography in Comics.  Printed in brown and black ink, this new hardcover book is a fantastic intro to the life and works of Henry David Thoreau and makes for a transporting read.  Porcellino had extracted the key quotes from Walden (along with a few from Civil Disobedience, for good measure) and then given them plenty of space to breath in the reader's mind, as the gently paced visuals flow across the page and work to capture the deliberate and gradual rhythms of Thoreau's day to day existence, which is to say real life, as it is lived:  the practical realization of his philosophy, in comics.
Hall of Best Knowledge	Ray Fenwick			$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	A book like no other, HoBK is very tough to concisely describe, but we'll give it the old college try:  It is a meditation on ideas concerning knowledge; specifically on what constitutes authority in the realm of knowledge, and how this authority is represented.  It is -- whether consciously so or not is open to debate -- an examination of the perception that an innate authority lies in manuscripts -- literally "writing by hand" -- the medium through which all traditional knowledge was stored and distributed during the millenia preceding Gutenberg's invention of movable type and the printing press which ushered in the era of print (which era, we hasten to add, is now coming to a close -- what better time to revisit its precursor?).  Fenwick employs walls of irony and sarcasm to seal off the reader into chamber of darkness wherein he lights a single candle and everything is illuminated.
Dead Ringer	Jason Miles			$12.00 ($14.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Whew, this one's another toughie.  This is an 11" x 15" handmade narrative portfolio.  Limited to 500 copies, (hand?) printed on heavy flat white stock, with hand-scored cardboard covers, Dead Ringers is a graphic meditation on death and personal mortality that employs stasis as its central metaphor.  Learn more, here.
The Rabbi's Cat 2	Joann Sfar	Pantheon		$20.00 ($22.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Hey, here's a swell surprise:  another fine hardcover edition continuing the series of elegantly eloquent tales set among the Jewish diaspora in the French inflected culture of northern Africa, centered in Algiers, and taking place during the more innocent days of the 1930s.  The eternal mysteries of love, faith, ritual and nature are probed with a delicate and nuanced touch in the 130, lush, full color pages of this hardcover volume.  A real treat.  Get a nice sneak preview, here.
Papercutter #7	Aron Nels Steinke, Andy Hartzell, MK Reed, Jonathan Hill and more ...	Tugboat Press	Papercutter	$3.50 ($4.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Another fine issue of this perky peppy anthology published in Portland, Oregon by Tugboat Press.  This time around we have an epic of 8th grade outsiders by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill followed by a one-pager by Aron Nels Steinke and a striking adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Sheperdess and the Chimney Sweep" by Andy Hartzell, who has clearly built on the momentum of his successful Fox Bunny Fox and turned in his finest work to date here.  We can't wait for the next issue!
Alienation, Incarceration and Inebreation in the New American Rome	Ken Dahl			$6.25 ($7.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Are you worried that things are going just a little too good?  Need to be brought down a notch from your giddy heights of blissful contentment?   No?  Didn't think so.  But, if you were, then Welcome to the Dahl House would be the ticket.  The harsh world view on display here in this finely crafted compendium make the comics of Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti seem the work of dewy-eyed optimists by comparison.  And, it's priced on the assumption that you're broke, so you can actually afford it!
Wordless Books: the Original Graphic Novels				$19.75 ($35.00 list)
Read more and comment...	written and edited by David A. Beronä  w/ introduction by Peter Kuper Lynn Ward, Franz Masereel, Milt Gross and Laurence Hyde -- they're all here along with several of their lesser known cohorts in this lavishly produced survey of the picture novel that flourished in the first half of the twentieth century.  High quality, full page reproductions abound, all are accompanied by historical and crictical essays that help put the works in context.  Also full color scans of the volumes themselves.  This volume is a great primer to this important area, and a work of art in itself!
More Old Jewish Comedians	Drew Friedman			$15.00 ($16.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Nuff said.
Kaput & Zösky				$12.75 ($13.95 list)
Read more and comment...	by Lewis Trondgein w/Eric Cartier Great hi-jinx fun for kids of all ages.  Full color.
Funeral of the Heart	Leah Hayes			$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Dark (very dark, like, black) musings from the author of Holy Moley.
Daddy's Girl	Debbie Dreschler			$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This landmark comics work of the hell and purgatory of childhood and adolescence is now back in print in this finely crafted hardcover edition.
M: A Graphic Novel based on the Film by Fritz Lang	Jon J. Muth			$22.22 ($24.95 list)
Read more and comment...	:  A Graphic Novel based on the Film by Fritz Lang Here's a deluxe, expanded, hardcover collection of the 1990 series.

books

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
The James Brown Reader: 50 Years of Writing About the Godfather of Soul			$15.00 ($17.00 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds Talk about contrasts!  Henry David Thoreau and James Brown may very well be the alpha and omega of American culture -- everything else will fit in between these two giants.  Here's your first chance to follow the life and career of James Brown as it happened.  This entire volume is all from original source material penned as history was made, beginning with an unsigned Variety review of a 1959 show at the Apollo through to a lengthy 2006 appreciation of his life by Jonathan Lethem for Rolling Stone, The James Brown Reader presents the most multi-faceted single-volume view of its subject yet.  And, co-editor Alan Leeds is a Pittsburgh homie.  A must!
A People's History of American Empire			$15.00 ($17.00 list)
Read more and comment...	by Howard Zinn • adapted by David Wagner & Paul Buhle with art by Mike Konopacki This 272 page, 8 1/2" x 11" volume provides a graphic interpretation of the key points of Howard Zinn's seminal, alternative reading of American history, A People's History of The United States.  If you' haven't been able to find the time to read Zinn's opus, this volume just might be the ticket.  We used to say that A People's History will teach you a whole different American history from what you learned in school, but this book (and/or the material it introduced) has now begun to be introduced into curriculums, as well as bits and pieces being disseminated through the culture at large through the mainstream media, so maybe you've already been introduced to some of the events and perspectives delineated here, but nothing beats getting the big picture, and that's what this book is intent on delivering.  In any event, if you're not familiar with Zinn's work and you enjoy history in comics form, then you owe it to yourself to check this out. hardcover -
One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box	Dave Eggers, Sarah Manguso, Deb Olin Unferth		$21.25 ($25.00 list)
Read more and comment...	• How the Water Feels to the Fishes • Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape • Minor Robberies These three hardcover books are snugly enclosed together in an illustrated (by Jacob Magraw-Mickelson) slipcase and bring you together the 145 short (generally very short) stories of the overarching title; from the fine folks at McSweeney's.

dvds

Title	Director	Publisher	Price
Wholphin No. 5		McSweeney's	$17.77 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The fifth issue of the "DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short FIlms"  has arrived.  Documentaries, short fiction films and animations from Africa, Spain, Canada, the UK and (primarily) right here in the USA.  Spend a day with the Sudanese Liberation Army, see drunk bees, watch Spanish science fiction, experience a herion addicted carnival monkey (don't worry, it's an animation), be outraged at the treatment of American Indians and enjoy the 20 minute adaptation of Michael Chabon's short story, "House Hunting," directed by Amy Lippman and featuring Paul Rudd & Zooey Deschanel; along with much more -- all of which you won't be seeing anywhere else (at least for now).  Get the whole story -- and the chance to watch tons of web-only short films -- here.

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