How To Be Drawn has arrived! The latest volume of poetry by Pittsburgh's own MacArthur Fellow, Terrance Hayes, this 100 page collection is divided into three parts, each composed of ten pieces (decalogues?) --Troubled Bodies; Invisible Souls; A Circling Mind -- followed by an epiloguical closer. While firmly grounded in Hayes's own personal landscape, the thirty-one poems collected here roam the world, from "Russia's red-light districts" to New York's Chinatown, explore histories and cultures, and celebrate a cornucopia of creators and creative forms -- most abundantly, musicians and music; most succinctly, writers and writing; and, most...

BACK IN PRINT AT LAST! This is the big book that has it all! Originally serialized in Biggu Komiku in 1970-71, and a personal favorite of the artist, manga founding-father Osamu Tezuka, Ode to Kirihito is a unique effort, in more than one respect. Weighing in at a mammoth 822 pages, Ode is the first of Tezuka's works to incorporate adult themed gekiga (see Tatsumi's Abandon the Old in Tokyo) elements. Perhaps paradoxically, it is also a work that while dealing with the darker sides of human nature simultaneously deals with Christian (Kirihito is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of Christ, Kirisuto) themes -- specifically of overcoming...

After a long delay – the result of a highly mobile, and doubtless stressful, period in Craig Thompson's life (see note at issue's end for details) – the ninth issue of Ginseng Roots has at long last arrived! This time around we are given a detailed look at the business of Wisconsin ginseng at its strong links to mainland China and Taiwan. Another amazing, highly informative, educational and entertaining issue of this epochal series. Don't miss it!

Wow! Dark Horse really did it right this time and has produced a book worthy of the great Jesse Marsh art it contains. Their first (and, sadly, only) Tarzan Omnibus is a joy to behold. Collecting just shy of 700 pages of spectacular full color comics by the great Jesse Marsh and employing pitch perfect production throughout, this book is an instant Certified Copacetic Classic.

These stories were all originally published in the Dell comic book series, Tarzan beginning in 1948 and running – for 206 issues (with the second half of the run published under the Gold Key imprint) – through to 1972, whereupon the license went to DC (and then,...

WOW!!! It's here and it's a dream come true. Founding editor of Comic Artmagazine, Todd Hignite has given us an elegant, oversize, beautifully produced, 320 page hardcover book that takes you into the studio and collections of today's top independent cartoonists. Featuring tons (499, to be exact) of reproductions of the highest quality, depicting the original art, personal collections and physical environs of R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Gary Panter, Charles Burns, Jaime Hernandez, Dan Clowes, Seth, Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti side by side with extensive interviews with the creators themselves, this is a book to savor. Todd Hignite is a...

[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...

The tale Blankets tells is in most respects a classic coming of age story, but the place -- emotional as well as geographical -- that it is coming from may not be familiar territory for many readers: an abnegating Christianity built on self-denial ensconced in the harsh northern environs of Wisconsin and Michigan. Yet there can be no doubt that the core questions and values dealt with in Blankets are certainly universal ones. Craig Thompson has clearly devoted himself to a serious study of Will Eisner's late work -- from A Contract With God to the present -- and this study has really paid off here. The pacing, the placement of blacks,...

Krazy Kat aficionados have long placed its creator, George Herriman at or near the center of the development of comics and cartooning. A prodigious talent, and true comics pioneer – possessed of an unquestionable genius – he produced comics of startling fluidity; words, images and design each blending seamlessly, eachreinforcing andsupporting the other to create works of lasting strength and beauty. The concept of the intelligent vocalizing cartoon animal –the “funny animal” – that gave rise to Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Donald and Daffy Ducks and countless others was more or less forged by Herriman, who in the process opened...

How's this for value: the complete 360 page graphic novel in hardcover for the same price as the 160 page Book One in softcover issued by Fantagraphics a couple years back? Not only that, but this edition completes Kim Thompson's excellent translation that he started for Book One. Originally published in six volumes in France between 1996 and 2004, this edition represents the first time the complete story has appeared in English. As readers of David B.'s recently released Babel already know, he is a formidable graphic stylist with a strong and sure line and a great sense of how to use blacks to create a balanced page. Epileptic is the...

Break out the bongs, Blessed Be has arrived! Rick Altergott has been producing his unique (but definitely inspired by and to a degree derived from the classic Mad) brand of comics – at a painstakingly slow pace – for over three decades now. He's been working on Blessed Be in one form or another for something in the neighborhood of twenty years – but you can't rush quality, and we're here to tell you that it was worth the wait! Longtime readers will recognize some classic earlier Altergott-penned episodes from his and Ariel Bordeaux's early-aughts, two-person anthology series, Raisin Pie, reworked and repurposed here, all in the service of...