Titlebar

NBM

Pioneering publisher of International -- primarily European -- graphic novels and comics collections.


Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Bringing Up Father George McManus NBM Forever Nuts $19.95
($24.95 list)
Bringingupcov
Read more and comment... 		This is the first volume in what we hope will be an ongoing series of George McManus's immortal classic newspaper comics series, Bringing Up Father.  It is also a subset of an already ongoing series from NBM, Forever Nuts, dedicated to collecting "classic screwball strips."  Already available in this series are the initial volumes of Mutt 'n' Jeff and Happy Hooligan.  While we have nothing disparaging to say about these two, we feel compelled to point out  that, while the early strips on display in this volume are indeed exemplars of the form, Bringing Up Father is much more than simply a screwball strip.  Together with Chic Young's Blondie, it pioneered the family sitcom that went on to become a staple of radio and then television entertainment that continues to this day (interestingly, The Simpsons now holds the title of the longest running sitcom of all time; perhaps the roots of the sitcom form in comics has somehow contributed to The Simpsons' longevity...).  And not only that, George McManus is the undisputed progenitor of what has come to be known as the clear line school of comics.  While this school came to be codified in France – hence its moniker, ligne claire (of which "clear line" is a translation) – it all begins here with these strips collected here – all dailies from the first two years of the strip, 1913 & 1914.   McManus is more than just the originator of the clear line, he is also its undisputed master.  The strips here are just the beginning:  over the next thirty years he perfected a smooth clear line that continues to set the standard by which all others are measured.  Here's hoping we get a chance to see more of it in print soon!
Famous Players: The Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor Rick Geary NBM Treasury of XXth Century Murder $14.44
($15.95 list)
Geary_famous_players
Read more and comment... 		The second Treasury of XXth Century Murder, which follow up his long running series of Treasuries of Victorian Murder, takes us to the early days of Hollywood and the first stars that populated it.  Their lives intersect at the mysterious death of William Desmond Taylor on February 1, 1922.  Rick Geary is a talented – if, perhaps, a bit morbid – cartoonist whose works we have been enjoying for over thirty years now.  He has the uncanny ability to pick just the right ingredients and boil down a story to its essentials, preserving the fullness of its characters and concentrating its flavors and so providing a treat of a tale in one surprisingly lean volume after another.
Bluesman: Book Two Rob Vollmar, Pablo G Callejo NBM Bluesman $8.00
($8.95 list)
Bluesman2
Read more and comment... 		It's taken a year, but Book Two of this unique series has arrived.  Here's what we had to say about book One: "A convincing account of a fictional bluesman at the dawn of the blues era.  The creators of this fine piece worked hard to capture this era in pen and ink, and they did a great job.  Callejo's drawing presents a style that is finely crafted, yet still rough around the edges; perfectly complementing his material.  Vollmar has a good ear for dialogue and in Bluesman he successfully avoids the hackneyed contrivances of accent and dialect that have so often spoiled an otherwise good story.  No, here Vollmar relies on the rhythm of the speaker along with selected grammatical tics to lend an authenticity to spoken word, and he manages to pull it off.  Together the stylistic choices serve to bolster the believability of the characters and advance the story, making for a great experience for the reader."  Book Two continues the story -- and the quality level -- in an 80-page tradeback, now from NBM.
Nocturnal Conspiricies: Nineteen Dreams David B. NBM $12.75
($14.95 list)
Nocturnalconspiracies
Read more and comment... 		David B. is, for our money at least, the most accomplished contemporary European comics creator.  He is the author of Epileptic, a true graphic novel, and one of the greatest yet produced.  Nocturnal Conspiracies is, as its subtitle suggests, a compilation of dreams committed to paper; a dream diary.  Printed in black and white with a single, sparingly used, blue color overlay, the dream chronicles range from four to twelve pages in length, with the majority falling in the six to eight page range.  It bears some characteristics of being a pet project, nurtured for years until the time was ripe.  As such, it is interesting to note motifs and tropes that, evidently, initially arose in his dreams, but that found their way into not only Epileptic, but some of his historical adaptations that have been published in MOME over the past several years, as well.  That said, David B is here in full possession of his mastery of the comics medium.  The pieces are expertly paced models of concise storytelling, as well as haunting evocations of the dream state.  Here's a preview of Dream #17 (just click on the arrow to advance).
Moresukine Dirk Schwieger NBM $11.99
($15.99 list)
Moresukine
Read more and comment... 		Cleverly packaged to resemble a Moleskine™ sketchbook, Moresukine -- the Japanese pronunciation of Moleskine -- is a series of 26 short pieces drawn in Schwieger's own Moleskine™ sketchbook during his six month stay in Tokyo.  These were all originally posted on his blog. With the exceptions of the first two, in which he set the parameters of his mission, the remainder of these pieces are the result of his blog readers writing him with "assignments" which he then undertook, documented and uploaded to the following week's blog entry.  This is then followed by an appendix in which Schweiters then in turn assigned ten different comics artists -- from France, Germany, Canada and the US -- to meet and converse with a Japanese person in their home city and then document this coversation in comics.  A truly international effort.