Gift Item

Gift Item

Here's a list of items we recommend as being especially appropriate to serve as gifts.

Title	Creator	Publisher	Price
The Frank Book	Jim Woodring	Fantagraphics	$34.95 ($39.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Kazowie! What can you say about a book like this except that they did it right. Here it is: The complete Frank in full color and B & W (as they originally appeared) arranged in chronological order (we believe), beautifully printed and handsomely bound in cloth with a nice dust-jacket and even a sewn-in bookmark! If you haven't read the comics of Jim Woodring, then we can tell you withou equivocation that you don't know what you're missing. The rest of you probably already have this book... As who could live without it, once you've seen the light? Introduction by Francis Ford Coppola.
American Splendor: Ordinary Life Is Pretty Complex Stuff	Harvey Pekar	Ballantine Books	$14.44 ($15.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Just in time for the movie, the powers that be at Random House have pulled out the plates for the two original classic collections of stories from Harvey's own original magazines, American Splendor and More American Splendor, that last saw the light of day fifteen years ago, and combined them both into one quite affordable 300 page volume. Let us give thanks.... See the movie and then read the real thing.
The Acme Novelty Datebook, 1986 - 1995	Chris Ware	Drawn and Quarterly	$34.95 ($39.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Acme Novelty Datebook 1986-1995 by Chris Ware Beautiful production! Lot's of color! "Art" sketches! Cartoons! Doodles! Ideas! Rants! Self-Deprecation! Self-Laceration! Irony! Girl's phone numbers! It's all here! (official hype) Acclaimed cartoonist Chris Ware reveals the outtakes of his genius in these intimate, imaginative, and whimsical sketches collected from the years during which he completed his award-winning graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (Pantheon). His novel not only won the Manchester Guardian First Novel prize in 2001 but it has sold over 100,000 copies. This book is as much a companion volume to Jimmy Corrigan -- one of the great crossover success stories-- as a tremendous art collection from of one of America’s most interesting and popular graphic artist. Chris Ware has a passion for drawing that is surprisingly wide-ranging in style and subject. This book surprises the reader on every page with its sense of spontaneous vision. 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. A new beautifully designed art book by one of the best cartoonists of his generation. "Ware's spare, iconic drawing style can render vivid architectural complexity or movingly capture the stark despondency of an unloved child." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Ware pushes the form of comics into unexpected formal and emotional territory." - The Chicago Tribune "Ware's use of words is sparing, and at times maudlin. But the real joy is his art. It's stunning. In terms of attention to detail, graceful use of color, and overall design - Ware has no peer. His drawings, somehow, remain delicate and achingly lyrical." - Dave Eggers, The New York Times Book Review For more information visit Drawn & Quarterly. The Acme Novelty Datebook ISBN 1-896597-66-1 hardcover ; 6 x 9 208 pp, 4-color
An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories	Ivan Brunetti	Yale University Press	$25.00 ($28.00 list)
Read more and comment...	edited by Ivan Brunetti Published by Yale University Press, this awesome anthology is a worthy successor to McSweeney's 13 as the must have comics collection of the foreseeable future. Editor, Brunetti goes all out to offer us a (OK, well, his) canonical assemblage with the 400 pages of comics here on display, where it is the form itself that is always at the heart of the work represented. The work we find here -- while, of course, being comics -- is also, at some level, telling us something about comics, and this latter value-added feature can be attributed in no small part to Brunetti's editorial approach in assembling this work, which he clearly views as an organic whole. Each artist represented in this collection has a distinct and original approach to the medium that embodies their personal interaction with the comics form as well as -- and this is where this anthology is unique -- with each other piece in the book. This book is organized around the principal of association. The pieces are grouped in clusters that are related in a wide variety of ways, from the form and content of the work to the geographic region and ethnicity of the creators. Brunetti tips his hand right at the outset by starting with the raw, unbridled, free-associative works of Marc Bell, Sam Henderson, Mark Newgarden, Kaz, Tony Millionaire and Bill Griffith (who all, with the exception of Bell, have NYC connections as well). This approach yields many surprising and unexpected connections as well as much that that proceeds in due course.
