Our next two books in The EC Comics Library series are queued up for the printer and they are both solo volumes:
Child of Tomorrow! and Other Stories collects science fiction stories written and drawn by Al Feldstein, who also scripted stories for numerous other EC artists. Feldstein's own crisp, thick-lined drawing style will definitely be of interest to Charles Burns and Dan Clowes fans. And of course it's packed with all the UFOs, BEMs, robots, rockets, and Cold War-fueled apocalyptic scenarios you could hope for. (And wait until you see the eye-popping day-glo orange on the cover in person!)
Johnny Craig was responsible for some of EC's most infamous images (severed head, anyone?) and was the only EC artist to habitually write his own stories. Fall Guy for Murder and Other Stories collects crime and horror work by Craig — 23 grim, gorgeous, graphic tales featuring murderous spouses, executioners, thieving surgeons, vengeful sword-swallowers, time bombs, private dicks, vampires, werewolves, and ghouls.
Both of these must-have volumes (aren't they all?) will be arriving in late July/early August — more sneak peeks are on the way, and you can pre-order them (separately, or together for a discount) right now.
Our Eisner-winning series goes chromatic! The first of two volumes collecting the great Floyd Gottfredson's 1932-1938 run on the Sunday Mickey Mouse comic strip, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Color Sundays Vol. 1: Call of the Wild is truly a spectacular package. The linework is so crisp, the authentically-recreated color so dazzling (and surprising... yellow Donald Duck??), you'd be forgiven for thinking these strips are from 80 days ago, not 80 years! And of course you also get all the informative supplemental features these volumes are known for. Get more details, read a 21-page excerpt, and pre-order this volume right here.
And have we got a sweet offer for collectors who want the eventual 2-volume box set but are eager to start reading the first volume: pre-order the box set now and we'll send you this volume as soon as it's released, with the second volume and slipcase when they're available in the Fall — all for the regular box set price, which is cheaper than buying the volumes separately! Keen-o!
“Bill Griffith has helped to redefine the [comics] medium for an entire generation. Zippy has traditionally held a strong appeal for free thinkers and life’s improvisers, and attracts discerning readers of all stripes.” – Sequential Highway
We're excited to show off this advance copy of our handsome hardcover presentation of Bread & Wine by Samuel R. Delany and Mia Wolff, coming in about 2 months. Here's what some people had to say about the original, long out of print 1999 edition:
"Samuel R. Delany is one of the finest living American writers. In this revealing autobiographical love story, told in collaboration with fine artist Mia Wolff, Delany's brilliance shines." – Neil Gaiman
"Wildly eccentric artwork, a storyline that'd make Capote blush... Bread & Wine is smoking-gun proof that comics can go anywhere - and do anything." – Frank Miller
"Told simply and methodically like Delany's 1996 memoir, The Motion of Light in Water, the story is subdued yet acutely emotional. It reaches across the boundaries of race and class — as well as across hilariously opposed standards of personal hygiene — to capture two people in the process of building a life together." – Publishers Weekly
More previews are forthcoming, including a look at the spectacular surprise under the dust jacket. Preview a 6-page excerpt and pre-order a copy right here.
232-page black & white/color 8" x 10" softcover • $29.99 ISBN: 978-1-60699-641-6
Ships in: June 2013 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now
Comprising a full two and a half years' worth of dailies and full-color Sundays, The Dingburg Diaries is the third Zippy book featuring tales of "Dingburg, the City Inhabited Entirely by Pinheads" — Zippy’s home town. There’s even a long series of "Historical Dingburg" strips, chronicling the pinhead population through the years, from 1840, when Dingburg’s "Town Fool" accidentally invented disco, to 1958 when Dingburg Beatniks flourished in the town’s Bohemian neighborhood. Like, Yowl, man.
God also has his own chapter (and verse). In the guise of a clip art "authority figure," he dispenses unwanted advice and conditional love upon the citizens of Dingburg. His tendency to cross-dress reaches new heights when he appears in a performance of "Swine Lake," wearing a tutu. Sacrilegious, yet sensitive.
There are large chunks of Mr. The Toad, Zerbina, Little Zippy and the rest of Griffith's cast of characters throughout this expanded collection. Published in a larger 8" by 10" format, The Dingburg Diaries also features a big color section, showcasing Griffith's inventive palette. There are parodies of the paintings of Edward Hopper and Film Noir, and "Griffy’s Top Ten List On Comics and Their Creation," a semi-serious mini-tutorial on everything (well, ten things) he’s learned in over forty years at the drawing board.
"Contemporary readers of Bill Griffith’s comic strip, Zippy the Pinhead, know with certainty that the illustrator is one of the most accomplished draftsmen working in comics today, his talents on a par with those of Robert Crumb. His art — nuanced shading; economical linework; evocative textures; fidelity to dress, gesture, expression, architecture, automotive design, and the thousand and one other accoutrements of modern life — is an unfailing daily marvel, especially considering the speed and regularity at which the strip is produced.” – Paul Di Filippo, Barnes & Noble Review
"If you're already a fan, you'll love this new collection. If you're not afraid to dip into Zippy's unique style of humor, philosophy and social critique, this book may make you a fan." – S.C. Ringgenberg, Heavy Metal
"I am so thankful for these collections... they're so good I wonder if Griffith isn't in the middle of one of those late-period renaissances that sometimes grip strip cartoonists, where everything kind of comes together in a considered fashion that's somehow more vital than the dozen or so years of comics that precede it." – The Comics Reporter
Here's the second thing you see in the intro/title sequence to Marc Maron's new show, Maron, (premiering tonight at 10 pm on IFC) as the camera pans across his garage:
Here's Tony's interview on the July 5, 2012 episode of Marc's WTF podcast, a portion of which is transcribed on the page facing the portrait in the book.
