Finally! A new – and very improved – edition of Seiichi Hayashi's manga masterpiece of alienation has been releasesd by Drawn and quarterly. This new edition has a nice heft and feel, and the design has been slightly tweaked for a mild aesthetic improvement, but the big change is the addition of a 60 page, illustrated essay by manga/gekiga/Garo scholar, Ryan Homberg. The inclusion of this essay will enable all readers to better situate Hayashi's work in manga history and better appreciate his achievements. As Red Colored Elegy is over 45 years old, andHayashi's work is far from typical manga fare, Holmberg's essay is a crucial improvement...

introduction par Chris Ware Le secret le mieux gardé des vingt dernières années de la bande dessinée est probablement Storeyville. Aucune autre bande dessinée ne capture avec autant de succès l'énergie propulsive américaine que nous associons dans la littérature aux œuvres de Walt Whitman et de Jack Kerouac. Storeyville était sui generis à l’époque de sa publication initiale en 1995, quand il a paru sous la forme d’un journal tabloïde de 40 pages. Poème épique en bande dessinée, il révèle des profondeurs jusque-là inexplorées dans la forme. Employant une audace artistique qui était à l’époque sans égal, Storeyville incorpore des éléments d...

Well, here's a work that sets the table for multi-course feast that will appeal to folks of different stripes for different reasons. First and foremost, it is the most ample display to date of the pop culture prowess of the Pittsburgh-based artist/writer team of Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, who here have given a virtuoso performance. Afrodisiac is an homage to the last gasp of traditional comic book values; specifically, those that were embodied by the comic books of, roughly, 1972 - 1985. These were the final years of the newsstand comic book market – its decade of irrevocable decline. Beginning in 1986 it was permanently eclipsed by the...

The hype line at the top of this comic book lays it right out: "stories for the (now old) 90s kid in all of us." Anyone pining for another shot of those finely crafted, pen & ink comics that probe the youth counter culture while prodding society's underbelly and occasionally broaching taboo subjects will find six doses here in the 34 pages of Momento! Fans of the early Clowes in particular (which is actually from the '80s) will find their buttons being pushed here in stories like "Barry! My Imaginary Friend" and "Night of the Roamer". The heavy satire of "Bitrilin's Dream" and "A Hungry Artist" may put readers in mind of the repressed...

After a long delay – the result of a highly mobile, and doubtless stressful, period in Craig Thompson's life (see note at issue's end for details) – the ninth issue of Ginseng Roots has at long last arrived! This time around we are given a detailed look at the business of Wisconsin ginseng at its strong links to mainland China and Taiwan. Another amazing, highly informative, educational and entertaining issue of this epochal series. Don't miss it!

It's here: the deluxe full color, 112 page, horizontally formatted hardcover collection of Michael DeForge's internet work,Ant Comic. A high intensity allegory rendered in dazzling full color and employing DeForge's personal cartooning language to great advantage,Ant Colonyis a wholly original work that is not to be missed. In the words of no less a comics authority than Jaime Hernandez, "DeForge is one of those rare comics naturals andAnt Colonyproves it."

NOW OUT OF PRINT. Wehave just a few copies remaining. LIMIT: ONE per customer.

Finally, another Gilbert volume in the updated format of the complete Love and Rockets Library collection.Luba and HerFamilymarks the tenth volume in the series. The 228 pages of comics in this volume encompass Gilbert's work fromMeasles#1 - 8,New Love#1 - 6,Luba#1 - 4 andLuba's Comics & Stories#1. Savor and enjoy.

Finally, it's here: the most anticipated release of 2004 (so far). Striving for objet d'art status, McSweeney's 13 comes as close as any comics release to attaining it. Starting with a dust jacket that folds out into a two sided comics poster: the outer side featuring a dense full color, 360º narrative by editor and comics fiend, Chris Ware; the inner side featuring a vaguely ceremonial (think Mayan) worshipping of the idols of comics by Gary Panter. But there's more: tucked into the folds of this dust-jacket-cum-suitable-for-framing-wall-art are two mini-comics commissioned especially for this issue; one -- in full color -- by Ron Rege,...

Clowes has delivered his long threatened science fiction graphic novel. Within the 178 pages of Patience readers will encounter the arduous travails of a time-traveling drug abuser coming to terms with mortality and the meaning of life as only a time-traveling drug abuser can. Clowes has, with Patience, taken an approach in crafting its narrativesomewhat akin to that of Michael Chabon's inThe Yiddish Policeman's Union-- although to entirely different ends -- by starting with the hook and basic plot structure of a whodunnit murder mystery, and then gradually incorporating layer upon layer of interlocking themes, spinning it out into...

It's been almost a year (more?) since we've seen anything new by Kevin H. (not counting the self-published mini, Sermons #2), so it was with no small trepidation that we cracked open the second issue of Ganges. which is the 27th in the Ignatz series. What surprises will it hold? Well, we certainly don't want to rob you of this experience, so we're not going to go into too much depth here, but we will say this much: This issue has a bipartate structure. The opening section is a bravurra performance on Huizenga's part, in which he takes on a challenge that is dear to many cartoonists of his generation (Brinkman, Chippendale and Paperrad...