comics

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
Cold Heat Special #5	Frank Santoro, Ryan Cecil Smith	Self-published	Cold Heat	$8.00 ($8.00 list) OUT OF STOCK!
Read more and comment...	A rare treat, this is a hand made edition, limited to a mere 100 copies, w/ hand silk-screened (on a nice heavy stock) two-color front and back covers that comes complete with endpapers, no less.  As for the contents, this time out we witness a brief interlude in the life of Castle wherein she and her now diseased father are out in the woods, hungry and looking for food.  Aesthetically speaking, this adventure takes place roughly half way between Storeyville and Black Hole on the comics spectrum.  As with the first four Cold Heat Specials, this will NOT be collected with the forthcoming graphic novel.
Love and Rockets: New Stories #1	Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez	Fantagraphics	Love and Rockets	$12.75 ($14.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Love and Rockets is dead!  Long live Love and Rockets!!  What we mean is:  Love and Rockets, Volume 2, the standard comic book size format series which has carried Love and Rockets through the last eight years, is no more.  In it's place we have the first issue of Love and Rockets: New Stories, a 100 page annual (Annual?  Only one Love and Rockets per year?  How will we survive?  ¡sob!) of all new work by the one and only los hermanos Hernandez.  This time out of we have a whopping 50 pages (which is, believe it or not, only the first half of this epic yarn) of hi-jinx superheroics delivered as only Xaime can, plus -- count 'em -- six new Gilbert stories and, as an added bonus, a new collaboration betweeen GIlbert and Mario.  You'll want to take your time with this one, and savor every moment.
MOME #12	Eric Reynolds, Gary Groth	Fantagraphics	MOME	$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	MOME delivers another top notch issue featuring:  David B., with the third in his series of amazing medieval tales, "The Drum Who Fell in Love"; "Dirty Family Laundry," a tense and intense tale by last issue's cover featured artist, Killoffer; "Train" by Dash Shaw; a handful of one-pagers by Tom Kaczynski;  a stroll down history lane by Sophie Crumb; Nate Neal's "Reality Comics Quartet," which is almost a comic book in and of itself; Ray Fenwick's continued adventures of "The Truth Bear"; another dose of creepiness courtesy Al Columbia; and the rookie efforts of newcomers Sara Edward-Corbett, Olivier Schrauwen, Jon Vermilyea and Derek Van Gieson.   Recommended.
Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4	Michael Kupperman	Fantagraphics	Tales Designed to Thrizzle	$4.00 ($4.50 list)
Read more and comment...	Taking quirky to a whole new level for the comics fan of today, Michael Kupperman pulls another hippo out of a hat and delivers the fourth issue of TDT.  Snake 'n' Bacon and the Scaredy Kids are joined by a pen & ink (and pencil!) circus of unparalleled wackiness in a comic book that has been "Designed to get your family through its entire day!"
Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes	Rory Hayes, Dan Nadel	Fantagraphics		$20.00 ($22.99 list)
Read more and comment...	Widely considered the most "out-there" of the original generation of American underground cartoonists that burst on the comics scene in the 1960s, Rory Hayes -- who died twenty-five years ago -- finally gets his due in this comprehensive volume compiled and edited by Dan "Picturebox" Nadel & Co., which includes a remembrance of things past by Rory's brother, Geoffrey Hayes. Not for the faint-hearted (nor anyone under 21 years of age), this volume contains work that can perhaps best be described as a piercing shriek from a tortured soul, released in ink on paper.  Hayes was engaged in an ultimately failed attempt to exorcize his demons and the evidence is all right here. There are other pages where, his agony spent, Hayes indulges in wistful hopes, which are, in hindsight, clearly naught but interludes.  A singular talent whose work prefigures some aspects of Fort Thunder and Paper Rad and others of the Kramers Ergot set, Rory Hayes is gone, but, clearly, not forgotten.
Delphine #3	Richard Sala	Fantagraphics	Ignatz	$6.75 ($7.95 list)
Read more and comment...	One of the two latest installments (the 29th, for those who like to keep track of these things) of the Ignatz series of comics provides it's own brand of frisson.
