What can you say about a book that opens with a Galactus quote from Fantastic Four #49, drops more comics references -- particularly to the classics of the 1980s -- than any novel we've ever read, clearly shows the influence of Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar and, especially, Luba stories, AND won the Pulitzer Prize for best novel of 2007? We'd say, "This is a must read! Particularly suitable for fans of Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude and Michael Chabon's (also Pulitzer Prize winning) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay." And then we'd add: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a gigantic meditation on the inner life of the...

Believe it or not, it's been over twenty years since the publication of Understanding Comics, which established the breakthrough realization that the most effective way to truly explain how comics work is in comics form. Now, at last, we have the next iteration of this understanding: that the most effective way to explain how comics -- presented here as consciously thinking and writing - and, of course, reading - in a free flowing combination of images and text -- are changing the way we represent our world and understand ourselves is also in comics form. Unflattening, just published by Harvard University Press, is the book form of...

Yes! The new Olivier Schrauwen collection has arrived, hot off the press. Featuring the long out of print cult classic, "Greys" – which is a strong contender for the crown ofgreatest alien abduction story ever produced, in any medium –along with five, newscience fiction stories, which have either not ever been published in English, or only in extremelylimited edition (and now very expensive)anthologies from Lagon. The stories range in length from the twopage, "Mister Yellow,"(although each page is made up of seventy panels!)up through the 66-page epic, "Space Bodies." The stories are all first-person narratives, with thelead in each story...

Gillian Welch and her long time musical cohort, David Rawlings are back at last with their first new record since 2003's Soul Journey. We've only had the chance to give this one listen so far, but we look forward to a long summer of replays and feel safe in saying it's going to fit quite comfortably along with the rest of their catalogue of works and that we'll be enjoying it for years to come. In other words: it's been worth the wait.

Here it is, the second mammoth volume in Greg Sadowski's monumental effort to document the life and comics of the one and only Basil Wolverton. Ecompassing 448 full size pages, this hardcover volume continues what is unquestionablythe most thorough documentation of Wolverton's life in book form yet undertaken – and likely that ever will be. Letters, diaries, roughs, sketches, newspaper clippings and other ephemera accompany Sandowski's heavily researched biography. And, of course, there are the comics – and comediccomics caricatures – themselves! Page after page of rarities, most of which have never been seen since their original...

A Western World is the latest collection from the unstoppable, indefatigable Michael DeForge thatcollectsfifteen short comics, some of whichpreviously appeared in recent issues of his one-man anthology,Lose andinBreakdown Press's two(instantly sold out) issues of On Topics,some in anthologies like Kramers Ergot and Island, some were self-published minis, and a few appear here for the first time (right?). DeForge continues to explore his concerns with the Western paradigmthat takes asa given thetechnological domination of nature. These explorations are effected through a series of choreographedcollisions between biological functions and...

Incomplete Worksprovides, indirectly, an intimate, informative, entertaining portrait of the artist as a young cartoonist – who goes on to age gracefully and productively – with a large degree of creative independence – into marriage, fatherhood and middle-age (which is no small feat). It does so while simultaneously fulfilling its primary function of being a treasure trove of short comics of all stripes. Auto-bio, fantasy, literary, historical, humorous, scientific, and meta-physical comics can each be found here, all handledby Horrockswith dextrous aplomb. That he has been able to accomplish all this may have something to due with his...