A long time coming, Collier's Popular Press is a hefty softcover volume just released by Conundrum Press. It starts off with an introduction by noted Canadian comics scholar, Jeet Heer, who situates Collier's work here squarely in the tradition of "observational cartooning," for which he provides a concise history before ushering in a whoppin' 200 pages of Collier comics, originally published over three decades in a variety of Canadian newspapers and magazines – few, if any, of which have previously reached the straining eyeballs of stateside comics readers. In addition, a series of Collier's essays and personal recollections are mixed...

edited by Ivan Brunetti It's too early to say for certain, but this follow-up to Brunetti's already classic 2006 anthology, also published by Yale University Press, might just be even better than its precursor. One thing's for certain: Brunetti has held onto -- and further refined -- his editorial vision of arranging the work contained in this volume in an organic sequence, deftly managing to map out the similarities between artists so that each piece flows smoothly into into the other, creating an amazing sense of an innate connectivity between all areas of comics here on display. This book is a powerful ally in the struggle to bring the...

Year of the Rabbit is an effective and affecting memoir of life in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge during the years 1975 to 1980. While most North Americans who were alive during the Vietnam War are at least dimly aware that something bad happened in Cambodia after American forces largely left Southeast Asia at the conclusion of the Vietnam War, few are aware of the details, or have an understanding of what life was like for Cambodians themselves after the Communist Party of Cambodia – the Khmer Rouge – or, as readers of this book will learn, Angkar, which is how the Khmer Rouge referred to themselves during the early years of their rule –...

The sub-title does not lie: this book isindeed chock full of tales of mischief. In fact, there are21 full color 6 page comics featuring Akissi & Co. getting into all sorts of trouble, both in their home stomping grounds in theYopougon neighborhood of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)and out in the country at Akissi's nan and granpap's rural digs, where the natural world plays a larger part in the shenanigans. These are kids comics par excellence; think Dennis the Menace without the hyperbole. In Akissi, the world of childhood comes alive on the page: the zany antics, the interactions of children withtheir parents and peers, the...

While Harlan Ellison's star has dimmed somewhat with the passing of the years, likely due, at least in part, to his abrasive personality, it remains hard to overstate his influence on science fiction, and then, in turn, on science fiction's invasion of and subsequent influence on mainstream fiction – particularly short fiction. Forty or so years ago, both "'Repent, Harlequin,' said the Ticktockman" and "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (written in 1966 and 1967, respectively) were among the most anthologized stories out there, with one or the other – sometimes both – being in the majority of high school and college short fiction 101...

From the Archives: ONE new copy of the original hardcover edition (2nd print; September 2011) of the first volume of the superb – and definitive – archival study of the life and work of Alex Toth.

Here's the original Publisher write-up:

Compiled with complete access to the family archives and with the full cooperation of Toth's children, this lavishly illustrated biography features many rare comics pages, photographs, and drawings and reproduces twenty complete stories, including a previously unknown and unfinished story from the 1950's, most printed from the original artwork. Includes bibliographical references. Presents a biography of...

Break out the bongs, Blessed Be has arrived! Rick Altergott has been producing his unique (but definitely inspired by and to a degree derived from the classic Mad) brand of comics – at a painstakingly slow pace – for over three decades now. He's been working on Blessed Be in one form or another for something in the neighborhood of twenty years – but you can't rush quality, and we're here to tell you that it was worth the wait! Longtime readers will recognize some classic earlier Altergott-penned episodes from his and Ariel Bordeaux's early-aughts, two-person anthology series, Raisin Pie, reworked and repurposed here, all in the service of...

(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...

It's hard to know where to begin with a work as remarkable as this. Originally published in six chapters in Love and Rockets: New Stories 3 & 4 in 2010 and 2011, it includes a flashback chapter titled "Browntown" that, in comic book parlance, could be said to be the – or, at least, a – "Secret Origin of Maggie", as readers are finally made privy to heretofore undisclosed primal scenes at the root of significant swaths of Maggie's personality and character. While it may be a commonplace to state that character is forged in the crucible of family, it is rare indeed to be given the opportunity of witnessing an incidence of this that has...

This Pulitzer Prize winning novel represents the apotheosis of Millhauser’s obsession with obsessives. In the character of Martin Dressler, Millhauser has found a character that fulfills both his personal needs as a writer and the novel’s needs for justification. Dressler serves as a synecdoche for both the American Way and the American Dream, or, perhaps, more properly, how these two overlap and even, at times -- such as during the 1990s, when this novel appeared, merge into an organic whole in which each are indistinguishable from one another. Millhauser’s inimitable style carries the reader through the life-cycle of Dressler’s dream of...