FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
POCKET FULL OF RAIN SC by Jason An anthology of masterful shorts from the creator of “I Killed Adolf Hitler.” This multifaceted anthology collects Jason's early 1990's work, including his remarkable calling card, the novella-length thriller “Pocket Full of Rain,” which has never before been published in English. Like a number of his initial stories, “Pocket” is drawn with realistic human beings instead of blank-faced animal characters, a true revelation for Jason's fans. This book showcases three distinct styles — his earliest “realistic” drawing style, used to unsettling effect in some particularly creepy stories; an intermediate “bighead” cartoony style that still features humans, used for both humor and drama; and the “funny-animal” style he’s now best known for. All this, plus much more, including a color gallery and God cheating at Trivial Pursuit. SC, 7x10, 184pgs, PC SRP: $19.99
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O/A WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS GN by Jason Imagine a long-forgotten, never-produced Alfred Hitchcock “wrong man” thriller screenplay discovered, adapted, and filmed by a modern minimalist like Jim Jarmusch, and you’ll have some idea of the unique flavor of this graphic novel. SC, 7x10, 48pgs, FC SRP: $12.95
STAR OF THE MONTH
YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE GN by Jason A very funny, very deadpan, and very poignant comedy of romance, featuring the classic romantic trio of the mad scientist, the monster, and the bride of the monster. (APR042660) SC, 8 x 10, 72pgs, B&W SRP: $12.95
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STRANGE & STRANGER: THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO HC by Blake Bell The first critical retrospective of the work of the reclusive Spider-Man co-creator! Steve Ditko is best known as the co-creator, with Stan Lee, of Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, and other classic Marvel and DC characters. But, in the context of Steve Ditko’s 50-year career in comics, his creative involvement with Spider-Man is merely the tip of the iceberg. Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko is a coffee table art book tracing Ditko’s life and career, his unparalleled stylistic innovations, and his strict adherence to his philosophical principles, with lush displays of obscure and popular art from the thousands of pages of comics he’s drawn over the last 55 years. (C: 0-1-2) HC, 9x12, 220pgs, PC SRP: $33.99
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O/A THE COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY VOLUME 1: JACK KIRBY TP Edited by Milo George This monumental book collects a variety of Kirby-related writings from The Comics Journal, with rare and full-color art, exclusive interviews, fascinating essays, and an overview of his long fight to get his original art back from Marvel Comics. SC, 12x12, 120pgs, FC SRP: $18.95
SO THAT'S WHERE THE DEMENTED WENTED: RORY HAYES SC Edited by Dan Nadel & Glenn Bray The controversial cartoonist Rory Hayes was a self-taught dynamo of the San Francisco underground comics revolution, emerging as comics’ great primitive, creating genuinely horrifying and hallucinatory comics. This book, the first retrospective of Hayes’ career ever published, features the best of his underground comics output alongside paintings, covers, and artifacts rarely seen by human eyes — as well as astounding, previously unprinted comics from his teenage years and movie posters for his numerous homemade films, and a biography and critique with a memoir of growing up with Rory by his brother, the illustrator Geoffrey Hayes, a rare interview with Hayes himself, and a career-spanning essay by Edward Pouncey. SC, 8x10, 144pgs, PC SRP: $22.99
STAR OF THE MONTH
YOU CALL THIS ART?!! GN by Greg Irons, edited by Patrick Rosenkranz Greg Irons was a psychedelic poster artist, underground cartoonist, book illustrator, and a tattoo art virtuoso. This retrospective book spans his groundbreaking career, including obscure material and never-before-seen private work. (MAR063213) SC, 8x10, 240pgs, PC SRP: $29.95
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TOWN OF MIRRORS: THE REASSEMBLED IMAGERY OF ROBERT POLLARD HC by Robert Pollard Robert Pollard is the Dayton, Ohio singer-songwriter, who was the leader and creative force behind the legendary indie rock group Guided by Voices, one of the most influential bands of its generation. SPIN magazine recently named Pollard one of “The Top 50 Rock & Roll Front Men of All-Time." In addition to being a prolific songwriter/recording artist, Pollard is a gifted and prolific visual artist. Town of Mirrors collects the very best of Pollard’s visual art and lyrics/poetry, featuring over 175 of Pollard’s favorite collages, hand-picked by the artist, with an introduction by novelist Rick Moody. HC, 10x10, 144pgs, FC SRP: $29.99
THE BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON SC by Dash Shaw The Bottomless Belly Button is a 700-plus page comedy-drama that follows the dysfunctional adventures of the Loony Family. After 40-some years of marriage, Maggie and David Loony shock their children with their announcement of a planned divorce, which sparks a week-long Loony family reunion at Maggie and David’s creepy — and possibly haunted — beach house. In a six-day period rich with atmospheric sequences, the family stumbles blindly around one another, often ignoring their surroundings and consumed by their own daily conflicts. If the controversial R.D. Laing wrote an episode of The Simpsons, it might read something like this, certain to be one of the major graphic novel releases of the year. SC, 6x9, 720pgs, B&W SRP: $29.99
