This volume is sure to become the definitive edition of these two pioneering works of comics history by one of the founders of the underground comics revolution.  Jack Jackson (or Jaxon, the Gilbert Shelton supplied nom de plume by which he was widely known during the his underground comics heyday) published God Nose in Texas way back in 1964, before moving to San Francisco in 1966 to co-found Rip Off Press with Gilbert.  Los Tejanos was one of the first graphic novels published by Fantagraphics, way back in 1982, at which time it was a total anomaly in the comics market:  a work of serious history in comics form.  As Ron Hansen writes in his introduction to this volume, "The range of tone, the irony, and the seriousness of his subject matter created a market resistance to Jackson's art that he never overcame.  Over twenty years, Los Tejanos sold only  4,000 copies."  Lost Cause (the full title of which is Lost Cause: John Wesley Hardin, the Taylor-Sutton Feud, and Reconstruction Texas) was published after a long gestation in 1998 by Kitchen Sink Press.  This 313 page hardcover volume features excellent black and white reproductions printed on flat, off-white stock and includes Jackson's 1998 Comics Journal interview, a list of sources, a brief biography by Patrick Rosenkranz, maps and more. 

Optimism of Youth collects 14 of Jackson's short comix tales from the early 1970s underground comics scene.  These comics originally appeared in title such as Skull, Slow Death, Grim Wit and Tales of the Leather Nun.  Jackson was there at the birth of the underground comix scene and had actually self-published a collection of his college comics strips as God Nose in 1964, before taking a hiatus from cartooning, diving back in with the stories that fill this colllection.  

Published in 1991, with an informative introdcution by Gary Groth and Kim Thompson that provides plenty of background to put these strips in context, this book is now out of print, but we still have a few, and are selling them for less than their original 30 year-old retail price!  While supplies last...