ACME Novelty Library 18	Chris Ware	Drawn and Quarterly	$15.95 ($17.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The 2007 Chris Ware trifecta is now complete(see below). Ring out the year immersed in these fine-tuned renderings of early 21st century urban angst. Chris sez: "In keeping with his athletic goal of issuing a volume of his occasionally lauded ACME series once every new autumn, volume 18 finds cartoonist Chris Ware abandoning the engaging serialization of his "Rusty Brown" and instead focusing upon his ongoing and more experimentally grim narrative, 'Building Stories.' Collecting pages unseen except in obscure alternative weekly periodicals and sophisticated expensive coffee table magazines, The ACME Novelty Library #18 re-introduces the characters which New York Times readers found "dry" and "deeply depressing" when one chapter of the work (not included here) was presented in its pages during 2005 and 2006. Set in a Chicago apartment building more or less in the year 2000, the stories move from the straightforward to the mnemonically complex, invading character's memories and personal ambitions with a text point size likely unreadable to human beings over the age of 45. Reformatted to accommodate this different material, readers will be pleased by the volume's vertical shape and tasteful design, which, unlike Ware's earlier volumes, should discreetly blend into any stack or shelf of real books."
ACME Novelty Datebook: Volume Two, 1995-1999	Chris Ware	Drawn and Quarterly	$34.95 ($39.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Last minute Christmas shoppers take note: this is now on our shelves. Chris Ware sez: "Straggling behind the mild 2003 success of cartoonist Chris Ware's first facsimile collection of his miscellaneous sketches, notes, and adolescent fantasies arrives this second volume, updating weary readers with the last ten years of Ware's clichéd and outmoded insights. Working directly in pen and ink, watercolor, and white-out whenever he makes a mistake, Ware has cannily edited out all legally sensitive and personally incriminating material from his private journals, carefully recomposing each page to simulate the appearance of an ordered mind and established aesthetic directive. All phone numbers, references to ex-girlfriends, "false starts," and embarrassing experiments with unfamiliar drawing media have been generously excised to present the reader with the most pleasant and colorful sketchbook reading experience available. Included are Ware's frustrated doodles for his book covers, angry personal assaults on friends, half-finished comic strips, lengthy and tiresome fulminations of personal disappointments both social and sexual, as well as his now-beloved drawings of the generally miserable inhabitants of the city of Chicago. All in all, a necessary volume for fans of fine art, water-based media, and personal diatribe. Hardcover, attractively designed, and easy to resell."
The Acme Novelty Library #18.5	Chris Ware	Drawn and Quarterly	$28.75 ($32.00 list)
Read more and comment...	(aka “The New Yorker” portfolio) Chris sez: "This print portfolio, somewhat hedgingly entitled The ACME Novelty Library, No. 18.5, contains all four 'Thanksgiving' covers drawn by cartoonist and cultural commentator F. C. Ware for the November 27th, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, as well as the additional fifth comic strip which heretofore only appeared in digital form, all carefully printed in full color at an oversized 15" x 20” size on heavy paper and folded in half for easy recycling. As if this wasn’t dreary enough, included is a new supplementary folded comic strip, measuring 16” x 11,” which is also folded in half. The consumer is asked to carefully weigh whether purchase of this object is truly necessary, and to act accordingly."
Kyle Baker: Cartoonist	Kyle Baker	Kyle Baker Publishing	$13.50 ($14.95 list)
Read more and comment...	This is a collection of all new work by the one of the funniest comics artists working. Long time readers of Mad Magazine who mourn the loss of the Mad’s glory days may very well find what they’re looking for here as many of the strips here read more like the Mad Magazine of the 1960s and early ‘70s than anything that’s appeared in Mad for many years. And, of course, it’s a must have for any true fan of Kyle Baker.
