Approximate Hellhound, the arrival of which has been highly anticipated by the Copacetic Comics Co., is now standing tall on our trusty CD rack. Listening to this disc for the first time is an experience akin to that of suddenly realizing that the movie you inadvertently ended up watching at three in the morning has you riveted, and you find yourself thinking that it is the most amazing thing you've ever seen. The ten tracks on this discflow like a conversation, each one picking up where the other left off, generating a persuasive musical argument that drives its train of thought to the end of the line. Our favorites include: "Take What...

The concluding volume of Ellsworth's ambitious cartooned deconstruction of the psyche has arrived! This is the third in a matched series of full size, full color, hardcover graphic excursions. Prepare yourself for a trip like no other, as The Understanding Monster turns identity inside-out and then plays out a series of dramas with its component parts... it's pretty difficult to describe actually. Hereis our take on the initial volume in the series. See you on the other side!

The second issue of the latest incarnation of The World's Greatest Comics Magazinehas arrived!

FROM THE ARCHIVES | ONE COMPLETE SET | ALL HIGH GRADE: VF/NM - NM (actual set for sale pictured)

Ronin is Frank Miller's masterpiece. It is the series that changed comics. DC offered Miller total control and carte blanche to do what he wanted in order to steal him away from Marvel, where he was changing the comics landscape with his take on Daredevil (and his creating and subsequent destruction – and then later resurrection – of Elektra). And, with Ronin, that's exactly what Miller did. In a series of six, 52-page, ad-free issues Milller created a bold and original synthesis of American comics (with Kirby and Eisner at its core), European...

Yes! 382 pages of comics selected from the next-to-impossible-to-find first fifty issues of King-Cat Comics (currently published under the title King-Cat Comics and Stories) by the long suffering self-publishing champ, John Porcellino. King-Cat Comics is an ideal illustration of the existentialist project that brings order and meaning to a life lived in an inherently absurb world. Beginning in May of 1989, Porcellino put pen to paper and declared that he would have no rules dictating what he would produce, only that it would be true to his artistic instincts and that it would all be called King-Cat Comics. As the years passed, King-Cat...

The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud,the first, and likely definitive, English language collection ofthe work of Kuniko Tsurita, the firstwoman contributor to Garo – debuting in 1965 at the age of eighteen(!) – is a revelation. The eighteen uniquely powerful stories collected in this softcover volume provide readers with340 pages of formally inventive and visually daring manga,alloriginally published between 1966 and 1980, during which period Tsurita was the only regularly contributing woman in the pages of Garo. In addition, there is an invaluable 40 page illustrated essay, "The Life and Art of Kuniko Tsurita," by Ryan Holmberg and...

Final Cut presents – for the first time in English – Burns's latest major work, that had up to now only been available in the French language editions published by Cornelius under the title Dédales. All three Cornelius volumes are collected here in an elegantly designed and produced, 224 page, full color, clothbound hardcover volume by Pantheon Books. Very Nice.

Anyone familiar with the work of Charles Burns will not be surprised to learn that Final Cut is a multi-levelled work; that there are layers within layers. Even the title, which has an obvious first level meaning, is open to multiple readings. The action is set, as per usual with...

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...

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...

"The definitive course in comics narrative" continues, as Mastering Comics ventures deeper into the wilderness of formal comics instruction, widening and extending the trail blazed by Drawing Words & Writing Pictures. This horizontally formatted volume follows the same textbookish format as its precursor; this time around divided into eleven lessons, rather than 15, and at 318 pages is a tad heftier. This works out to lessons that are on average 50% longer and more in depth. In other words, Mastering Comics is a 200 level class to DW&WP's 100 level (although the authors clearly state that DW&WP is not a prerequisite for MC)....