Grotesque #2	Sergio Ponchione	Fantagraphics	Ignatz	$6.75 ($7.95 list)
Read more and comment...	One of the two latest installments (the 30th, for those who like to keep track of these things) of the Ignatz series of comics provides it's own brand of frisson.
Gentleman Jim	Raymond Briggs			$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This landmark 1980 work by the creator of the Certified Copacetic Classic™, Ethel and Ernest, has been reissued by the fine folks at Drawn & Quarterly, and not a moment too soon, we say.  Raymond Briggs was way ahead of the curve when it came to producing fully fleshed human characters in comics.  This slim 32 page full color hardcover is a treasure.
Popgun #Volume Two	Joe Keating, Mark Andrew Smith	Image Comics	Popgun	$25.00 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Also from the folks at Image comics, this is the second annual Popgun collection (and, yes, we still have the first in stock).  Strarting off with a spiffy Paul Pope cover, this massive 472-page full color collection includes work by Nikki Cook, Dean Haspiel, Donald Hello & Simon Oakey, James Kochalka, Erik Larsen, and many, many up and coming new comics creators.  The highlights for us is Copacetic Customer, Jim Rugg's new Afrodisiac™ story along with the hybrid Ragazza Pippistrella / Makaroni Pillpal tale by the amazing -- and new to us -- Ralph Niese (check out this story along with much, much more at his web gallery, here) .  And Here's the Popgun page that includes 30 pages of previews.
Meathaus: S.O.S.	Brandon Graham, Chris McD			$26.95 ($30.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This one is also a (slightly less) massive 272-page ful color anthology of new comics.  The creators are, on balance, a tad more adventurous than those in the Popgun anthology.  Intriguingly, the sole point of overlap between the Popgun and Meathaus volumes is that this volume too contains another all-new, all-different Afrodisiac story by the aforementioned Jim Rugg.  Also on offer here are works by James Jean, Farel Dalrymple, Tomer & Asaf Hanuka, Jesse Moynihan, Jim Campbell, Dave Kiersh and rising star, Dash Shaw, among a host of others.  Check out this big preview on Nerdcore.
Blurred Vision #4	Matt Madden, Toc Fetch			$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Weighing in at 232 pages, this is the biggest and quite possibly best issue yet of this 8 1/2" x 11" B & W anthology of "new narrative art" from New York City.  BV regulars Toc Fetch, Ethan Persoff, Karl Stevens and Kevin Mutch are joined by a host of newcomers including recognized creators such as Matt Madden and K. Thor Jensen.
Too Cool To Be Forgotten	Alex Robinson			$12.75 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	An all new 125-page hardcover graphic novel from the creator of Box Office Poison, at a great price.
Howard Chaykin's American Flagg! #Volume One	Howard Chaykin		American Flagg!	$44.44 ($49.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Well, all we have to say about this one is: IT'S ABOUT TIME!  The comic book series that launched the revisionist renaissance of the heroic fantasy genre of the 1980s, American Flagg! raised the bar on so many levels it's hard to know where to begin.  Original in conception, pioneering in execution, fun, sexy and truly adult (as opposed to "adult" as a code word for prurient), American Flagg! laid the foundation for the 1980s comics boom that followed.  This chunky hardcover volume contains the the first 12-issues, which together form a single work expertly divided into four, 3-issue story arcs (which were subsequently released as trade paperbacks -- yet another way in which American Flagg! was way ahead of the curve).  Also included are:  the 10-page introduction that was produced for the first of the trade paperback collections; the 2-issue "epilogue" originally ran in AF! #13 & 14; and (read it and weep all you long time AF! completists) an all-new 12-page story featuring Bob Violence™.
