Tim Kreider signs and reads from his new book Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009 at the Strand Bookstore in New York City tomorrow, February 17, 2011 at 7 PM. "In a slideshow, talk and Q&A, he'll wax nostalgic about the endearing atrocities and deadly foibles of the Bush administration and have a fond chuckle over the deadpan haplessness of Obama and the fascist antics of the tea party." More info here.

This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators are saying about our releases this week, check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

Uptight #4
by Jordan Crane

36-page black & white comic book • $3.95

"Jordan Crane's entry into the 'Last Alt-Comic Standing' sweepstakes is as gorgeous and affecting as past issues, and I can't imagine any fan of those kinds of works not wanting to at least try it out." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

"...[F]or me the must-grab item of the week is the fourth issue of Jordan Crane’s always excellent Uptight from Fantagraphics. It’s kind of fascinating to me how Crane has become one of the few indie guys to still be plugging away at the semi-regular pamphlet series, when so many of his peers and direct influences have given up on that format. I’m not sure what, if anything, it means, but he’s cranking out some of the best stuff of his career in these pages, let me tell you." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

"The newest issue of Jordan Crane’s Fantagraphics comic book, continuing the serials that started off last issue. A guy tries to cope with a woman he possibly only imagines is cheating on him — ambiguity in the visual presentation, I think — while the kid/animal characters from Crane’s The Clouds Above have an adventure in and out of the cooler at school." – Joe McCulloch, Comics Comics

"We last saw an issue of this one-man anthology series two (gah!) years ago. [...] It doesn’t really matter what Crane does from here on out – he’s already got a lifelong fan in me thanks to The Last Lonely Saturday, that weird little book about an old man going to visit his wife’s grave – so I’ll pretty much recommend everything he does. Uptight #4 looks amazing though... Thirty-six ad-free black and white pages of indie comics excellence to look forward to this Wednesday." – The Gosh! Comics Blog

Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009
by Tim Kreider

288-page black & white 8" x 9.5" softcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-398-9

"A self-explanatory book of works by Tim Kreider..." – Joe McCulloch, Comics Comics

"Twilight of the Assholes is the latest collection of Tim Kreider’s political cartoons... in which he is even more apocalyptic and deranged than usual. [...] It’s getting a mention here almost purely because of the quote on the press release from the late, great David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest) who said 'These cartoons are extremely, extremely f*cking good.'" – The Gosh! Comics Blog

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Soup-n-1/2-Sandwich by Steven Weissman (for the Henry & Glenn art show in L.A.; view at original size):

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And elsewhere:

The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum (an encore presentation of John's Act-i-vate strip at MTV Geek)

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit:

Eye of the Majestic Creature by Leslie Stein:

Maakies by Tony Millionaire:

The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim Kreider (an older comic and a new essay on Egypt):

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009
by Tim Kreider

288-page black & white 8" x 9.5" softcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-398-9

Previews & Ordering Info

Tim Kreider's first cartoon collection, The Pain — When Will It End? was one of the few bastions of sanity throughout the awful aberration in American history known as the Bush Administration. The end of his second volume of political cartoons, Why Do They Kill Me?, saw its author in despair over the 2004 election. In this new volume, Twilight of the Assholes, as reality gets ever bleaker, Kreider's humor becomes increasingly apocalyptic, deranged, and hilarious. He juxtaposes the Biblical Christ with His blonde, flag-draped, machine-gun-toting American incarnation in "Jesus vs. Jeezus," proposes a third political party that represents Americans' real values in "The Sex Party," draws the dead Saddam Hussein as a mischievous invisible imp still causing trouble, and envisions the officials of the Bush administration getting their comeuppance in the grisly fashion of Dick Tracy villains. And he finds two cartoons' worth of "Reasons to Look Forward to the Next Terrorist Attack." Also included is his infamous entry into Iran’s Holocaust cartoon contest, "Silver Linings of the Holocaust."

Kreider mocks not only the evil and hapless Bush but the fecklessness of progressives, the imbecile bigotry of radical Islam, and, most of all, the dumb bovine complacency of the American voter. His art has become even more dense with gags and his writing (most recently featured in The New York Times) has never been more astute and devastating. Twilight of the Assholes is an hysterical chronicle of the end of the Era of Darkness, and, believe it or not, a heartening document of one man’s loss and tentative restoration of faith in democracy.

