Today we're pleased to bring you this multimedia teaser of Sublife Vol. 1, the first installment in a serialized one-man anthology by John Pham. Be sure to check out the photos for the super-spiffy printing details, like the silver metallic spine. Click here if the slideshow doesn't appear above.

Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard
By Robert Pollard

Robert Pollard is the Dayton, Ohio singer-songwriter, who was the leader and creative force behind the legendary indie rock group Guided by Voices, one of the most influential bands of its generation (SPIN magazine recently named Pollard one of “The Top 50 Rock & Roll Front Men of All-Time”). After the dissolution of Guided by Voices in 2004, Robert Pollard launched his official solo career with the release of From a Compound Eye in 2006.

In addition to being a prolific songwriter/recording artist, Pollard is a gifted and prolific visual artist, working mostly in the medium of collage (not surprising, given his interest in sound collage as a recording artist). His work has been exhibited at Michael Imperioli’s Studio Dante in New York and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. He has created the covers to almost every Guided By Voices record and countless other Pollard-related releases. Town of Mirrors collects the very best of Pollard’s visual art and lyrics/poetry.

Featuring over 175 of Pollard’s favorite collages, hand-picked by the artist, as well as over a dozen new collages produced exclusively for this collection, Town of Mirrors is the first comprehensive collection of Pollard’s visual art ever released. Pollard’s collages are the visual equivalent of his poetic and imagistic lyrics, surreal and reminiscent of the collages of artists ranging from Jack Kirby to Winston Smith.

144-page full-color 10" x 10" hardcover • $29.99
Add to Cart • Read More...

A couple of Friday night videos for your enjoyment, consisting of footage filmed in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood (where our Bookstore & Gallery resides) in the early 1990s, and featuring sound design (and a cameo) by our own Nico Vassilakis. These are very cool. (If they don't display below, click for Part 1 and Part 2.)

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Has it really been 3 weeks since we brought you the last installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures? Indeed it has. For the record: Steven skipped 8/8, and then I missed putting up last week's installment due to various meshugaas. To make up for it, this week we're giving you a double dose! WARNING: Possibly upsetting for the very sensitive (you know who you are)! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

Reviews that popped up on our radar this week: 

• Matthew Brady takes a good look at Pocket Full of Rain and Other Stories by Jason

• Tim Lane's Abandoned Cars is a Pick of the Week at the fictional comic shop in the webcomic The Rack

• Sequart on Grotesque #2 by Sergio Ponchione

• Abhay Kholsa at The Savage Critics looks at the first two issues of Sammy the Mouse by Zak Sally

• Jog and Sequart both delve into Mome Vol. 12

• Jarett Duncan says the works of Dave Cooper are "Worth Your Time and Dollar"

• Blog@Newsarama highlights a bunch of our releases that arrived in comic shops this week

• Sean T. Collins on Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes

• Comics-and-More loves Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw; Matthias Wivel at The Metabunker digs it too

• Wired looks at Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

• Jarett Kobek's examination of Strange and Stranger includes this intriguing quote: "My guess would be that if Ditko's creator-owned work were being judged independent of What Came Before, it wouldn't be spoken of as a Decline, but rather in the same way that we have begun to discuss an outsider artist like Rory Hayes. (Note: not likening Ditko's work to that of Hayes.)"

And...

• The Vancouver Courier profiles Kim Deitch

• We've got a fingernail-buffing 17 slots on Alan David Doane's "100 Must-Read Graphic Novels" list, with 3 in the top 10 (plus two collections of comics originally published by us)

• Boing Boing is excited for our upcoming Boody Rogers book

• ICV2 writes about The New York Times writing about Blake Bell writing about Steve Ditko in Strange and Stranger

• At The Comics Reporter, Tim Lane addresses Frank Santoro's question about the future of Lane's serialized story "Belligerent Piano"

• A customer at our bookstore alerted us to the fact that musician Ryan Adams has been blogging about Leah Hayes' Holy Moly and made a video for her band Scary Mansion

• From the Strange Bedfellows Department, a sentiment we can certainly get behind (more info here, via E&P):

Here's another multimedia preview of a recent release: the new printing of The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 14: The Early '80s & Weirdo Magazine. (Actually, shhh, the video and photos are of a copy of the previous edition... see if you can catch me covering up the old cover price with my thumb!) Click here if it doesn't appear above.

We've got some teasers of upcoming releases that we'll be unleashing next week, so watch this space...

Enjoy this look at the new issue of The Comics Journal, featuring the definitive mega-interview with the Deitch clan. Tip: For a closer look with legible text (in other words, to actually read the preview), click through here to the photoset, select an image, click "All Sizes" at the top of the photo, and then click "Original." Click here for the slideshow if it doesn't appear above.

Michael Kupperman signs copies of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, including the new 4th issue, at Desert Island Comics in Brooklyn, 6-9 PM Friday August 22nd - that's practically today! Also available: the silkscreen print shown above. How do I get one?? Here's the Facebook invitation.

We've got a new way to bring you previews and teasers: Flickr just launched this embeddable combination video/photo slideshow thingy. It's pretty sweet, especially when you make it full-screen by clicking the icon at bottom right. Here's The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring; click here if the slideshow won't display above, or just to see a larger version.

The Portable Frank
By Jim Woodring

A Visionary work of comic art for all-ages! Readers who haven’t discovered Jim Woodring’s Frank stories have a colossal treat waiting for them in this all-ages gem collecting the character’s greatest adventures.

Frank is a unique, visionary comic, exquisitely drawn and so fully realized that adults and children alike find themselves drawn deeply into Woodring’s hallucinatory mindscape. The stories, almost entirely wordless, are told with brilliant, candy colors that people of all ages find alluring. The stories themselves unravel like a good puzzle, rewarding re-reading, providing an experience as immersive as that first love affair, that first samadhi, or that first breath. Simply put, the world of Frank must be experienced to be understood.

Frank is an 11-year-old generic anthropomorph who lives in a force-laden landscape called the Unifactor. He is curious but not smart, naïve but not noble, and his most outstanding character trait is his ineducability. Along with Pupshaw, Frank’s semi-subservient housedog-like godling, the two traipse across their surreal landscape, occasionally encountering Manhog, the bloated bladder of sin with a heart of radiance who exists to thwart their prosperity. And then there’s the platonic Jerry Chickens, and the lachrymose Lucky, as well as Frank’s Real Pa and Faux Pa, each a part of one of the great cartoon achievements of the 20th century.

For all its mystery, the world of Frank is a simple, delightful, mesmerizing example of world-building at its most fanciful, surely to delight parents and children alike.