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Bill Griffith




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Someday Funnies Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, C.C. Beck, Wallace Wood and more ... Abrams ComicArts $45.00
($55.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		edited by Michel Choquette  Well, here's something you don't see everyday:  a comics anthology that has been completed but unable to find a publisher for nearly forty years, finally being published!  As readers of The Comics Journal #299 – the cover feature of which was an in-depth article on the history of this volume – already know, this volume had reached a legendary/mythical status.  Robert Greenfield's introduction squarely situates the work contained in this volume as a document of "The Sixties," While comics critic/historian Jeet Heer's foreword provides ample context and background for the comics work the book contains as well as a chronology of its epic 40-year journey from inception to publication.  We've barely dipped out toes in this majorly oversize – 11" x 17" – 216 page, full color hardcover volume containing 120 comic strips by 169 creators, so we're not going to say much about the contents at this time, but we will provide you with some of the contributors, and let you do the math:  Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, C.C. Beck, Wallace Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Arnold Roth, Don Martin, Gahan Wilson, Bobby London, Trina Robbins, Vaughn Bodé, Steve Englehart, Archie Goodwin, Denny O'Neil, Ralph Reese, Alan Weiss, Herb Trimpe, Frank Zappa, Harlan Ellison, William S. Burroughs, Roy Thomas, Barry Smith (before he added Windsor) Guido Crepax, Ralph Steadman, Leo & Diane Dillon, Walter & Louise Simonson, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Red Grooms, Russ Heath, Jay Kinney, Denis Kitchen, (a very young) Art Spiegelman, (also very young) Stan Mack, Ever Meulen,  Joost Swarte, Tom Wolfe,  Federico Fellini, and many, many more!  Also included is a "92-drawing take on Choquette's travels by Michael Fog" that parallels and brackets the comics the volumes contains.  Surprisingly (at least to us), the intent to create an interweaving bracketing tale was a component of the original volume's conception, and blank spaces were deliberately left in many of the pages at Choquette's instruction. 
Zippy Annual Five: From Here to Absurdity #5 Bill Griffith Fantagraphics Zippy The Pinhead $16.95
($19.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Who would have thought it would have made it here in time for the holidays, but it did:  another year of the pinhead, Griffy and the rest of the crew.  This strip just keeps getting better; and now this collection is all that we have left to console us here in Pittsburgh, as those fools at the Post-Gazette cut him down in his prime >sob!<.  But console us it will:  it's a great collection!
The Comics Journal Special Edition 2005 (#5) Paul Hornschemeier, Igort, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez and more ... Fantagraphics $19.95
($24.95 list)
OUT OF STOCK!
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Read more and comment... 		Well, for our money at least, this volume is hands down the best so far.  It has a tripartite structure:  A survey of Manga Masters featuring pieces on Osamu Tezuka, Hideshi Hino, Suehiro Maruo, Saseo Ono and Yoshihiro Tsuge; a focus on Vaughn Bodé that features a critical appreciation, a revealing biography and a personal reminiscence  -- all amply accompanied by classic and rare Bodé comics, illustrations and rarely (if ever!) seen sketchbook pages; and then there's the giant comics feature:  this time around the theme is "seduction" and the contributions by many of today's best comics practitioners are top notch.  Among the contributors are Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Igort (whose 4-pager is among the highlights), Mary Fleener, Rick Geary, Bill Griffith, Megan Kelso, Paul Hornschemeier, Marc Bell, Gabrielle Bell (whose submission is her most accomplished work yet published), Carol Lay and many others.  This is a great volume to have just lying around:  no matter what page you open to you'll find something engaging.