"Tim Kreider is the funniest man alive." — Jenny Boylan (She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders)

"[Tim Kreider] is to the satirical cartoon what Stanley Kubrick was to cinematic satire." — Mark Crispin Miller (Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election)

"He is funny and crazy and brave enough to proclaim as truths the things the rest of us are too chickenshit to say out loud." — Myla Goldberg (Bee Season)

"These cartoons are extremely, extremely fucking good." – David Foster Wallace

"Kreider's stuff is not all political, but most of what he does packs outrage: at oppressors, bigots, overlords, fools. Not for the squeamish, unless they’re too passive and need a wake-up call." — The New Haven Advocate

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Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

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And elsewhere:

The All-New Cartoon Boy Adventure Hour by John Kerschbaum (an encore presentation of John's Act-i-vate strip at MTV Geek)

Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga:

Belligerent Piano by Tim Lane:

Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit:

Lucky by Gabrielle Bell:

The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim Kreider:

Truth Serum by Jon Adams:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Surrealism is dangerous. Mostly, when you leave the rails, the result is less glorious freedom and more quick kablooie. It’s an easy method for the lazy writer, but somehow when Ray Fenwick does it, it works. Mascots, his second book, is short on — but not absent — narrative. Its pages are made up of paintings on book covers that are largely text-based... Somehow, they hang together enough to produce a fuzzy but charming impression." – Hillary Brown, Paste

• Review: "...[T]he impressive thing about [Special Exits] is that, despite depressing subject matter, it’s extremely readable and fairly funny. Yes, you’ll think about the horrors of getting old and failing to maintain your independence, not to mention the even scarier prospect of taking care of your own parents. But if Farmer’s book is meant to soothe your fears, it kind of works." – Hillary Brown, Paste

• Review: "The black-and-white Hey, Wait… and Sshhh! are low-key ruminations on grief, loss and aging that bear Jason’s trademark anthropomorphic animals, clean lines and Scandinavian black humor. [...] Jason’s beautiful craftsmanship overcomes The Iron Wagon’s familiar material and, along with the rest of What I Did, foreshadows the excellent work to come later in the decade." – Garrett Martin, Paste

• Review: "There's no doubt in anyone's mind that Roy Crane was a first-class cartoonist, frequently making panels on the newspaper page that were absolutely to die for, stop-and-study moments of the kind that inspire the best students and discourage the worst. There are times when reading these rousing adventures of Navy pilot Buz Sawyer and his support man Roscoe Sweeney that it's hard to believe anything this striking ever appeared on the comics pages..." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "A book like this should be must reading for those who want to know how the shojo we know today came to be. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories is not just for lovers of girl's manga, however. It's a book worthy to be read by anyone who likes good comics with a touch of fantasy and a touch of sadness. As with any book by a great creator, the appeal is almost universal... Hopefully, this will be the start of getting Hagio's name on the same pillar as Tezuka, which is clearly where she belongs. If by some chance you haven't read this manga yet, you owe it to yourself to find a copy right away. [...] This is one of those books that is not to be missed. It's destined to be a classic." – Rob McMonigal, Panel Patter

• Review: "...[E]ach page is a single panel, but each of those panels is so attractively detailed and evocative that the storytelling structure never feels rigid. Instead, it comes across as economical and precise while still filled with event and emotion. It’s a quick read, but it’s very satisfying, and it just invites you to revisit the story again. [...] Set to Sea ... is artistically successful on every front, but Weing’s substantial craftsmanship never overwhelms the simple, heartfelt story he’s telling." – David Welsh, The Manga Curmudgeon

• Review: "Destroy All Movies is an addictive, ambitious, behemoth of a book and it’s funny as all hell. There are too many sidesplitting takedowns of bad movies to list in this review, but if you enjoy bad movies (and especially if you enjoy stuff like Mystery Science Theater 3000), you will love this book. [...] Destroy All Movies truly shines as a lengthy love letter to cult cinema, punk pride notwithstanding. [...] You will want to refer to it and reread it over and over. It’s got that much good, not-so-clean, fun packed into its 500-plus pages." – Less Lee Moore, Popshifter

• Reviews (Audio): The new episode of Easy Rider, the radio show for "rock, punk rock, country, power pop, garage and comics" from Radio PFM out of Arras in northern France, features FUC_ __U, _SS __LE: Blecky Yuckerella Vol. 4 by Johnny Ryan and Bent by Dave Cooper among their Comics of the Week

