What It is, the long awaited, all new, 208 page hardcover volume of heuristic metacomix by the one and only Lynda Barry, is both a beautiful and inspiring work of art and an insightful exploration of the creative process.  Her first new work since her 2002 masterpiece, 100 Demons, What It Is uses the language of comics to probe the secrets of creativity itself, which leads her deep into the caverns of philosophy, where, ever the intrepid explorer, Ms. Barry undertakes an especially thorough excavation of the cave of epistemology.  There in the murky darkness she discovers that memory and imagination blur and merge amidst the stalactites and stalagmites of our respective genetic heritages before condensing and collecting in placid prehistoric pools to mix with the ancient amoebas; in the process dissolving time itself.  The past, present and future come together -- an instant and an eternity stand as one in the revelation that it all starts with... The Image!  Lynda Barry, long considered among the major contemporary comics creators, has, with What It Is,  taken comics to a new place and created a work that can stand shoulder to shoulder in the pantheon with those created by Frida Kahlo, Jean Michel Basquiat, and Hayao Miyazaki, to name but a few of her new peers.  This book is full of surprises and delight.  There's really only one thing to say about this book:  "YES!!!"  If you still need convincing, then feast your eyes on this amazing (lucky)13-page preview and/or read our full length review.  PLEASE NOTE:  In this listing we are offering the Jonarthan Cape edition from the UK.  This edition – also a hardcover – is printed on firmer, heavier paper stock, giving the book more heft than the D & Q edition.  Not only that, but we were able to purchase an allotment at a special price and are passing on the savings to you!  While supplies last.

2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award Winner, Daniel Clowes originally wrote and drew this work a few years back for what remains the last issue (#23) of his epoch-making auteur-comics series, Eightball.  Here in this laminated, oversize, full color hardcover edition from Jonathan it is represented in a "revised" version.  We remember well when Clowes first announced that he was working on "a superhero story set in the 1970s" and he stated that his doing so was "a sure sign that I have lost my mind" (or something along those lines).  Yet, for all that, when it arrived on the stands, it was another Certified Clowes Classic™.  And now here it is again for all those who weren't there the first time around – and for those who were, as well – and at a bargain price to boot!

PLEASE NOTE: The copies we are selling through this listing are of the UK, Jonathan Cape edition.  They are identical in every way to the North American, Drawn & Quarterly hardcover edition except for the text on the copyright page, the ISBN, and the price. 

!SALE!  (BACK IN STOCK – just found an unopened case in the back room!) – GONE!

This is a softcover import edition from Jonathan Cape, which is identiacal in all respects to the hardcover edition from Random House's Pantheon imprint.  Alias the Cat is probably Deitch's densest, most multi-layered work.  Putting himself and his wife at the center of the story creates a layer of ambiguity in this work, a work that can be seen as an exegesis of cartoon consciousness in comics form of a world where the boundary lines separating the imaginary and the real are becoming increasingly porous.  If you don't already have this work in its original comic book form, Stuff of Dreams, the three-issue series published over the past five or so years by Fantagraphics, then we pronounce this collection a must for Deitch fans and a highly worthwhile work for students of the mechanics of American mythologies as well as anyone looking for a fantastic fable in comics form.

 

This book is filled with page after page of Posy Simmonds's fantastically well drawn, witty, insightful comics about middle-aged members of the English middle class who emerged from the idealism of the 1960s into the realities of the conservative 1980s. It is work has been criminally neglected here in the USA .   Mrs Weber's Omnibus  was published in the UK in 2012.  This import edition combines six previous collections of the strips that originally ran in The Guardian UK throughout the 1980s (from 1979 to 1993, to be more exact) into one massive (over 4 lbs), horizontally formatted (10 1/2”  x 8 1/2”), 488 page hardcover volume which presents the complete collected strips that ran in the Guardian throughout the 1980s (from 1979 to 1993, to be more exact).

The strips collected here are the equivalent of US Newspaper Sunday strips, taking up a half-page of the newspaper.  Most are self contained, but there are various degrees of continuity involved.  Also, there are a number of strips that must have originally appeared as full pages in The Guardian and so are reproduced as two-pagers here (they all divide neatly, so there's no weird reformatting involved).  One of the books collected is a duo-tone with red dropped into the B&W, and there's also a full color section towards the end, but the bulk of the work is in black & white. 

And what work it is!  Casual readers will find plenty to enjoy simply reading the strips, but comics fans and, particularly, fellow cartoonists, will discover extra layers of enjoyment and appreciation at the nuanced cartooning, attention to detail and general all around high level of craft embodied in the work collected here.

RECOMMENDED!

Found in the Archives:  ONE nice copy. (there may be another...)