What a study in contrasts we have in the latest pair of releases from that fast rising star of graphic novel publishing, (:01) First Second.  On the one hand we have Notes for a War Story, a harshly realistic and remorselessly grim account of youthful thuggery and stupidity, which, coming on the heels of Garage Band being released in English for the first time earlier this year, has us thinking of Gipi as the premier comics deconstructor  of contemporary European youth (and likely had others thinking along similar lines as it was awarded the 2005 Goscinny prize for best script and was provlaimed book of the year at at Angouleme in 2006); while, on the other, we have Sara Varon's Robot Dreams, a fantastic and whimsical account of a friendship between a robot and a dog.  What could be more different?  Confrontation or escape...  which is the best approach to deal with these trying times?  Well, from the looks of things, there's no need to choose.  Both are equally valid on their own terms, as these two timely works more than adequately express.

A heretofore hidden cache of the first three issues of this seminal anthology have just been unearthed and we managed to obtain a share of them, which we are now offering for sale at their original prices (or less!).  These three issues have been selling for high multiples of these prices for quite awhile, preventing the many who have to worry about things like eating and paying rent from being able to get their hands on copies – until now!  The first two issues are more-or-less standard B & W comic books; #1 on newsprint guts with a cardstock cover, #2 on white (mando?) stock with a cardstock cover that is slightly lighter than that of the first issue; both are 48 pages.  Each features early work by Harkham, along with his now largely forgotten compatriots David Brook, Lucas Quigley and Justin Howe (who lives on as a blogger). With the third issue, the format graduates to a 128-page squarebound trade paperback format and features a strong variety of early work by Anders Nilsen, Ben Jones, Joe Grillo, Hans Rickheit, Sara Varon, Zack Soto, Kathleen Lolley, Mark Burrier, and others, along with, of course, Harkham himself.  Anyone interested in learning more about these issues should take a moment to read Joe Mcculloch's recently posted TCJ review written to draw attention to the discovery of these very issues.