The Complete Peanuts - Volume One: 1950-1952	Charles M. Schultz	Fantagraphics	$25.00 ($28.95 list)
Read more and comment...	by Charles Schulz Introduction by Garrison Keillor Peanuts, the most popular newspaper comic strip of all time, is now being collected, in its entirety, in chronological order, by independent comics publisher, Fantagraphics. This first volume is of extra special note as many of the strips it contains have never before been reprinted. Starting at the beginning -- Monday, October 2, 1950 -- with the first ever Peanuts strip -- the strip was daily-only (Monday through Saturday) until 1952, when a Sunday page was added on January 6 -- this volume continues all the way through to December 31, 1952, and contains the introductions of practically all the characters that were to populate the strip for the next 50 years. There are many surprises along the way, such as seeing Lucy as well as Schroeder starting out as babies! For readers unfamiliar with the early years of Peanuts, most surprising will be the edge of anger that lies just below the surface of many of these early strips (it may be for this reason that Schulz resisted their being reprinted in his lifetime). It is Schulz's working through this anger to the peace of acceptance that is a key component of the lasting appeal and value of Peanuts. And there's more: This volume contains, in addition, a 13 page biographical essay on Schulz by David Michaelis, a 34 page interview with Charles Schulz, conducted in 1987 by Rick Marschall, and, amazingly, an index of characters, themes, cultural references -- such as, for example, comic books, golf, and dads -- historical figures mentioned in strips, and such priceless bits as "Charlie Brown: football pulled away by Lucy for the first time" (page 268) AND "Charlie Brown: football pulled away for the first time, by Violet (page 117)," that is a true treasure trove for Peanuts fans and cultural historians alike. All of this is nicely put together in a package designed by Seth that is a subtle yet evocative homage to the midwest milieu that inspired Schulz. We should all be thankful that Fantagraphics was put in charge of this project and that they have lavished it with the devotion that it deserves. This marks the beginning of what is, surely, the highest profile classic comic strip publishing project of all time. hardcover
Kramers Ergot #7	Sammy Harkham	Buenaventura Press	$112.50 ($125.00 list)
Read more and comment...	available on 4 December 2008 Kramers Ergot 7 ¡NEWSFLASH - KE7 National Book Tour Comes to Pittsburgh! The imminent arrival of the most anticipated release of the year has been announced! Sammy Harkham, Alvin Buenaventura and their cohorts have raised the bar once again with what promises to be one of the most singular books in the history of comics. With a contributor list that -- we've heard -- reads like a Who's Who of contemporary comics (see below), this volume of Kramers rolls back the hands of time by producing a book that reproduces that magnificent size of the original Sunday comics of 100 years ago that we have been reacquainted with through the efforts of Sunday Press and their mind-boggling Little Nemo collections. Team Kramers has connected the dots and realized: "If they did it then, there's no reason we can't do it now!" This volume will present all (or, at least, almost all -- there may be a classic or two snuck in there) new work produced specifically to be reproduced in the full-up, full-color, big-daddy, 16" x 21" format that will recapture the wonderful amazement of the glory days at the dawning of the era of comics. The equally amazing renaissance that comics is currently undergoing will likely come to be symbolized in some fashion by this very volume of Kramers Ergot . You won't want to miss it, so you better start saving up now! Kramers Ergot 7 is, without a doubt, one of the most spectacular works of comics ever published. Measuring a staggering 16" x 21", and containing all new, never before seen work that was commisioned specifically for this giant-size format, we will see today's top comicc creators pulling out the stops for this rare chance to produce comics work on this scale. Here's a list (we're not 100% sure it's complete) of contributors: Rick Altergott, Gabrielle Bell, Jonathan Bennett, Blanquet, Blex Bolex, Conrad Botes, Shary Boyle, Mat Brinkman, John Brodowski, Ivan Brunetti, C.F., Chris Cilla, Jacob Ciocci, Dan Clowes, Martin Cendreda, Joe Daly, Kim Deitch, Matt Furie, Tom Gauld, Leif Goldberg, Matt Groening, John Hankiewicz, Sammy Harkham, Eric Haven, David Heatley, Tim Hensley, Jaime Hernandez, Walt Holcombe, Kevin Huizenga, J. Bradley Johnson, Ben Jones & Pshaw, Ben Katchor, Ted May, Geoff McFetridge, Jesse McManus, James McShane, Jerry Moriarty, Anders Nilsen, John Pham, Aapo Rapi, Ron Rege Jr., Xavier Robel, Helge Reumann, Ruppert & Mulot, Johnny Ryan, Richard Sala, Souther Salazar, Frank Santoro, Seth, Shoboshobo, Josh Simmons, Anna Sommer, Will Sweeney, Matthew Thurber, Adrian Tomine, C. Tyler, Chris Ware, and Dan Zettwoch. WOW! retail price - $125.00 copacetic PREPAY price - $112.50 (if pre-paid by 30 November 2008)