Yes, it has finally come to pass: Ed the Happy Clown is back in print in book form for the first time in decades, in what is likely to be the definitive edition. This is the ground breaking work that both put Chester Brown on the map and broadened the horizons of comics in the 1980s, causing a seismic shift in its landscape and charting a new direction away from heroic fantasy through a methodology that, in hindsight, can be seen to be – at least in some respects – a deconstruction of the psychological as well as epistemological underpinnings of that genre, which has since become dominated by corporate entertainment behemoths. Ed the Happy...

Edited, as always, by Sammy Harkham -- this time around with an assist by co-publisher Alvin Buenaventura -- this now seemingly biennial publication continues to live up to the promise made with the fourth and fifth volumes. The format follows that of the last volume: a flat matte finish (this time sans texture) flexi cover fixed to a sturdy Smythe sewn binding that holds the contents firmly in place. And what contents! Many of those talents that readers have come to associate with Kramers Ergot are here again, and have submitted work that is as engaging as ever. Sammy Harkham, C.F., Paper Rad, Marc Bell, Souther Salazar, Ron Regé, Jr.,...

There's no point in trying to compete with Chris Ware's own description of his latest project, so we won't. Here it is:

_____

Written by Chris Ware, Preface by Ira Glass, Introduction by Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman

A flabbergasting experiment in publishing hubris,Monographcharts the art and literary world's increasing tolerance for the language of the empathetic doodle directly through the work of one of its most esthetically constipated practitioners.

For thirty years, writer and artist (i.e. cartoonist) Chris Ware (b. 1967) has been testing the patience of readers and fine art fans with his complicated and...

Here it is in all its glory: the complete X'ed Out Trilogy – X'ed Out, The Hive and Sugar Skull – altogether in a single, attractive and affordable, full-size, softcover collection. Conceived as a Burnsian tribute to Herge's TinTin, the tale told in Last Look is a tortuously twisted take on thoseepic adventures in which the polyanna-ish innocence of TinTin is replaced molecule by molecule with the corruptions that are so readily at hand inthe world as we find it and, crucially, inthe world as our humanimagination makes it, as well. Perhapsmost of all, Burns demonstratesthe way in which these two worlds intersect.It is here that the...

It's here! The new volume of comics pedagogy by The Funnest Teacher in the World, Lynda Barry! As most watchers of this space are likely already aware, Ms. Barry was recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (aka "the genius award").Making Comicsprovides further evidence that this award was well deserved.

This much anticipated follow up to her previous work,Syllabus, also based on her experiences teaching at the University of Wisconsin, follows the same format, using it to dig deeper into the cave of creativity. In the 200 pages of this facsimile composition bookwe leave the safe,well defined confines of the symbolic realm and are...

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...