The first original book (as opposed to original comics, later collected in book form) since Our Cancer Year, Our Movie Year is all about exactly what you think: the experiences of Harvey and his wife, Joyce (who together make up the "Our" of the title) before, during and after the making of the American Splendor movie. But there's more: there are a bunch of strips dealing with Harvey's passions: classic jazz & blues, comics & collecting, and Cleveland. As for the artists this time around: there's the usual suspects along with a few new faces. Pittsburgh-based artists have their highest profile ever in a Pekar collection: Pittsburgh transplant, Mark Zingarelli starts the whole thing off with the title track, as it were, and also handed in the art chores on "Blackout," a thirteen-pager on the August 14 blackout. Pittsburgh's own Ed Piskor, a newcomer, closes out the collection with the 24-page (the longest piece in the book!) "Around the World and Back to Earth." Also contributing are long time American Splendor veterans R. Crumb (only two pages, tho'), Gary Dumm (who is the collection's major contributor), Gerry Shamray and Frank Stack. This is a great, well-rounded collection that is sure to be a hit with American Splendor fans, new and die-hard alike.
Long in the making (and right here in the Pittsburgh area, too, as that is where Mark Zingarelli has been hunched over his drawing table, converting Ms. Brabner's elegaic yet uplifting script into page after page of hard won comics), Second Avenue Caper takes readers back to the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic in NYC, when no one knew what was happening, what caused it, how it was spread, or how to stop it. Many – perhaps most – Copacetic customers are too young to have experienced the early days of AIDS, and the fear, sorrow, anger and, ultimately, hope-filled community building, that it engendered. This 144 page hardcover graphic history of this era brings it to life for the younger generations that have grown up and come of age in its wake, and whose lives and behaviors have been shaped by it, without their necessarily realizing it.
