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...

Fielder #3 is the comic book as meaning making machine. It is, literally, cover-to-cover comics –38 pages worth – and, not only that, there are two front covers; so, in one sense, it is actually two comics that meet in the middle.

There is so much COMICS here. It could also be said to be a comic book about what a comic book can be. Like, “look at all these different ways to approach the medium: you can do this, and that – and this, and that; and if you combine this you can do that –and if you add that you can do this. And you could draw it this way, or that way, or a combination of the two… and/or…"

There are six distinct sections plus an...

Principles derived in classical antiquity and then revived during the renaissance are given a new lease on life in comics (Renaissance II: Comics?) through the work of Frank Santoro.The Golden Section,Dynamic Symmetry, andplenty moreare all incorporated into the underlying structure of his work, and nowhere more so than here. The completePompeiigraphic novel premiered at the 2013 SPX, a year after its first chapter had appeared as a limited edition risograph at the 2012 SPX (and which went on to sell out in the blink of an eye).

The book's look and feel transmits an æsthetic charge even before it is opened to reveal a 144 page work,...

The definitive account of the early jazz scene -- and so much more...

An unforgettable reading experience that opens new perspectives on American history and cultural life.

Now, at last, back in print from New York Review Books!

RECOMMENDED

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...

While Darwyn Cooke originally planned for a two-year stint on The Spirit, circumstances conspired to cut his run short at the halfway mark. The evidence of this final issue -- an exigetical adaptation of Eisner's original Sand Saref story (the same story Frank Miller's upcoming movie is also using as it's core text) -- bears out that this is all it took for Cooke to bore right to the core of not just the character of The Spirit but of the spirit of the noir sensibility itself. Through his masterful employment of Eisner's late style (which Eisner himself used to portray the past; i.e. his own childhood during the depression out of which so...

It's hard to know where to begin with a work as remarkable as this. Originally published in six chapters in Love and Rockets: New Stories 3 & 4 in 2010 and 2011, it includes a flashback chapter titled "Browntown" that, in comic book parlance, could be said to be the – or, at least, a – "Secret Origin of Maggie", as readers are finally made privy to heretofore undisclosed primal scenes at the root of significant swaths of Maggie's personality and character. While it may be a commonplace to state that character is forged in the crucible of family, it is rare indeed to be given the opportunity of witnessing an incidence of this that has...

Pénélope Bagieu's Brazen is a collection of 29 comics biographies originally created for the Frenchnewspaper, Le Monde. Employing a clear concise line and limited but playfulcolor palette, for the most part within a well thought out nine-panel grid layout, Bagieu's work is eminently readable, and one finishes this 300 page volume ready for more.

Each of these pithy bios is informative and fun,pullingoff the coveted accomplishment of entertaining while educating. In other words, they're great comics! And, as an added bonus, each bio is topped off with a celebratory double-page splash illustration. All wrapped up in a great package for a...

Dauntless Dames is the latest in the series of beautiful mega-sized (13" x 17") hardcover collections of classic newspaper comicstrips from Sunday Press. Edited by Trina Robbins and Sunday Press publisher, Peter Maresca, Dauntless Dames is a feast for the eyes. An amazing amalgamation of classic Sunday pages featuring women protagonists, many of which were also created by women, including Pittsburgh's own Jackie Ormes, including some super rare strips from The Pittsburgh Courier!

We'll provide a bit more info soon, but suffice it to say that this volume includes page after oversize page – 160 in all – of classic full color (and along with...

Anyone on the lookout for intellectually stimulating, æsthetically challenging work – regardless of the form it takes – should be sure to investigate the comics of Dash Shaw. Shaw is a sophisticated visual thinker and natural experimenter unconstrained by generic conventions or audience expectations. In Doctors, soap operatic melodrama mixes freely with science fiction concepts (Philip Jose Farmer / Philip K Dick) and both are together presented to the reader with a bold decisive formalism that simultaneously brings to mind painters such as Hans Hoffman and filmmakers like Jean Luc Godard. The final product is in intriguing investigation...