And while we're talking about learning more about the world around us, here's a book of historical reportage in comics that helps us come to understand how things got to be the way they are. The ever-fascinating David B. takes his readers on an unexpected voyage through the waters of history in this informative, educational and timely volume co-piloted by Jean-Pierre Filiu. As readers of B.'s breakthrough masterpiece, Epileptic already know, he is quite adept at depicting scenes of warfare, and, what's more, in doing so in a way that reveals otherwise hidden forces at work below the surface of the battlefield. David B. masterfully employs...

The plot thickens, the mystery deepens, the pace is picked up and no holds are barred in this, the third issue of the most innovative comic book series in America. While other comic books tout their "new" plot twists and "new" characters and "new" concepts, the comics they produce are, formally, all the same, maintaining the tried and tired industry status quo. Cold Heat is authentically different. Creators, BJ and Santoro understand the conventions under girding the standard comic book format and deftly undercut them, subverting the implicit conservatism of these conventions by exogamously marrying them to an entirely different, diverse...

FROM THE ARCHIVES

A run of nine consecutive volumes of Ranma 1/2 by one and only Rumiko Takahashi. Ranma 1/2 is a true classic manga series, whose influence on subsequent shoojo manga is hard to overstate. It also offers a wealth of humorous observations on gender norms and gender construction, to boot!

We came across this run in the archives; all new and unread. If there's anyone who picked up the first volume and is ready to read more, this is a perfect opportunity to do so!

Writtenand drawn – and designed – by the Italian artist, Igort (translated into English by Jamie RIchards) and printed in Italy, Japanese Notebooks is a sumptuous visual feast. It is also, of course, much more. It is: an investigation of the personal forces that drive artists to create in general andto pursuethe particular paths they do; an exploration ofhow their imaginationscome to be possessed byspecific images; a memoir of one particular artist's journey; and much else. Igort is one of the most accomplished comics makers currently working, and Japanese Notebooks is likelyhis most personal work yet, one that is apt to hold aparticular...

Defying the norm, this second collection of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's classic romance comics – a genre which they created, by the way; Young Romance #1 was the very first romance comic book – is a better book than the first volume, with both stronger stories and superior reproduction than the first volume. Romance was among the most successful of comic book genres in the history of the form, and was the most popular during its heyday of the late '40s and early '50s – the period on display in this excellent volume. Many people have a negative perception of romance comics as cliche ridden melodramas of brainless women duped into marriage by...

Miraculously, after two decades of less than stellar recordings, Iggy has managed a return to form here on this album, produced at age 65 and released close on the heels of his 66th birthday. This is doubtless due in no small measure to the return of James Williamson on the heels of the multi-year reunion of Iggy with the (almost) original Stooges line-up. The presence of the Ron and Scott Asheton was not enough to saveThe Weirdness. Ready to Die is another story, however. Backed by James Williamson on multiple-tracked guitars, Scott Asheton on Drums, Mike Watt on Bass and Steve Mackay on Sax (of which there is plenty) as well as a number...

Leviathan arrives in the USA at last, in the form of The Book of Leviathan, published by Overlook Press. Everyone who is serious about exploring the more far-flung and adventurous realms of comics, enjoys graphic intellectual stimulation, or appreciates a healthy sense of the absurd has an excellent chance of finding what they are looking for in The Book of Leviathan. This is a truly one-of-a-kind item. The Book of the Leviathan employs a wry wit with dextrous aplomb at every turn. Right from the initial impression -- the overall book design, with its ruby edged pages, making it resemble a accountant's ledger -- the reader is put in the...

(Book Two of the New Edition of the collected Love and Rockets) Most frequenters of this space are hep to the wonder of Love and Rockets. However, there are still those who have yet to see the light. Are you someone who still hasn't managed to get around to reading the greatest comics ever produced? If so, all we've got to say is: if you haven't read the original run of Love and Rockets (in any one of its extant formats) and you are trawling the web looking for exciting new releases and looking through back issue bins at your friendly neighborhood comics shop for classics of the days of yore, then you are simply wasting your time -- the...

Salt Green Death takes its title from a line in James Joyce's Ulysses, further excerpts from which are interwoven throughout and seem to provide something of a template for the meandering stream of consciousness form of the narrative structure of the work, while the expressive distortions of the British painter, Francis Bacon provide a point of reference for the stunning and haunting visuals created by Thorsen to bring you into the maelstrom. While the primary focus is on Joseph O'Dwyer, child number four in the O'Dwyer family – who was institutionalized for most of his adult life, during which period the treatment regimes he was subjected...

edited by Ivan Brunetti It's too early to say for certain, but this follow-up to Brunetti's already classic 2006 anthology, also published by Yale University Press, might just be even better than its precursor. One thing's for certain: Brunetti has held onto -- and further refined -- his editorial vision of arranging the work contained in this volume in an organic sequence, deftly managing to map out the similarities between artists so that each piece flows smoothly into into the other, creating an amazing sense of an innate connectivity between all areas of comics here on display. This book is a powerful ally in the struggle to bring the...