The Comics Journal Special Edition: Volume Two - Summer 2002 Bill Griffith, R. Crumb, Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware and more ... Fantagraphics $7.47
($22.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		  What's so great about this book?  Well, just for starters, it was the 2003 Harvey Award Winner for the Best Anthology. It's 180 pages in all.  The cover feature spotlight shines on master cartoonist Jim Woodring who turns in the fab cover painting you see here and who is the subject of two essays by Donald Phelps and Kenneth Smith respectively, as well as a new interview. Text-and-art features include an appreciation of the cartoonist W.E. Hill by Zippy creator Bill Griffith (with many examples of Hill's unique tabloid-sized Sunday pages in full color); "All Hail Jack Kent,"  an appreciation of King Aroo's creator written by indy comincs maven, Tom Devlin, that includes a rare look at the strip itself, in the form of a dozen full page, full color, high resolution scans of Sunday comics full-pagers; Timothy Kreider probes deeper into the cat cartoons of B. Kliban; an essay on French comics artist, Louis Trondheim by British comics critic, Paul Gravett; a bit of comics history by Robert Fiore wherein he explores "how Harvey Kurtzman and Al Capp succumbed to the 1960s;" and "Between Borders," a who's who in Mexican alternative graphic narrative, by Ernesto Priego.  And then there's the comics.  Hold onto your hats and check out the contributor list:  Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Chris Ware, Michael Kupperman, James Sturm, Mary Fleener, P. Craig Russell (w/ Lovern Kindzierski), Penny Van Horn, Spain Rodriguez, Ron Regé, Jr., John Porcellino, Jordan Crane, David Collier, Peter Blegvad, Rick Geary, Rick Altergott, Johnny Ryan, Steven Weissman, Megan Kelso, Gerald Jablonski, Ted Jouflas, Roger Langridge, Tim Hensley, Justin Green, Mark Kalesniko, Carol Lay, Sam Henderson, Ho Che Anderson, Phoebe Gloeckner, Tony Millionaire, Frank Stack, Bill Griffith, Arnold Roth, Mark Martin, Ivan Brunetti, John Kerschbaum, Wilfred Santiago, Sherri Flenniken, Mack White, Carol Tyler, Victor Moscoso, and, yes, even R. Crumb, whose submission is an instant classic! But, most amazing of all is the price, of this, our first Depression Buster Bargain™!
Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume Two David Mazzuchelli, Leif Goldberg, Brian Chippendale, Elinore Norflus and more ... Yale University Press $20.00
($28.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		edited by Ivan Brunetti It's too early to say for certain, but this follow-up to Brunetti's already classic 2006 anthology, also published by Yale University Press, might just be even better than its precursor.  One thing's for certain:  Brunetti has held onto -- and further refined -- his editorial vision of arranging the work contained in this volume in an organic sequence, deftly managing to map out the similarities between artists so that each piece flows smoothly into into the other, creating an amazing sense of an innate connectivity between all areas of comics here on display.  This book is a powerful ally in the struggle to bring the light of comics to those poor souls still dwelling in the darkness.  It's the perfect choice to turn on a friend or relative to the joy, beauty and pleasures of our favorite medium.  Hold onto your hats, here's the contributor list:  Daniel Clowes, Saul Steinberg, Sammy Harkham, Chris Ware, R. Sikoryak, Michael Kupperman, Drew Friedman, Mark Beyer, Mack White, Jayr Pulga, Renee French, Kim Deitch, Richard Sala, J. Bradley Johnson, Archer Prewit, Anonymous (utility sketchbook), HJ Tuthill, Milt Gross, Bill Holman, Harvey Kurtzman, R.Crumb, Basil Wolverton, Art Spiegelman, Jess, John Hankiewicz, Tim Hensley, Bill Griffith, Richard McGuire, Gilbert Hernandez, Jim Woodring, David Collier, Eugene Teal, Charles Burns, Karl Wirsum, Gary Panter, Paper Rad, Fletcher Hanks, CF, Charles Forbell, Ron Rege, Jr., Winsor McCay, Matthew Thurber, Souther Salazar, Kevin Scalzo, Megan Kelso, James McShane, Laura Park, Vanessa Davis, Onsmith, Joe Matt, Jeffrey Brown, Martin Cendreda, Dave Kiersh, John Porcellino, Carrie Golus/Patrick Welch, Jessica Abel, Cole Johnson, Lynda Barry, Debbie Drechsler, Diane Noomin, Aline Kominsky-Crum, Ariel Bordeaux, Chester Brown, Anders Nilsen, Joe Sacco, Phoebe Gloeckner, Elinore Norflus, Brian Chippendale, Leif Goldberg, David Mazzuchelli, Jerry Moriarty, Ben Katchor, Frank Santoro, Dan Zettwoch, Kevin Huizenga, Harvey Pekar/R.Crumb, Carol Tyler, Maurice Vellekoop, Seth, Adrian Tomine, Jaime Hernandez & David Heatley.  It's simply amazing.  Comics Power!  PLEASE NOTE:  We feel compelled to mention that this volume includes several pieces that contain quite explicit sexual content; and while this content represents only a miniscule fraction of the total, it nevertheless renders this volume fit for ADULTS ONLY.