• Plugs: Chris Mautner of Robot 6 on the newest volumes of Krazy & Ignatz, Popeye & Prince Valiant: "What stands out for me here, other than George Herriman’s usual artistry, is the subtle jokes about race… Considering Herriman’s own ethnic and racial heritage, I find moments like this fascinatingly telling. [...] I’ve gone on and on about my love for Segar’s Thimble Theater… Suffice it to say I think it’s an American classic and earns my heartiest recommendation… I still can’t quite get over just how much fun Hal Foster’s medieval epic is. Far from the dull, staid, storybook slog a first glance would suggest, the strip bursts with life and adventure, and not a little bit of bloodsport."

• Interview: Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter: "It's my hope that the following interview with Tim Kreider comes close to replicating the experience of reading the author's new book, the Fantagraphics-published February offering Twilight of the Assholes. Both are long, both I hope are funny at times nearly all the way through (the book surely is), and both book and interview prove uncompromising in terms of both self-laceration and repeatedly stabbing the country's excesses, shortcomings and hypocrisies right in the face. [...] Kreider is... maybe as skilled a writer as there is out there also working with cartoons, and luckily Twilight of the Assholes includes both the cartoons and mini-essays explaining each one. I find him almost terrifyingly funny, both when I agree with him and when I don't." Kreider: "I think historians are likely look back on those eight years as a last chance squandered, a disastrous passing beyond the point of no return, the moment when America went irreversibly over the edge into terminal decline. Which is great news for me, as my cartoons happen to comprise a document of what it felt like to live through that time."

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: PopMatters names Four Color Fear to their Best Fiction of 2010 list. David Maine writes: "Four Color Fear is a lovingly accumulated and organized collection of... stories starring ghosts, ghouls, zombies, demons, and monsters of all stripes. [...] Some of the writers and artists are well known names from the era... Others are not as famous, but overall, the consistency of art and story is impressive. Four Color Fear offers some nice bonus features too, which elevate it from being a simple compilation of reprinted stories."

• List: On the Best Non-Fiction of 2010 side, PopMatters lists Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film. Chris Barsanti writes: "...Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly’s insanely genius and improbably comprehensive guidebook... include[s] every film even remotely punk ever produced. While authentically underground creations... are given some pride of place..., the authors have a special love for straight-to-VHS exploitation trash of yore, where mohawked gutterpunks (sometimes postapocalyptic) terrorized the citizenry."

• Review: "When a man living a hardscrabble life suddenly exhibits signs of stigmata, his tumultuous journey to find — and accept — redemption is beautifully evoked by Italian screenwriter and novelist Piersanti... and graphic novelist Mattotti... With Mattotti's furious black and white illustrations perfectly reflecting the man's growing inner turmoil, Piersanti's morality tale is haunting yet hopeful." – Publishers Weekly

• Plug: Brendan Keefe celebrates the imminent release of Tim Kreider's Twilight of the Assholes and the attendant hoopla

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Barack Hussein Obama by Steven Weissman (view at original size):

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And elsewhere:

Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga:

Ectiopiary by Hans Rickheit:

Lucky by Gabrielle Bell:

Maakies by Tony Millionaire:

Majestic Creature by Leslie Stein:

The Pain — When Will It End? by Tim Kreider:

Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009
by Tim Kreider

288-page black & white 8" x 9.5" softcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-398-9

Ships in: February 2011 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Tim Kreider's first cartoon collection, The Pain — When Will It End? was one of the few bastions of sanity throughout the awful aberration in American history known as the Bush Administration. The end of his second volume of political cartoons, Why Do They Kill Me?, saw its author in despair over the 2004 election. In this new volume, Twilight of the Assholes, as reality gets ever bleaker, Kreider's humor becomes increasingly apocalyptic, deranged, and hilarious. He juxtaposes the Biblical Christ with His blonde, flag-draped, machine-gun-toting American incarnation in "Jesus vs. Jeezus," proposes a third political party that represents Americans' real values in "The Sex Party," draws the dead Saddam Hussein as a mischievous invisible imp still causing trouble, and envisions the officials of the Bush administration getting their comeuppance in the grisly fashion of Dick Tracy villains. And he finds two cartoons' worth of "Reasons to Look Forward to the Next Terrorist Attack." Also included is his infamous entry into Iran’s Holocaust cartoon contest, "Silver Linings of the Holocaust."

