It's time for another oversize collection of "the unholy marriage of comics + art" as defined by editor Yoe.  The highlight this time around is the opening salvo:  31 of today's top cartoonists each complete an installment of "Draw Your Own Conclusion," a series originally created in the late 1920s by old-school-comics-master, Milt Gross, as a contest wherein readers sent in their version of the last panel, and the winner received $25 (a lot, in those days) and saw their conclusion see print.  This time around we're all winners as the responders whose conclusions see print range from R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman and Kaz to Xaime Hernandez, Pete Bagge and Ivan Brunetti to Mike Mignola and Sergio Aragonés to Patrick McDonnell and Bill Griffith to Jules Feiffer and Matt Groening to Mort Walker and Bil Keane... and more!  There's also a hefty dose of Gross's full-page full-color Sunday pages from the same period.  There's plenty more on hand here including color scans of the original art for a seven-page Bob Powell pre-code horror story. 

This giant oversize full color softcover is the third installment in Mr. Yoe's ongoing "Arf" series charting the links between art and comics with a emphasis on cheesy humor, the previous volumes being Modern Arf and Arf Museum.  A life long collector of all things comics with a focus on the obscure and esoteric and with a decided accent on fun, Yoe shares his rare finds in the spirit of friendship.  This issue's contents range far and wide indeed, including works by Ernie Bushmiller and Max Ernst; surrealist caricaturist, Ted Scheel and bizarre '50s horror comic artist, WIlliam Ekgren; and plenty of photos, magazine covers, and cartoons that display and situate comics in American culture.  Each issue also includes an original work of Yoe's own, and this time around his piece is -- amazingly! -- scripted by none other than Stan "The Man" Lee! 

This is, we believe, the first volume in a projected series, and the sub-sub-title of this volume is, "Artists + Models: The Naked Truth," and that's what we've got here.  This oversize softcover volume -- with rounded-corners, no less -- presents over a century of comics and cartooning that runs the gamut of views on artists and models.  Artitsts whose work this volume contains include the likes of R. Crumb, Wally Wood, Dan De Carlo, Rudolph Dirks, Milt Gross, Salvador Dali, Jack Kirby, Jimmy Hatlo, Patrick McDonnell, Edward Cruikshank, and many others, including a 12-page full-color spread by Yoe himself. Historical essays abound.

Billed as the first volume in The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics!™, and edited by Craig Yoe, this 144 page, full color hardcover is by far the best book yet produced under the Yoe Books imprint, and is the third in our Halloween horror threesome.  The ample selection of high quality scans straight from the original comic books takes readers from the 1940 debut of Briefer's Frankenstein in Prize Comics #7 through to the 1954 release of Frankenstein #31, near the end of the run.  The book begins with a biographical overview of Briefer's life and career, replete with nice repros of original art, comic covers, ephemera and rarities.  Great comics, sharp scans, crisp printing, engaging support material, nice package, reasonable price – it all comes together here.  Let's hope Yoe can keep it up.