With Jack's Book, Gifford and Lee launched the oral biography as a valid form(there'd be no Please Kill Me without it), and arguably created what remains its gold standard. Here you have a portrait in the round of the central figure of "the beat generation" (who hated that label) provided by all the other players who were in his circle during the two decades of his writing career. William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Carolyn Cassady, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Felinghetti, Gary Snyder and many more herein provide thoughtful, forthright recollections of Kerouac, his scene and the times in which they mixed. Gifford and Lee weave them together...

As the increasingly pervasive mediated reality in which we find ourselves here in North America, in all its ever-more-varying-(and dazzling!) forms, gradually gains ground in its encroachment on the natural reality that we had formerly, and throughout the entirety of human evolution, taken for granted, our sense of who we are and what constitutes appropriate behavior in the broad spectrum of human endeavor and social interaction, is undergoing a shift. Lucky for us, Dash Shaw is here to help us find our way with this insightful comics examination of the changes that are going on right behind our noses.

[cue Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra] Yes, after long journeying through the comicsphere, it has finally arrived in book form ... Longboxes! (Volume One) Close to four years in the making, this 288-page compendium – with page dimensions that are close to exactly halfway between an issue of Grixly and an issue of a standard modern comic book – includes all officially designated "Longboxes" comics from Grixly #50 - #68 (And, yes, you are correct, #67 & #68 have not yet been released), along with ten pages of earlier precursor comics, from earlier issues of Grixly, that foreshadowed the coming of Longboxes – plus an even dozen bonus...

In the Swarm presents a cogent response to the rising tide of internet inf(l)ected consciousness that is deeply rooted in the European – primarily German – philosophical tradition, but don't let that scare you off. This slim tome, judiciously translated from the original German by Erik Butler, is straightforward and gets right to the point in sixteen concise chapters, each focused on a facet of the problem currently confronting us: thegradual yet seemingly ineluctable erosion of human agency resulting from our ever greater immersion in the sea of information. Written in 2013, this book was clearly ahead of the curve and will impress any...

Originally published in 1960 and out of print for many years, The Labyrinth is Saul Steinberg's most significant single volume collection. It has now at long last been reissued in a this superb hardcover edition from New York Review of Books, whichfeaturesa new introduction by Nicholson Baker, along with anafterword by Harold Rosenbergandnew notes on the artwork from by Sheila Schwartz, the Research and Archives Director of The Saul Steinberg Foundation. Steinberg's oeuvre is unique, straddling the worlds of comics, illustration and gallery art whileproviding a window on the process ofcreative thought in line.

Reid Paley's now classic 1999 debut solo LP, Lucky's Tune has at long last been released on (140g) vinyl, in a limited, SIGNED, gatefold edition of 1000 copies from Demon Records in the UK.

A key architect of the Pittsburgh punk scene, among whose many roles were show promoter, gig securer, venue locator, press liaison, actor in the seminal Pittsburgh punk film, Debt Begins at Twenty and, oh yeah, being the front man for Pittsburgh's greatest punk band (which later relocated to Boston), THE FIVE, Reid Paley has gone on to have a lengthy solo career, based in Brooklyn, NY where he continues to write, record and perform his unique brand of...

FROM THE ARCHIVES | ONE solid second hand copy

When it comes to artfully integrating book design into the form of a graphic novel in such a way as to enhance the expression of its content, Mr. Hornschemeier has few peers. To our mind, only Clowes, Ware and Seth have been as successful in this department*, and it bears remarking that there seems to be a bit of trend in effect among these design-oriented comics craftsmen as the latest work by each of these three creators shares with Hornschemier's a strong biographical focus on the protagonist. Wilson, Lint and George Sprott each present their eponymous protagonist's life story**, and Life...

The follow up to last year's It Never Happened, New Construction features two new comics novellas, "Backyard" and "Household."Each is tautly rendered in Alden's forceful pencil line. New Construction is aptly titled in that it is put together diferently. It is a bifurcated edition, with the first tale, "Backyard," being both tightly rendered and printed on a (relatively) bright cream colored stock, while the second, "Household" is far more loose and expressionistic in its rendering and is printed on a dull light gray newsprint. It is worth noting here that the reproduction quality in New Construction is significantly superior to that of It...

Huzzah! Here it is: the third – and final (>sob<) – year of Herriman's inventive, insightful and very funny strip– which wrapped up pretty much exactly a century ago–that he drew concurrently with Krazy Kat!Starting off with another fine introduction by Jared Gardner, this volume takes us all the way to the end of the strip's run, which actually results in us getting a bit more that a year's worth this time around, as it ran through to January 18, 1919. Baron Bean is, for our money, Herriman's finest work outside of Krazy Kat, and IDW's Library of American Comics has done an outstanding job of presenting crisp, full size...

Here is a one of a kind item. It is a real challenge to describe just how different it is. Ronald Wimberly has long been a student of Japanese culture and æsthetics – among much else – and has leveraged that experience into this multi-levelled, ultimately unclassifiable work (and that unclassifiability is very much part of its significance). Wimberly has the chops to code switch between a host of stylistic practices both visual and linguistic, encompassing classical Japanese forms and practices, European high culture, American academia (which is represented here by several essays by recognized scholars writing on Wimberly's work that are...