Here's Tony's book 500 Portraits featuring many more comedians, actors, authors, historical figures, composers, fetuses, etc.
Here's another IFC show featuring artwork by a Fantagraphics artist in the opening credits (and beyond). And don't forget about this.
Wandering Son has garnered extensive praise (from the GLBT community, from manga fans, and from comics fans in general) for its uniquely funny, warm, and sensitive treatment of the travails of two Japanese tweens who find themselves coping with the knotty issue of gender identification as they slowly realize that maybe they aren't who they were meant to be.
In this latest volume, love is in the air. It's in the trees and on the streets. It's hanging on the walls and piled in great heaps on the floor. Or is it really love? These sixth and seventh graders don't really know. But something is definitely amiss. They can't sleep, and when they do sleep they have strange dreams. They get angry and cry for no reason. They blush and grin like idiots for no reason. And it isn't even spring. But the standard rules apply: If A is in love with B, B is certain to be in love with C, and C is likely to be in love with D, or possibly A.
And now it seems a good third of the alphabet is in love with our shy protagonist, Nitori-kun. But the flip-side of love is jealousy, and hate. The simple friendships of childhood develop into the complex, tense relationships of adolescence. Friends become strangers, or worse. But while everyone seems to have caught the bug — even characters whose names you can't remember — Volume 4 revolves solidly around the triangle of Nitori-kun, Takatsuki-san, and Chiba-san. Yet centrifugal force seems to push the three away from each other, and there is a certain grimness as they say goodbye to elementary school, and put on the (highly gendered) uniforms of junior high school…
Hot on the heels of Gene Deitch's The Cat on a Hot Thin Groove comes another collection of jazzy midcentury music illustrations, The High Fidelity Art of Jim Flora. Lovingly compiled and authored by Flora doyens Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon, and designed by Laura Lindgren, this softcover coffee-table book will be swingin' and be-boppin' its way to you this Summer. Take it away, Irwin:
"It features all of Flora's known album and EP covers (including back cover illustrations) from 1947 to 1961 for Columbia, RCA Victor, and their affiliated labels, along with music-themed fine art works, illustrations, and sketches. The book was completed last week and will head shortly to the printer. (Despite what it says at Amazon, the publication date will be sometime in August, not June 30. We dawdled a bit.)"
Available with a limited-edition bookplate signed by R. Crumb for an additional $30. The bookplate has been uniquely designed for this book, and each bookplate is printed on acid-free cardstock and hand-signed by the author. Please indicate your preference when adding the item to your shopping cart.
Another year's worth of prize Crumb here, folks — including the second issue of Zap!, the introduction of Angelfood McSpade, lots and lots of Mr. Natural, the long Fritz story "Fritz the No-Good," and plenty of little-seen and rare art, plus all of Crumb's contributions to the legendary Snatch comics, possibly the raunchiest book in the raunchy history of the undergrounds. There's also a jam or two with some of the other Zap! artists, the little-seen alternate version of the famous Janis Joplin Cheap Thrills album cover, the alternate version of the cover to Zap #3... all wrapped up with Crumb's hilarious new cover and an extensive set of photographically illustrated biographical notes from Crumb himself.
"Fantagraphics' Crumb project advances into wilder, woolier, scarier, more fantastic, and lewder and still lewder territory in [Volume 5]... This is definitely X-rated material — make that triple-X! — but it's brilliant, scabrously hilarious, absolutely basic to understanding the 1960s American counterculture, and authentically mind-blowing." – Booklist
1991 Harvey Award Winner, Best Domestic Reprint Project
One of the world's great cartoonists, Jacques Tardi, revisits the subject which drives some of his most passionate work in Goddamn This War!, a chronological, infantry-eye view of the first World War.
Our edition of Goddamn's predecessor, It Was the War of the Trenches, was one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of 2010, earning two Eisner awards and a spot on numerous "best of the year" lists. Here's just a sampling of the praise, which could just as well apply to Goddamn:
"The potency of the soldiers' tragic stories is enhanced by the elegance of Tardi's lucid drawing and keen compositions... This masterful condemnation of the cruelty and stupidity of war... is a cri de coeur that stands out even amid Tardi's impressive body of work." - Gordon Flagg, Booklist (Starred Review)
"This is war as hourly apocalypse, Expressionist and agonizing." – Joe Gross, Austin American-Statesman
"Originally inspired by his grandfather's first-person stories, Tardi has created not a formal history but a masterful graphic and visceral tone poem about war." – Library Journal
"Few people alive today are old enough to remember World War I, and as it recedes into the past, the 'war to end all wars' becomes more abstract. But French cartoonist Jacques Tardi's graphic novel, It Was The War of the Trenches..., brings the Great War to life in all its mud- and blood-soaked misery. Without a trace of sentimentality, Tardi's richly detailed and grimly rendered vignettes depict the horror, illness, cruel manipulations, and stupidity of this giant black spot in human history." - Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing
Stand by for more previews; read a 16-page excerpt and pre-order your copy right here.
