<<•>>  edited by Charles Burns; series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden  <<•>>   Well, Crumb is a tough act to follow, but we'll give it a shot with this star-studded anthology filled with the best and the brightest from the last twelve months of comics, as judged by Charles Burns.  In a book like this, we feel that the contributor list says it best:  Doug Allen, Peter Bagge, Gabrielle Bell, Matt Broersma, Daniel Clowes, Al Columbia, Robert Dennis Crumb, Sammy Harkham, Tim Hensley, Gilbert Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Ben Katchor, Kaz, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Michael Kupperman, Jason Lutes, Tony Millionaire, Jerry Moriarty, Anders Nilsen, Gary Panter, Laura Park, Mimi Pond, Ron Regé, David Sandlin, Koren Shadmi, Dash Shaw, Art Spiegelman, Ted Stearn, Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Dan Zettwoch.  'Nuff said.  Well, actually, we can't help but add that while the material contained in this anthology is absolutely fabulous, the quality of its reproduction is, mysteriously, not up to the same standard as the three previous volumes in this series, which were excellent in that department.  This shouldn't stop anyone from picking up this fine volume, but it is worrisome.  Let's hope that this was a one time aberration and that next year we'll find the fine folks at Houghton Mifflin have figured out what went wrong and put things in the production department back on track.

edited by Glenn Head Hotwire is a giant oversize celebration of the real and true comicbook.  In the words of editor Head:  "HOTWIRE doesn't believe that comics need to be elevated out of the "gutter" or put on a pedestal to be art.  HOTWIRE believes that comics with great style and cool stories are already art, and no critic, museum, or journal can change that; not one whit.  An individual cartoon-voice, and a goofball worldview that is the artist's own... that is the onlly requirement.  An unsuspecting reader with hungry eyeballs looking for a taste, could complete the picture."  Hotwire pretty much features the who's who of comics practitioners who adhere to this credo (and some who probably don't quite):  Doug Allen, Max Anderson, Johnny Ryan, R. Sikoryak, David Lasky, Tony Millionaire, Onsmith, Mats!?, Carol Swain. Sam Henderson, Michael Kupperman, Matt Madden, Ivan Brunetti, Tim Lane, Mack White, Rick Altergott, Mr. Head himself, and quite a few others fill up 136 pages of good, not-so-clean fun, in full color and black and white.

Now out of print – but we have a nice copy.