introduction par Chris Ware Le secret le mieux gardé des vingt dernières années de la bande dessinée est probablement Storeyville. Aucune autre bande dessinée ne capture avec autant de succès l'énergie propulsive américaine que nous associons dans la littérature aux œuvres de Walt Whitman et de Jack Kerouac. Storeyville était sui generis à l’époque de sa publication initiale en 1995, quand il a paru sous la forme d’un journal tabloïde de 40 pages. Poème épique en bande dessinée, il révèle des profondeurs jusque-là inexplorées dans la forme. Employant une audace artistique qui était à l’époque sans égal, Storeyville incorpore des éléments d...

Whether the point of this novel is to show us the adult that lies latent in the child or to reveal to us the child that the adult never manages to quite fully outgrow is a question that is difficult if not fruitless to answer. What is certain, however, is that the novel Edwin Mullhouse is brilliantly conceived. It is also shockingly well written, replete with uncannily accurate descriptions of childhood perceptions that can at times be overwhelmingly sympathetic. It is at turns funny, sad, insightful, and even profound; but above all else, it is deeply creepy: It reveals -- almost imperceptibly at first, but then slowly, incrementally, the...

It's here! The complete Grip, by the one and only Lale Westvind. So, all of you who missed the gone-in-a-blink-of-eye risograph editions can now celebrate with this beautifully (offset) printed edition, which successfully captures the vibrant color scheme, andwhich, at 8" x 10" is slightly larger than the 6.5" x 8" riso editions. Grip!

To quote our own, earlierlisting for the riso, "Gripis Lale Westwind's comics constitution of cosmic energies in the service of manual creativity. Readers will be propelled through panel after panel filling page after page with imaginative delineations of a series of fantastic mergings of mind and hands with...

Miraculously, after two decades of less than stellar recordings, Iggy has managed a return to form here on this album, produced at age 65 and released close on the heels of his 66th birthday. This is doubtless due in no small measure to the return of James Williamson on the heels of the multi-year reunion of Iggy with the (almost) original Stooges line-up. The presence of the Ron and Scott Asheton was not enough to saveThe Weirdness. Ready to Die is another story, however. Backed by James Williamson on multiple-tracked guitars, Scott Asheton on Drums, Mike Watt on Bass and Steve Mackay on Sax (of which there is plenty) as well as a number...

Comics may not just be for kids anymore, but, of course, they still are especially well suited for stimulating the construction of neural pathways involved in decoding text, images and linking them together in chains of meaning – aka learning! – all of which are crucial to developing kids' minds. Even more importantly, many kids are naturally drawn to comics and quite a few actually enjoy making them. What better way to keep kids out of trouble and get them in touch with their creative side than encouraging them to make their own comics? And that's exactly what Comics: Easy as ABC aims to do. Penned by noted comics educator and author of...

Long – and criminally! – out of print, Howard Cruse's epochal work of long form comics, Stuck Rubber Baby,one of the most significant early North American graphic novels – and among the first to truly merit the label – is at last back in print in this deluxe hardcover edition from First Second that has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its initial publication – an anniversary that Cruse did not get to celebrate himself, having passed away late last year (but he was involved in the preparations for this edition, and so, of course, knew it was coming, thankfully). This edition includes over 20 pages of bonus materials, much...

FROM THE ARCHIVES

A run of nine consecutive volumes of Ranma 1/2 by one and only Rumiko Takahashi. Ranma 1/2 is a true classic manga series, whose influence on subsequent shoojo manga is hard to overstate. It also offers a wealth of humorous observations on gender norms and gender construction, to boot!

We came across this run in the archives; all new and unread. If there's anyone who picked up the first volume and is ready to read more, this is a perfect opportunity to do so!

(Book Two of the New Edition of the collected Love and Rockets) Most frequenters of this space are hep to the wonder of Love and Rockets. However, there are still those who have yet to see the light. Are you someone who still hasn't managed to get around to reading the greatest comics ever produced? If so, all we've got to say is: if you haven't read the original run of Love and Rockets (in any one of its extant formats) and you are trawling the web looking for exciting new releases and looking through back issue bins at your friendly neighborhood comics shop for classics of the days of yore, then you are simply wasting your time -- the...

Published in 2011, this 9 1/2' x 12 1/2" hardcover is filled primarily with high quality scans and high resolution photographs of George Herriman original Krazy Kat art – including many hand colored rarities. This treasure trove of art is accompanied by a wide variety or related material from Herriman's life and cartooning career, including newspaper tear sheets, family photographs, and plenty of other related ephemera, all assembled and laid out by Craig Yoe and nicely printed on bright, flat uncoated white stock. In also includes more than a dozen essays paying tribute to Herriman's genius, including classica appreciations by Summerfiled...

Well, instead of the long awaited Maria M., Book Two, we get... Maria M., the compete, all-in-one, single-volume hardcover edition. So, sorry to all those who bought Book One and now have to get it again in this complete volume... but, this one – containing both Books One and Two – is priced only seven dollars more* than Book Two alone was priced (before it was cancelled and replaced with this single volume). Such are the exigencies of publishing.

All that said, Maria M. is a a book of multiple layers. To anyone simply picking it up and reading it, Maria M. will be 232 pages of rock 'em, sock 'em comics pulp fiction, loaded with the sex...