AMOR Y COHETES SC by Los Bros Hernandez The Love & Rockets library continues with this special volume! Amor y Cohetes is the seventh volume in the new Complete Love & Rockets series, collecting together in one convenient package all the non-Maggie and non-Palomar stories by all three Hernandez Brothers from that classic first, 50-issue Love & Rockets series, including Gilbert’s original 40-page sci-fi epic “BEM” from 1981’s very first issue of Love & Rockets, Jaime’s charming “Rocky and Fumble” series starring a planet-hopping girl and her robot, stunning one-shots such as Gilbert’s Frida Kahlo biography “Frida,” the shocking autobiographical fantasia “My Love Book,” and much more! SC, 7.5 x 9, 280pgs, B&W SRP: $16.99
ANGRY YOUTH COMIX #14 by Johnny Ryan In this issue! Boobs Pooter reveals The World's Funniest Joke! MATURE THEMES 24pgs, B&W SRP: $3.50
STAR OF THE MONTH
POPEYE VOLUME 2: WELL BLOW ME DOWN HC by E.C. Segar This second volume of the acclaimed hit series collecting the entirety of E.C. Segar’s original Popeye (a.k.a. Thimble Theatre) comic strips begins with a foreword by Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker, and continues with an introduction by noted film and cartooning critic Donald Phelps. This second volume features work from 1930 to 1932, and most notably includes the debut of Segar’s second greatest character: J. Wellington Wimpy, which stands as a one-of-a-kind icon some 70 years after his creation — the most likeable lowdown cad ever to grace the comics page. Popeye Volume 2 includes the stories: “Clint Gore” (continued from the cliffhanger last volume); “A One-Way Bank,” in which Popeye opens a bank that allows withdrawals but no deposits; a long war story featuring King Blozo that begins with “The Great Rough-House War”; and “Skullyville,” which wraps up the daily strips for this volume. (AUG073644) HC, 11x17, 200pgs, PC SRP: $29.95
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EXPLAINERS HC By Jules Feiffer In 1956, a relatively unknown cartoonist by the name of Jules Feiffer started contributing a strip to the only alternative weekly published in the US, a small radical newspaper called The Village Voice. It was the first time the American public had been subjected to a weekly dose of comics that so uncompromisingly and wittily confronted individuals' private fears and society's public transgressions. Explainers is the first of four volumes collecting Feiffer’s entire run of weekly strips from The Village Voice. This edition contains approximately 500 strips originally published between 1956 and 1966 in a gigantic landscape hardcover format. RES. from Previews Vol. XVII #7 (JUL073558) HC, 9x5, 528pgs, B&W SRP: $28.95
EROS COMIX
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HOUSEWIVES & HOT MOMS AT PLAY VOLUME 1 GN SEE PREVIEWS ADULT FOR MORE INFORMATION (STAR17191) (C: 1-0-0) NOTE: Not available in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, & the U.K. ADULT MATERIAL SC, 48pgs SRP: $9.95
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HOT MOMS #11 SEE PREVIEWS ADULT FOR MORE INFORMATION (C: 1-0-0) NOTE: Not available in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, & the U.K. ADULT MATERIAL 24pgs, FC SRP: $4.95
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O/A HOUSEWIVES AT PLAY VOLUME 1 TP SEE PREVIEWS ADULT FOR MORE INFORMATION (STAR15841) (C: 1-0-0) NOTE: Not available in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, & the U.K. ADULT MATERIAL SC, 8x10, 64pgs, FC SRP: $9.95
O/A MORE HOUSEWIVES AT PLAY (CURRENT PRINTING) SEE PREVIEWS ADULT FOR MORE INFORMATION (JUL012073) (C: 1-0-0) NOTE: Not available in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, & the U.K. ADULT MATERIAL SC, 64pgs, B&W SRP: $9.95
FANTASY PRONE LLC
UNITED FREE WORLDS #1 by Leibel, Wood, Raines, Montaine & Aronson Pitted against the ruthless Cretorians and their vast dinosaur armies, humanity assembles a team of its finest soldiers in hopes of leading their outmatched forces to victory. As the war rages on, both sides slowly begin to understand that there can be no victory; that no one truly wins in war — and they must learn to work together if they even hope to survive! RES. from Previews Vol. XVII #12 (DEC073658) 7.5 x 11, 44pgs, FC (1 of 6) SRP: $2.99
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LIFE SUCKS GN by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria & Warren Pleece Dave’s in love with a girl who doesn’t know he exists. He hates his job. His boss just turned him into a vampire. Life sucks. Undead life in its uncoolest incarnation yet is on display in this cinematic, supernatural drama told with gallons of humor and hemoglobin. (C: 0-1-2) SC, 6x8.5, 192pgs, FC SRP: $19.95
LITTLE VAMPIRE GN by Joann Sfar When Michael finds his homework mysteriously done every morning, he knows that something supernatural must be up. Investigating, he finds that the kid doing his homework isn't a person at all, but a vampire! So begins a surprising friendship, and exciting nightly adventures for Michael and Little Vampire. Meet Little Vampire, Michael, and a whole gang of monsters in the three stories in this book — the New York Times-bestselling "Little Vampire Goes to School," the hilarious "Little Vampire Does Kung-Fu!" (an Eisner Award nominee), and the never before published "Little Vampire and the Canine Defenders Club." SC, 7x10, 96pgs, FC SRP: $13.95
STAR OF THE MONTH
VAMPIRE LOVES GN by Joann Sfar Meet Ferdinand. He's a vampire who bites his victims with only one tooth in order to pass as a mosquito. He loves the music of dead singers, and has no end of trouble trying to make sense of his relationships — some with the living, some with the undead. Vampire Loves follows the strange and comically romantic adventures of Ferdinand and his friends as they flirt with, seduce, cheat on, break up and make up with all manner of strange creatures, including ghosts, other vampires, tree-folk, and golems. (MAR063222) SC, 6x9, 192pgs, FC SRP: $16.95
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