Kreider mocks not only the evil and hapless Bush but the fecklessness of progressives, the imbecile bigotry of radical Islam, and, most of all, the dumb bovine complacency of the American voter. His art has become even more dense with gags and his writing (most recently featured in The New York Times) has never been more astute and devastating. Twilight of the Assholes is an hysterical chronicle of the end of the Era of Darkness, and, believe it or not, a heartening document of one man’s loss and tentative restoration of faith in democracy.

"Tim Kreider is the funniest man alive." — Jenny Boylan (She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders)

"[Tim Kreider] is to the satirical cartoon what Stanley Kubrick was to cinematic satire." — Mark Crispin Miller (Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election)

"He is funny and crazy and brave enough to proclaim as truths the things the rest of us are too chickenshit to say out loud." — Myla Goldberg (Bee Season)

"These cartoons are extremely, extremely fucking good." – David Foster Wallace

"Kreider's stuff is not all political, but most of what he does packs outrage: at oppressors, bigots, overlords, fools. Not for the squeamish, unless they’re too passive and need a wake-up call." — The New Haven Advocate

Download an EXCLUSIVE 14-page PDF excerpt (725 KB).

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

(Click to enlarge)

Yeah, we're great, and our books are late. Why, what did you think the headline meant?

Anyway, a new year is upon and it's time to 'fess up about all the late Fantagraphics titles you were expecting to have by now, and don't, because we suck. Specific apologia and weaseling have been added to some titles, others we just pass under mortified silence. 2011 will be better!

The following are printed, on their way to us across the Pacific Ocean, and expected to be available in January or February 2011:
• FREEWAY by Mark Kalesniko (usually original graphic novels are late because the author was overly optimistic about how long it would take to write and draw it, but this time it was entirely our fault.)
• KING OF THE FLIES VOLUME 2: THE ORIGIN ON THE WORLD by Mezzo and Pirus (and in case you're wondering, Volume 3 is scheduled for September 2012 at this point)
• KRAZY AND IGNATZ: 1919-1921 by George Herriman
• THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER by Monte Schulz (again, entirely our fault and neither the author's nor cover artist Cathy Malkasian 's, both of whom are champs and pros.)
• MOME #21 edited by Eric Reynolds
• POPEYE VOLUME 5: "WHAT'S A JEEP?" by E.C. Segar
• ROY CRANE'S BUZ SAWYER VOL. 1: THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC
• THE STRANGE CASE OF EDWARD GOREY (NEW EXPANDED HARDCOVER EDITION) by Alexander Theroux
• TWILIGHT OF THE ASSHOLES by Tim Kreider

The following are at the printer and are expected to be available in March or April 2011:
• THE COMICS JOURNAL #301
• LOVE FROM THE SHADOWS by Gilbert Hernandez
• SAFE AREA GORAZDE: THE SPECIAL EDITION by Joe Sacco

The following are expected to ship sometime during the Spring of 2011:
• CAPTAIN EASY: THE COMPLETE SUNDAY STRIPS VOLUME 2 by Roy Crane (we had a hard time collecting a few of the last strips on this one-but we're almost there now)
• DRAWING POWER edited by Rick Marschall and Warren Bernard
• WANDERING SON BOOK ONE by Shimura Takako

The following have been rescheduled:
• THE ANTIC CARTOON ART OF T.S. SULLIANT will be reformatted, rethought, re-solicited, and released in early 2012
• FORLORN FUNNIES VOLUME 1 by Paul Hornschemeier will be released in the Summer of 2011
• THE HIDDEN by Richard Sala will be re-solicited and released in July 2011
• HOW TO READ NANCY will be re-solicited and released in 2012 in a vastly expanded version from what we first expected
• IS THAT ALL THERE IS? (né MODERN SWARTE, originally announced for 2007) in late Fall 2011: Yes, Joost has turned in all the files and publishers in three countries are synchronizing their watches!
• NANCY IS HAPPY will be released in late 2011: It turns out that there was more production work than we anticipated to make the book as perfect as humanly possible.)
• POGO VOLUME 1 will be released in the Fall of 2011 - yes, seriously, for real this time