Gilbert's long awaited return to the multi-generational saga form that he made his own in Palomar is here, and we are happy to report that it is a book that is as rewarding as it was long in coming. We are given a 20th century spanning tale of five generations of the Reyes clan that centers on the titular Julio and precisely matches the span of his life. Taking place in a nameless rural town that is presumably located somewhere in southern California,Julio's Daytakes its readers through five wars and generation defining events like the Great Depression and The Sixties as they are experienced at the fringes.Julio's Dayis most notable,...

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...

And what better to follow the latest Kevin H. with than the latest by his longtime associate and fellow St. Louisan, Dan. Z., whose long promised graphic novel debut has at last arrived! Birdseye Bristoe is 72 full color pages of pure Zettwoch: set in a fictional (but perhaps even more authentic for being so) midwestern locale somewhere between St. Louis and Louisville, and filled with cut-away drawings, explanatory diagrams, maps and, of course, page after page of fun-filled comics filled with down home midwestern characters of all ages and stripes, it tells a story of industrial development and technological change that for all it's...

The greatness continues! 1950 was the year of Carl Barks. Along with the title track this volume includes the mega-classics, "In Ancient Persia," "The Magic Hour Glass," "Big-Top Bedlam," the lesser know but nonetheless classic Christmas tale, "You Can't Guess," and perhaps the greatest summer vaction comic book story ever penned, "Vacation Time." Also on hand are a lone ten-pager from WDC&S #117 and three low-profile tales that accompanied "Vacation Time" in the pages of Vacation Parade #1: a one-page written but not drawn by Barks, and two tales that are drawn but, unusually,not written by Barks; one featuring Grandma Duck, and one...

It's Jaime to the rescue! The holiday season is notably brighter with the arrival of Angels and Magpies. The latest in the uniform softcover edition of Love and Rockets brings together the meta-comics masterwork, God and Science and the unparalleled presentation of the processes of character formation, fate and destiny that is The Love Bunglers, in which readers are offered the opportunity to gaze into their own souls through the mirror of Maggie Chascarrillo. PLUS: the hard to find story, "La Maggie la Loca / Gold Diggers of 1969", from the long out of print Love and Rockets v.2 #20!

The most lushly beautiful and haunting of all of Fellini's films, the climax of Federico Fellini's artistic collaboration with his life-long partner, actress Giulietta Masina, an experience that can never be forgotten, Juliet of the Spirits is now available on DVD from the Criterion Collection! In Juliet of the Spirits, the processes involved in identity formation -- specifically those that involve the family dynamic and religious aspirations -- are shown to involve spirits of the past which, while they typically are encountered during the process of "growing up" as the values which are transmitted through the generations, are more real...

From the Midwest to the Middle Kingdom, Ginseng Roots spans global history through the lens of this humble plant in Craig Thompson’s latest epic work – the first of his works to be serialized in individual issues. Now, all twelve issues are available in a nifty collector box designed by Craig specifically to house the series, along with a few bonus doodads, all for less than the price of the individual issues alone. Ginseng Roots is engrossing – it’s hard to stop reading – educational – you’ll definitely be learning plenty you didn’t know before, about ginseng, about American and Chinese history and culture, and much more besides – and...

And here's another reason to get up in the morning: a new release by Kevin H. This one is fairly convoluted in its conception and execution, but therein lies part of its appeal. Wild Kingdom had its humble beginnings in Super Monster 12 that was first published way back at the dawn of the millennium. This material was then bolstered and slightly reconfigured for the February 2006 release of the fourth issue of Or Else, his since discontinued Drawn & Quarterly series. And, now with Wild Kingdom, the material at last receives its apotheosis. The core meaning of Wild Kingdom is surrounded by a dense underbrush of irony that must be...

Sub-titled, "July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme",The Great Warpresents in a single image a visual distillation of the events of that day. While this is not the first 20+ foot-long single image comics book that has come our way – that honor going to Helge Reumann and Xavier Robel's hyper kineticElvis Road, originally published in Switzerland in 2002 by Pipifax, and then in the USA by Buenaventurra Press in 2007. But whereas Elvis Road presented a frenzied instant of urban chaos that was unreadable – in the sense that there was simply no way to narratively digest the complexity of the image; all one could do was bask in...

Wow! Dark Horse really did it right this time and has produced a book worthy of the great Jesse Marsh art it contains. Their first (and, sadly, only) Tarzan Omnibus is a joy to behold. Collecting just shy of 700 pages of spectacular full color comics by the great Jesse Marsh and employing pitch perfect production throughout, this book is an instant Certified Copacetic Classic.

These stories were all originally published in the Dell comic book series, Tarzan beginning in 1948 and running – for 206 issues (with the second half of the run published under the Gold Key imprint) – through to 1972, whereupon the license went to DC (and then,...