Comics Comics #4	Dan Nadel, Frank Santoro	PictureBox		$2.50 ($2.95 list)
Read more and comment...	It'a about time!  The latest issue of the magazine of the comics cogniscenti is now in stock.  This issue's cover feature is the one and only Shaky Kane, whose amazing early 1990s work has been sadly neglected; until now!  Frank Santoro provides a heartfelt appreciation of Shaky's place in the comics universe and follows it up with a revealing interview.  And that's just for starters.  This issue also features:  "The Death of the Comic Book" by Sammy Harkham; An in-depth review of Steve Ditko's late works Avenging Mind and 160 Page Package by Tim Hodler who also reports on Dave Sim's recent dual release of Glamourpuss #1 and Judenhass as well as providing a close reading of Kentaro Miura's Berserk; Brian Chippendale writes on Brian Michael Bendis(!); the second major feature in this issue is on Woody Gelman, the hidden figure behind many of the Topps gum card series such as Mars Attacks, Funny Monsters and many, many others that have faded from memory (he also was instrumental in the creation of Bazooka Joe, threw some work R. Crumb's way when he was just starting out and served as a mentor to  Art Spiegelman); and to cap it all off are full page comics by designer, Mike Reddy and Copacetic fave, Dan Zettwoch (and don't forget, that when we're talking about Comics Comics full page means a whopping old old school 17" x 23"!).  Essential reading.
Tori Amos Comic Book Tattoo	Tori Amos			$26.95 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This insanely gigantic full color comic book compendium of comics interpretations of Ms. Amos's songs is sure to be of interest to those of her fans who are also comics readers.  Notable comics talents included in this collection are Hope Larson, Dame Darcy, Carla Speed McNeil, Mark Buckingham, Ted McKeever, Colleen Doran and many, many more.  Introduction by Neil Gaiman.

books

Title	Author	Publisher	Price
All Known Metal Bands	Dan Nelson	McSweeney's	$16.66 ($22.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Looking like nothing so much as a facsimile of the register at the dock where you catch the ferry to Hades, this deluxe hardcover edition inscribes on black paper the names of all 51,000 known metal bands that -- figuratively, at least -- took this trip.  An ideal aid for contemplation.
EDNY			$8.00
Read more and comment...	A special New York City edition of the Encyclopedia Destructica.
500 Essential Graphic Novels	Gene Kannenberg Jr		$26.95 ($29.95 list)
Read more and comment...	There are plenty of surprises here in Dr. Kannenberg's fully illustrated and highly idiosyncratic list of his top 500 graphic novels, which is most valuable for the obscure and rare works it unearths.  Even jaded "know-it-alls" (guess not!) such as ourselves discovered new works that we now have to track down and decide for ourselves whether or not we too will deem them "essential."
The Brief Wondrous LIfe of Oscar Wao	Junot Diaz		$12.75 ($14.00 list)
Read more and comment...	What can you say about a book that opens with a Galactus quote from Fantastic Four #49, drops more comics references  -- particularly to the classics of the 1980s -- than any novel we've ever read, clearly shows the influence of Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar stories, AND won the Pulitzer Prize for best novel of 2007?  We'd say, "This is a must read!  Particularly suitable for fans of Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude and, although, perhaps, to a slightly lesser degree, of Michael Chabon's (also Pulitzer Prize winning) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay."  And then we'd add:  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a gigantic meditation on the inner life of the fanboy.  Its subject is disguised in some ways and blatant in others, but it is on every level derived from and is filled with insights into the role that comics and its partners in geekdom -- SF & fantasy, videogaming, role playing, etc -- play in bearing the costs of the sins of the world, especially those sins of the father (figurative as well as literal) that are visited on the son.  Clearly, most readers won't see it in this light to the same degree, but we feel compelled to harp on it as this book won the Pulitzer, and while its author, Junot Díaz, is clearly chock full of talent and developed a strong and engaging voice that made the novel a pleasure to read, and of course deserves all the credit for putting pen to paper and creating it, it owes its key insights to comics -- especially to Gilbert Hernandez, from whom he derived his narrative strategy, but also to Chris Ware (whom he intriguingly neglects to give any props to [unless we missed them], perhaps indicating a guilty conscience?) for providing the central insights into the soul of the fanboy.  From these two he derived the deep structures that underpin the entire work, but its surface is peppered ceaselessly throughout with references to comics (and Tolkein, science fiction, etc.) and as a whole provides yet another example of how comics and other narrative sources of fantasy have infiltrated American culture at level after level (and in the context of this novel, it is fairly explicit that America should be considered the entirety of the "new world," extending outside of the borders of the USA).  It's a fascinating fact that California, which became home to the dream factory par excellence, was named after a fictional land depicted in a Spanish novel which was at the height of its popularity when this land was first claimed by Spain, indicating the inextricable bonds between fantasy, reality and history. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao continues this long-running tradition.

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