Yes, it has finally come to pass: Ed the Happy Clown is back in print in book form for the first time in decades, in what is likely to be the definitive edition. This is the ground breaking work that both put Chester Brown on the map and broadened the horizons of comics in the 1980s, causing a seismic shift in its landscape and charting a new direction away from heroic fantasy through a methodology that, in hindsight, can be seen to be – at least in some respects – a deconstruction of the psychological as well as epistemological underpinnings of that genre, which has since become dominated by corporate entertainment behemoths. Ed the Happy...

And while we're talking about learning more about the world around us, here's a book of historical reportage in comics that helps us come to understand how things got to be the way they are. The ever-fascinating David B. takes his readers on an unexpected voyage through the waters of history in this informative, educational and timely volume co-piloted by Jean-Pierre Filiu. As readers of B.'s breakthrough masterpiece, Epileptic already know, he is quite adept at depicting scenes of warfare, and, what's more, in doing so in a way that reveals otherwise hidden forces at work below the surface of the battlefield. David B. masterfully employs...

Back in print at last, this classic memoir of Chester's high school obsession with Playboy Magazine disabused Hugh Hefner of his notion that Playboy was just good clean fun - but only for the five minutes or so it took him to put it out of his mind. Other, more engaged thinkers will hold onto this impression a bit longer. It's hard for most to realize in this day and age when the high school memoir is a major staple of the comics – or should we say, graphic novel – market, but when the comics that make up this volume, and its companion piece, I Never Liked You, were first serialized in the pages of Yummy Fur, they were like nothing anyone...

We were excited enough by this book's publicationthat we ordered it – from France – in it's originalFrench language release (resulting in us charging more than twice as much as we are for this North American release!). While, of course, there have been comics about jazz in the past – some of the best of which, intriguingly, have also originated in Europe– in Total Jazz, Blutch, comics master that he is, has done more than most to bring the spirit of jazz to itsrepresentation in comics form;working towardstranslating the jazzethos of improvisation within formal compositions into the language of comics. While many of the short pieces...

This is it: The ideal antidote to these trying times. Slim’s wit, style, charm, and grace will make the world vout oroonee in no time. As with all Proper Boxes, this one includes 4 CDs packed to the limit (102 tracks total!) for over 5 hours of music -- all remastered in the UK at the highest possible standards for music recorded during this period -- and a 44 page booklet containing a comprehensive history of Slim's career along with fab photos, old ads, record labels, and, best of all, complete track by track annotation -- where you’ll note the appearances of Slam Stewart, Ben Webster, Zutty Singleton, Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie...

Picking up, more or less, where Ganges left off, Kevin Huizenga's new series, Fieldercontinues to map new worlds for comics. The issue opens up – after an intriguing symbolization of the nature of thought on the inside front cover – withBona, a deconstructive remix of Sam Glanzman’sKona(which featured, improbably yet likely, scripts by Lionel Ziprin), published by Dell in the early 1960s. This story, which is bifurcated, with another, earlier part of the story appearing later(!) in the issue, highlights formal aspects of classic comics narratives while simultaneously reflecting on their generic tropes and the cultural milieu that produced...

It took us a minute to get this one in, due to screwball comedy hi-jinx. At long last, Saul Steinberg's first book, from way back in 1947 (?) is back in print in this luxe oversize hardcover edition fro NYRB, who have this to say about it:

"To escape fascist Europe, the artist Saul Steinberg drew his way to America. He made it to New York in 1942 already in contract with The New Yorker, but was soon called up to serve in the US Naval Reserve in World War II. This book, All In Line, is a memoir-via-drawing of this key time in Steinberg’s life, when he began to find his line and his way as an American.

In works for The New Yorker and...

Love and Rockets is the series that started it all, the ink and paper container for the comics without which The Copacetic Comics Company would not exist. Beginning with an ending – BEM, the definitive deconstruction of what was holding back the medium of comics, preventing it from realizing its full potential – and then... 40 years of demonstrating the tremendous capacity of comics as a form of personal expression, being the primary driver of the establishing the strong, long term bonds between the alternative comics and alternative music scenes – and so much more – and in the process transforming the medium.

Here, in this 40th...

Another impossibly good album from the one and only Joe Henry. Amazingly, you can listen to the entire LP online at his site, HERE (Just click on "Launch MP3 player to listen"). And while you're listening to it, you can take a moment to read the note he penned on the day of its release, HERE. And, please note that both the package and booklet covers feature photographs taken by Eugene Smith in Pittsburgh, PA during his epic Dream Street project of 1955-56.