The follow up to last year's It Never Happened, New Construction features two new comics novellas, "Backyard" and "Household."Each is tautly rendered in Alden's forceful pencil line. New Construction is aptly titled in that it is put together diferently. It is a bifurcated edition, with the first tale, "Backyard," being both tightly rendered and printed on a (relatively) bright cream colored stock, while the second, "Household" is far more loose and expressionistic in its rendering and is printed on a dull light gray newsprint. It is worth noting here that the reproduction quality in New Construction is significantly superior to that of It...

Krazy Kat aficionados have long placed its creator, George Herriman at or near the center of the development of comics and cartooning. A prodigious talent, and true comics pioneer – possessed of an unquestionable genius – he produced comics of startling fluidity; words, images and design each blending seamlessly, eachreinforcing andsupporting the other to create works of lasting strength and beauty. The concept of the intelligent vocalizing cartoon animal –the “funny animal” – that gave rise to Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Donald and Daffy Ducks and countless others was more or less forged by Herriman, who in the process opened...

Unstable Molecules is one of the best graphic novels Marvel has produced... well, possibly, ever, but, to hedge our bets, let’s say, "in quite awhile." In any event, it is like nothing Marvel has ever produced in the past. It is a textual analysis of comics done in comics, and it is one of the finest ever produced -- certainly the finest ever produced by Marvel! It should be considered in the context of Understanding Comics and Hicksville as much as the Fantastic Four. Telling the "true" story of the "real people" that the Fantastic Four were based on, this book is a work of metacomics and a dream come true for students of narrative theory...

The new Michael DeForge is here.This has only just nowarrived,and so there's notyetmuch to say.A quick glance revealsthatthe six-panel grid is in full effect here, and looking good. Brat is a 160 page, full color hardcover graphic novel wherein we are given an up close and (very) personal look at the life and times of "Ms. D" (so close, in fact, that at times it feels like DeForge has turned herinside out). Looking forward to diving in...

Now enters is third year of publication with a makeover. With this issue, the paper stock has switched from glossy stock to a medium weight, flat white paper. Good call: itlooks and feels great; a bit more heft. As a result, it's price has increased to $12.99, but at a chock full 128 pages of great (mostly)full color comics,it's still a bargain!

And, more importantly, this issue features a stellar line up of comics creators, including many a Copacetic fave:

Inthe 21, full color pages of "The Gigs,"E.S. Glenn shows the comics reading world what he is capable of. Socially constructed barriers between memory, dream, fiction andreality...

#3 is finally here! Those of you who bought the first two issuesdon't need us to tell you anything more than that. For the rest of you, well... Tongues is the next large canvas production by the creator of Big Questions, Anders Nilsen. As with Big Questions, it requires committed readers who will sign up for the long haul, as there are many years to go yet before we reach the conclusion of this epic, multi-layered narrative. But, based on the evidence of the first three issues, it is sure to be a most rewarding comics excursion. A sophisticated blend of myth, legend, current events, geopolitics, philosophy and science fiction, all artfully...

With it’s 34th issue (why 34th? go figure…) McDonough has taken his long-running, anything-goes, one-man comics anthology to new heights (and new widths) in this, the first magazine-sized issue of Grixly. In recognition of the distinction this issue bears from the previous 33, it has been assigned its own sub-title. Here, in the 32 8 1/2" x 11” black & white, monochrome and full color pages of Click Clack, we are provided with a veritable catalogue of comics and cartooning styles, story forms, genres, tropes, color schemas and more; from single image caricatures and grotesqueries in the tradition of Basil Wolverton, to short, one to...

Picking up, more or less, where Ganges left off, Kevin Huizenga's new series, Fieldercontinues to map new worlds for comics. The issue opens up – after an intriguing symbolization of the nature of thought on the inside front cover – withBona, a deconstructive remix of Sam Glanzman’sKona(which featured, improbably yet likely, scripts by Lionel Ziprin), published by Dell in the early 1960s. This story, which is bifurcated, with another, earlier part of the story appearing later(!) in the issue, highlights formal aspects of classic comics narratives while simultaneously reflecting on their generic tropes and the cultural milieu that produced...

This One Summeris a finely nuanced portrait of pubescents at the dawning of their age of sexuality that will have readers slowing down if not stopping in their tracks to pause and soak up every line of this amazing work. The Tamaki cousins enter Hernandez brothers territory here, with their deftly characterized and deeply empathic portraits of each pen & ink participant in the drama that unfolds on these pages. There are echoes, too, of Charles Burns’sBlack Hole, in the presentation of the protagonists' stumbling upon detritus strewn outdoor settings that stand as a synecdoche forinnocence’s discoveringthe mysteries of sexual...

The first thing that came to mind when lifting the first copy of Rusty Brownout ofthe shipping case upon its arrivalis that this volumehas the heft – and then some –and feel of the Frank King Walt & Skeezix collections, collecting the classic Gasoline Alley strips,that Mr. Ware has been long been assembling and designing for D & Q, grafted on to the design of the original Jimmy Corrigan hardcover. This 356 page, full color, horizontally formatted graphic omnibus by Chris Ware is set to provide a substantial reading experience to all who crack its covers. And, speaking of covers, Ware has once again designed a complex, diagrammatic,...