Everyman Glenn Ganges ruminates on the simple times of the dot-com era when the reality of business was propped up by the unreality of addictive technology and hope. Kevin Huizenga cleverly parallels that unreality with the unreality of addictive networked first-person shooter video games, and the attempts of people around him to genuinely connect with each other. Huizenga’s elegant neo-clear-line style brings a crispness and humor to these low-key slice-of-life stories, and the gray-blue duotone he has picked gives the art a new depth and complexity.
The Splitsville series concludes as Fuzz and Pluck struggle to survive after their worlds have been turned upside down. A mad race and a tug of war culminates in a fatal convergence that changes everything!
Funeral of the Heart is Leah Hayes' stylistic tour-de-force and graphic novel debut, featuring a series of short stories by Hayes and illustrated entirely using the otherworldly medium of scratchboard. Hayes creates a world of unease and ambiguity populated by obsessive characters, forlorn animals, and mysterious, inanimate objects; odd occurrences, unnerving deaths and unconventional but genuine love bind these characters and their stories together. In "The Bathroom," a middle-aged couple discover a mysterious tunnel in their poolhouse after a neighbor's child accidentally drowns in their pool — leading to an immaculate bathroom and another drowning. In "The Needle," two sisters suffer the death of their grandmother as well as her possible resurrection at the hands of the woman with the needle.
The stories are hand lettered and juxtaposed against stark, highly stylized, graphically powerful, black and white images. Stories with titles like "The Bathroom," "The Needle," and "The Hair" sound innocuous, but they aren't fables that should be read to one's children — unless your children enjoy being made uneasy by beautiful things.
A stand-alone graphic novel from the "Locas" universe. It starts with a barely-glimpsed slaying ("Life Through Whispers") and ends with a funeral ("Male Torso Found in L.A. River"). Even though (or perhaps because) he's still carrying the torch for Maggie, Ray diligently pursues the dangerous and annoying "Frogmouth," aspiring actress and full-time train wreck, from seedy bars and back alleys through comic book conventions... all the way to the ultimate, and unexpected, consummation. Meanwhile, Hopey spends an eventful week during which she undergoes a couple of major life changes, both personal and professional... and for that matter cosmetic. New characters include Hopey's long-suffering on-the-side squeeze Grace; Maggie's new roommate, the sweet-natured jockette "Angel of Tarzana;" and the live-wire would-be gangsta Elmer — while such classic Love and Rockets characters as the hard-living Doyle, the aging but still-rocking Terry, and the mysterious super-heroine Alarma pop up in the margins... As does Maggie, well off stage but visible as Ray's resentful ex, Angel's roommate, and (forever and still) Hopey's best friend.
Fantagraphics Books is proud to re-release one of the most powerful and moving books in its distinguished publishing history: Debbie Drechsler's first collection of short comic stories, Daddy's Girl. Originally published in 1995 and distributed only to comic book specialty stores, Daddy's Girl was ahead of its time: Drechsler's account of her abuse at the hands of her father, told from the point of view of an adolescent, is one of the most searingly honest, empathetic, and profoundly disturbing uses of the comics medium in its history. Drechsler's meticulous brush lines gather into heavy textures that suggest the claustrophobic tension of the environment that threatens her pre-teen and adolescent female protagonists. Characters such as Lily, who can't escape her father's abuse, and Franny, a girl whose desire to be accepted leads her into dangerous territory, struggle not to be visually and emotionally overwhelmed. Central to this quasi-memoir is Lily's relationship to her father — a confused jumble of fear, trepidation, and love.
Jordan Crane's all-ages classic is in paperback for the first time! This gorgeously packaged (yet affordable) children's fantasy has become an instant classic since its original hardcover release in 2005, becoming a perennial bestseller for Fantagraphics in three hardcover printings. This paperback edition — a first — includes five new pages not included previously!
On their way through the city to school, Simon and his cat Jack keep taking shortcuts that lead them through fantasy worlds of wooden monsters and insatiable appetites, just for starters. Will they make back home safely? This is undoubtedly one of the more handsome and unique packages in recent memory, with a brilliant graphic novel inside that justifies its elegant format. The Clouds Above calls to mind everything from Where the Wild Things Are to The Wizard of Oz to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with its depiction of a fantastic world that lurks just around the corner from reality and that only children believe exists.
We made brief mention of this a few posts back, but here's the full announcement:
By popular demand — by which we mean “endless nagging from people on the TCJ.com message board” — The Comics Journal is pleased to announce that online-only subscriptions are now available, at over half off the print-subscription price. Choose from five-issue and ten-issue subscriptions to the subscriber section of the TCJ website, where you can not only read the current issue over the Internet, but every issue from TCJ #278 to present as well! Details at the links.
But wait, there’s more! We realize that you might want a look at what you’re purchasing, so for one week only, we’ve decided to make the online version of current issue, TCJ #288, free in its entirety for your reading pleasure. The whole thing’s there, from the best-of-2007 section to the comics section, and there’s no need to register — just click here and start reading! Offer ends Sunday evening, March 16, at which time the issue goes back behind the subscriber firewall.
Look what arrived at our offices yesterday: advance copies of The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968. It's due in stores in late April; we should have it available to order here on the website a couple of weeks before that. Stay tuned!
More of our Spring 2008 releases are now available for pre-order! Pictured above: the fifth and final issue of Ted Stearn's mini-series Fuzz & Pluck in Splitsville; the first installment of Josh Simmons's multi-decade epic Jessica Farm; The Comics Journal #289, featuring Robert Kirkman on Marvel Zombies and much more; and Castle Waiting Vol. II #11 by Linda Medley. Below: the new, revised, expanded version of Rebel Visions; Bottomless Belly Button, the massive new graphic novel by Dash Shaw (with dual covers); the final (for now) installment of our Love and Rockets Library series, Amor Y Cohetes, collecting all the non-"Locas" and non-"Palomar" stories from L&R Vol. 1; and Mome Vol. 11, with cover star Killoffer. Check our Upcoming Releases page for the full listing of titles that are available for pre-order.
Call 1-800-657-1100 (or 206-524-1967 outside the U.S.) or click the links above to see full details on each title and add it to your shopping cart. New releases are usually shipped to our pre-order customers a week or two before they arrive in bookstores and comic shops, so beat the crowd and order today!
This comprehensive collection of portraiture of Jewish comedians is a sequel to 2006's wildly popular Old Jewish Comedians, which earned Friedman raves from Jerry Lewis, Howard Stern, The Believer, Entertainment Weekly and many more, and earned Friedman his own roast at New York's legendary Friar's Club. This all-new collection includes the famous (Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Soupy Sales, etc.), the not-so-famous (Jerry Stiller, Zeppo & Gummo Marx, Larry Storch, Zero Mostel, etc.) and the largely unknown (Molly Picon, Herbie Faye, Jan Milton, etc.). The Reuben Award-winning Friedman, one of the great caricaturists of his age, presents a thorough visual history of the 20th Century's greatest Borscht-Belt comedians through 28 full-page portraits; every crease, mustache hair, and liver spot looks utterly real. As Booklist put it (after the first OJC), "If only we were all funny enough to get Friedman to draw us!" A BLAB! Storybook.
36-page full-color 10" x 10" hardcover $16.99 Order Now!
