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Al Columbia




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Diamond Comics #4 Al Columbia, Jason Leivian Floating World Comics Diamond Comics $3.00
($3.00 list)
OUT OF STOCK!
Diamond4
Read more and comment... 		Edited by Jason Leivian and published by the fine folks at Floating World Comics – also located in Pittsburgh's west coast sister-city, Portland, OR – Diamond Comics has nothing whatsoever to do with the comics distribution behemoth of the same name (except, perhaps, a satiric jab), but is, rather, an excellent tabloid newspaper comics publication that provides a refreshingly bracing outlet/showcase for comics work that is focused on visual impact.  #5 is the first ALL full-color issue, yet it remains priced at the super-value price of $3.00 that held through the first four issues (all of which have full-color covers and centerfolds).  Artists featured in the latest issue include Benjamin Marra, Panayuitus Terzis, Michael DeForge and plenty more.  Previous issues feature such contributors as Al Columbia (whose amazing full color centerspread for #4 is worth the price of admission), Dame Darcy, Jason Overby, Aidan Koch, Blaise Larmee, Dunja Jankovic, Josh Simmons, Marko Turunen, Nathan Fox, Luke Ramsay and many, many others!  This newspaper is funded, at least in part, by a Kick Starter grant, which, presumably, enabled the full color printing.  Check these out!
Pim and Francie Al Columbia Fantagraphics $25.00
($28.95 list)
Pimfrancie
Read more and comment... 		Yes, you've read that correctly, it's an entire hardcover volume devoted to the work of that notorious comics recluse, Al Columbia.  Enter the deeply creepy cartoon world of funeral parlors, undertakers, cadavers and creatures the likes of which were never seen anywhere but in these pages.  This book reads like a scrap book for an aborted animation project that succeeded all too well in dragging the artist's inner demons out from his unconscious and into the light of the drawing table lamp, whereupon they proceeded to wreak havoc on his soul.  It appears that the artist may have come to the realization that he could not allow these foul creatures to become fully formed, lest they burrow into the collective consciousness – or, conversely, this may very well be from whence they emerged and he has cleverly trapped them here so that we could identify them and thereby prevent them from inflicting any further damage.  Either way, tread carefully...
The Best American Comics 2009 Dash Shaw, Koren Shadmi, David Sandlin, Ron Regé and more ... Houghton Mifflin Best American $20.00
($22.95 list)
Bestcomics2009
Read more and comment... 		edited by Charles Burns Well, Crumb is a tough act to follow, but we'll give it a shot with this star-studded anthology filled with the best and the brightest from the last twelve months of comics, as judged by Charles Burns.  In a book like this, we feel that the contributor list says it best:  Doug Allen, Peter Bagge, Gabrielle Bell, Matt Broersma, Daniel Clowes, Al Columbia, Robert Dennis Crumb, Sammy Harkham, Tim Hensley, Gilbert Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ben Katchor, Kaz, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Michael Kupperman, Jason Lutes, Tony Millionaire, Jerry Moriarty, Anders Nilsen, Gary Panter, Laura Park, Mimi Pond, Ron Regé, David Sandlin, Koren Shadmi, Dash Shaw, Art Spiegelman, Ted Stearn, Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Dan Zettwoch.  'Nuff said.  Well, actually, we can't help but add that while the material contained in this anthology is absolutely fabulous, the quality of its reproduction is, mysteriously, not up to the same standard as the three previous volumes in this series, which were excellent in that department.  This shouldn't stop anyone from picking up this fine volume, but it is worrisome.  Let's hope that this was a one time aberration and that next year we'll find the fine folks at Houghton Mifflin have figured out what went wrong and put things in the production department back on track.
MOME #7: Spring 2007 Al Columbia, Andrice Arp, Kurt Wolfgang, Eleanor Davis and more ... Fantagraphics MOME $12.75
($14.95 list)
Mome7
Read more and comment... 		This issue finds MOME at a crossroads of sorts as this is the the last time -- at least for now -- that it will feature work by the core of MOME regulars Anders Nilsen -- who also provides this issue's interview -- Jeffrey Brown, Gabrielle Bell and Martin Cendreda all of whom except Brown (who is, evidently,  already gone) turn in their farewell pieces this issue.  New team-MOME members premiering here are self-publishing stalwarts Eleanor Davis and Tom Kaczynzki who both turn in the first of what promises to be a string of fine pieces, and we can only presume that they will be joined next issue with more voices from the alterna-ground.  Also on hand this issue is cover artist, Lewis Trondheim's hybrid/sketchbook/collage comics work, "At Loose Ends, Part 2," continued from last time.  Sophie Crumb --  about whom we admit to having been a bit skeptical, at first -- has proven herself a keen observer of humanity in her short pieces for MOME, and her contributions this time around are some of her finest to date.  David Heatley and Kurt Wolfgang soldier on with their respective continuing sagas; Andrice Arp and Paul Hornschemeier both shift gears -- Arp with a dream piece and Paul H. with a couple of oddball toyings with  words and pictures; finally, "weird" Al Columbia turns in a batch of "Chopped-Up People."  You have been warned.
Mome #8 - Summer 2007 Jonathan Bennet, Sophie Crumb and, Eleanor Davis, Ray Fenwick and more ... Fantagraphics MOME $12.00
($14.95 list)
Mome08
Read more and comment... 		MOME 8 - Summer 2007 is edited by Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth. This issue pretty much completes the transition to the new "Team MOME."  Original members Jonathan Bennet, Sophie Crumb and Paul Hornschemeier are joined here by new comers (some of whom showed up last issue) Eleanor Davis, Ray Fenwick, Tom Kaczynski, Al Columbia, Émile Bravo and Joe Kimball, while Lewis Trondheim wraps up his three-part "At Loose Ends."  Davis is the featured artist this issue with her work gracing the cover and providing the lead story, while she is the interview subject as well.   Her story, "Stick and String" is a moody meditation on exogamous bonding that shows her work moving a bit in the direction of Sammy Harkham (although, in her interview, she identifies Joann Sfar as her current fave).  The Copacetic pick for this issue is Tom Kaczynski's "10,000 Years," a mordant take on contemporary alienation that, while clearly indebted to Clowes, brings an original perspective to the table with its smart synthesis of dialectical materialism and post-industrial consumer culture.  And we can't sign off on this issue without mentioning Émile Bravo's "Young Americans," which is certainly one of the cleverest short comics we've read in a while.
MOME #9 Jim Woodring, Tim Hensley, Ray Fenwick, Gabrielle Bell and more ... Fantagraphics MOME $12.75
($14.95 list)
Bookcover_mome9
Read more and comment... 		Yes, it's another issue packed with swell contemporary comics, as MOME continues to deliver.  The unquestioned highlight of this issue is the first new extended comics work by Jim Woodring in several years:  Part I (of 2) of the 45 page piece, "The Lute String."  (This issue provides the first 25 pages and the next issue will provide the 20-page conclusion.) There's no one like Woodring, and "The Lute String" proves that he still has the magic touch.   He's joined here by team-MOME:   the relative newcomers Ray Fenwick, Tim Hensley, Al Columbia, Eleanor Davis, Joe Kimball and Tom Kaczynski, along with the stalwart veterans Gabrielle Bell, Kurt Wolfgang, Paul Hornschemeier and Sophie Crumb.