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...

At last, for the first time, the first issue of Hot Dog Beach is in stock – along with all the rest! This is no time for sitting on fences. Jump in, the water's fine...

Anyone who ever wondered whatpornographic comics produced by Chris Ware would be like to read probably won’t ever get an answer closer to Italian cartoonist, Miguel Vila’s North American debut, Milky Way, seamlessly translated by Jaime Richards and delivered to readers in a solid, well-designed, 176 page, 7" x 10", full color hardcover. As would be expected in such a case, Milky Way is not, of course, a work of straight-up pornography, but rather it is – as it would be if penned by Ware – a complex work of meta-porn, a look at the context, function and effects of pornography at the same time as it is also pornography; it examines the...

Golden Boyis an exuberant portrayal of the early, formative years of the object of thePeanutscharacter, Schroeder’s obsession, the German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Originally published in Germany in 2020, it has now been released in North America in an English translation by Nika Knight that well captures the spirit and style of the original German. This attractive, 192 page, full color, hardcover edition comes to us courtesy of Fantagraphics Books. It is by turns fascinating, fun, insightful, entertaining and altogether hugely enjoyable.

Mikael Ross, whose previous work from Fantagraphics,The Thuddisplayed a highly developed level...

Maestro Van Sciver enters middle-age and hits his stride here in the ninth issue of his auteurist anthology, Blammo. This issue is packed cover to cover with comics tightly corsetted bya requisite inclusion of those ancillary aspects associated with the traditional comic book form. Starting with the enigmatic clown in the woods cover image that is backed with an inside front cover full of pæans of praise to his work from top comics professtionals, the issue then plunges straight into 44 consecutive pages of solid comics storytelling that brings readers a dazzling dozen distinct pieces woven together into crazy-quilt whole. The issue is...

This is the fifth volume in the series of young adult graphic biographies published by Hyperion under the ægis of The Center for Cartoon Studies, which reaches an important milestone here in that this volume is the first to be created by a graduate of their program, and as such provides proof postive that CCS is fulfilling its mission. Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller is the most substantial work yet in this series and represents its strongest artistic achievement. More than that, it is an inspired work that demonstrates the power of comics to communicate.

It runs for 86 full color pages, each of which works from a 16-panel...

(Book Three in the New Edition of the collected Love and Rockets) Yes! The next two volumes in the fantastic new packaging of the One True Classic of Modern American Comics have arrived ahead of schedule. We can hardly believe it, but are pleased to report that these two are, if possible, even more wonderful than the first two. The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. contains the long out of print Death of Speedy in its entirety along with so much more greatness. Should you be looking for a good entry point into the world of Love and Rockets for yourself or another, look no further! Start here.

Currently/temporarily out of print, but we still have a...

Finally, a new edition of the seminal novel,You Can't Winby Jack Black. Here's a book thatcan lay claim –if any can –to having launched the "outlaw" literary counterculture, way back in 1926. This edition sports an intense black and white cover drawn by Joe Coleman, taken from his set of illustrations of this novel originally published inBlab!(#3?); also included is a full color reproduction of the Coleman painting that graced the 1988 Amok Press republication of this classic. The foreword by William Burroughs written for that edition is also here (although we recommend that this be read as an afterword, as it gives away some plot...

Picking up where the first issue left off, Cold Heat #2 revs it up a few notches and takes us on a whirlwind ride through the dis-united states of the disturbed American psyche. Series artist, Frank Santoro once again refuses to play it safe. This time around he pulls out all the stops and takes the chances that most other artists wouldn't take even if they could. Leaping into the artistic no man's land between the well established borders of pre-existent genres, Santoro combines the propulsive narratives of mainstream American heroic adventure comics, the exaggerated expressiveness of Japanese manga, and the naivete of self-published...

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...