Summerland is a unique piece of comics work, one which turns the typical creative hierarchy on its head, with the coloring in the dominant position, followed by the inking, then pencilling, and with the scripting tacked on almost an afterthought. The boldly inked lines are minimal yet effective in delineating the scene, and to brace the colors and let them do their stuff, and what they do here is something new. In the pages ofSummerland, Ms. Dawkins has improvised an innovative approach to color, one in which she "plays" the color scheme using tone clusters and chords, rather than the normative approach of hitting single notes and then...

Providenceis anambitious work of meta-fiction that has much in common with Moore’s most celebrated work,Watchmen, most obviouslywith it’s format as a 12-issue limited series, but most importantly with its similar claim to being a comics masterpiece. But while the "meta" of Watchmen pertained to superheroes, the "meta" of Providence pertains to horror; specifically the horror of H.P. Lovecraft. Now, finally, after a multi-year hiatus, the entire series, which originally appeared between 2015 and 2017, is at last collected in an affordable single-volume here in this 480 page softcover compendium. Taking its title from H.P. Lovecraft’s...

Sacha Mardou is a natural born comics storyteller. Her pen & ink characters live and breath on the page. The situations they find themselves in, their reactions to them, and the way it all plays out in the pages of her comics works have a verisimilitude that few other comics creators can match. The Sky in Stereois her first foray into long form comics (i.e., a graphic novel). She's been at work on it for a number of years (she and her husband, fellow comics maker, Ted May are also raising a child, who was an infant at the start of Sky in Stereo) and has released two of it's chapters as successful stand-alone comics. Here in this...

Yes, it's ALL here: All eighteen* issues – in their entirety, covers, letters pages and all** – of the epochal, definitive single-creator anthology comic book series: Daniel Clowes's Eightball! Everything is as it originally appeared, in black & white and/or full color. Also included are the two short "Behind the Eightball" addendums that were prepared for the hardcover slipcased edition.

One and done!

*Yes, of course, you are correct: Eightball did indeed run for 23 issues, but, as you also know, these first 18 issues constitute the entirety of its "single-creator anthology comics book series" run. #s 19-21 serialized David Boring,...

This startlingly well produced Big Book, the latest from the greatest full grown adult comics whiz kid, that literary minded artistic genius and graphic technician extraordinaire who possesses what could possibly be the most divided consciousness in a fully-functioning adult in the known world -- yes, that's right, Mr. Chris Ware -- collects material previously presented in the comics periodical Acme Novelty Library #7 & #15 (AKA Acme Novelty Big Book of Jokes #1 & #2 ) published by Fantagraphics, along with plenty of finely crafted, bruising new work with which it has been seamlessly integrated, all bundled together in an...

It is rare indeed when our opinion completely agrees with that of publisher provided cover hype, but in this case it does. The material that Will Eisner produced over a period of 20 years (!!!) for P*S Magazine is indeed, "the missing link between The Spirit and A Contract with God" as the cover states. The work contained in this 272 page hardcover volume has the highest critical-importance to critical-awareness ratio of any work we can think of. It represents the single largest unified body of work of one of the most admired creators in the history of comics, yet very few have read much – if any – of it. Now, thanks to Denis Kitchen, Ann...

2019 has now provided us with an embarrassment of riches: two deluxe hardcover Jaime Hernandez collections in one year! Here, a mere four months after Is This How You See Me?, we have Tonta, in all her glory (along with, of course, Viv and the rest of the clan). Tonta is yet another character that beamed down into our world from the Perfect Sphere of True Comics via Hernandez Teleportation Services, Inc. Debuting circa2012 (see below*) in a walk-on role, she now has her name on the marquee of a hardcover graphic novel. Who'd a thunk it?

Tonta was originally serialized in the pages of Love and Rockets: New Stories. It is presented here in a...

Back in print in this newDrawn and Quarterly hardcover edition!

Lynda Barry's art has never been more rich and satisfying than it is inOne Hundred Demons, the landmark 2002 book which represented a formal and stylistic breakthough not only for Ms. Barry, but for the world of comics as well. The work she has created for this beautifully printed volume features a layered bricolage that is undergirded by confident brushwork and an intuitively intimate color sense. All of it is solidly welded to an amazing and joyful sense of play in the service of a universalized personal revelation. Taken together, it makes for an unforgettable reading...

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...

Anyone on the lookout for intellectually stimulating, æsthetically challenging work – regardless of the form it takes – should be sure to investigate the comics of Dash Shaw. Shaw is a sophisticated visual thinker and natural experimenter unconstrained by generic conventions or audience expectations. In Doctors, soap operatic melodrama mixes freely with science fiction concepts (Philip Jose Farmer / Philip K Dick) and both are together presented to the reader with a bold decisive formalism that simultaneously brings to mind painters such as Hans Hoffman and filmmakers like Jean Luc Godard. The final product is in intriguing investigation...