Barry Windsor-Smith originally conceptualized this self-contained adventure as the third "Lifedeath" story for Marvel Comics' Uncanny X-Men. The book was shelved for several years when Marvel claimed that Windsor-Smith's ending condoned and/or promoted suicide, an assertion that Windsor-Smith says is as laughable as it is unfounded. He refused to acquiesce to the editor's demands to change the story and pulled the book from them. He liked it so much, however, that he decided to rework it as an Adastra story shortly after undertaking the BWS: Storyteller series a few years ago. Now, more than a decade after it was begun, it is finally in print. Adastra in Africa spotlights the young, exiled goddess traveling to an African village and striving to bring salvation to the famine-stricken area. It's a compelling tale of an outsider attempting to use her own non-traditional methods to help a defiantly proud people regain its vitality, without compromising the tribe's heritage and values. This stand-alone graphic novel features some of the most beautifully intricate and graceful drawing of Windsor-Smith's legendary career. Adastra in Africa is only available in this hardcover format — no paperback edition will be published. HC, 56p

Näytettä kustantajan sivuilta. Ensconced in the avant-garde of the extraordinary social and cultural upheavals that were drawing 1960s Europe into the building wave of postmodernism, a Belgian advertising dropout, fed up with the corporate world, conceived the first "adult comic book" virtually off the top of his head. By creating The Adventures of Jodelle, a deluxe comics album that wore its revolutionary Pop sensibility on its sleeve, Guy Peellaert obliterated the conventions of what had up to that point been a minor, childish medium. Ironically appropriating the face and body of the teen idol Sylvie Vartan, he fashioned a new kind of heroine, a sensual, parodically beautiful spy. For his setting he chose a defiantly anachronistic Roman Empire, into which irrupted the most flamboyant symbols of a conquering America, the originator of all fantasies. Every page of this fascinating saga features a flood of topical references and in-jokes, operating playfully on the border that separated so-called "high" and "low" cultures. Peellaert drew from the most exciting stimuli of his time, subjecting them to his powerful formal innovations: Pop Art, extreme fashions, strident advertising, shock graphics, and cinematic techniques all collided in virtuoso compositions of extreme sophistication, whose inspirations ranged from classical paintings to Gottlieb pinball machines. Published to thunderous acclaim in France in 1966 and then throughout Europe and in the U.S., Jodelle was an instant classic, whose influence would spread far beyond the confines of comics. It also triggered Guy Peellaert's "Pop Period," a creative whirlwind marked by his 1967 creation of PRAVDA, an unforgettable character that has since been acknowledged as a major component of the European Pop movement. Completely remastered and featuring a new translation, this long-awaited reprinting of The Adventures of Jodelle is accompanied by an 80-page, lushly-illustrated textual supplement created in partnership with the artist's estate which traces the creative path travelled by this maverick artist, who multiplied his chosen means of expression, skipping from comics to cinema and moving through fashion, periodicals, and television, including collaborations with many of the great figures of mythical 1960s-era Paris, from Serge Gainsbourg to Yves Saint Laurent. HC / 160 pgs / FC / 10 x 13

A rare foray into all-ages work, “The Adventures of Venus” was Gilbert Hernandez’s contribution to the kids’ anthology Measles which he edited in 1999 and 2000. This super-affordable little hardcover collects all the previously uncollected “Venus” stories from Measles in which Luba’s niece creates and collects comic books, walks through a scary forest, plays soccer, schemes to get the cute boy she likes, laments the snowlessness of a California Christmas, catches measles, and travels to a distant planet (OK, the last one may be a dream). Plus a new story done just for this book! HC / 104 pgs/ BW / 7x 7

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! For three grueling years, Katie Skelly gathered intelligence in the wilds of online, meticulously documenting a private universe of sass photography, fascist surgery, horny skeletons, yonic portals, thrill-seeking vegetation, and multitudinous wry glances and stammered phrases! Now the fruits of her labor may be readily plucked in the compendium of sexed-up webcomics you've been waiting for all your life! SC, 8x11, 108pgs, FC

A DELUXE, HARDCOVER COLLECTION OF FOUR JASON CLASSICS Almost silent packages four original Jason graphic novels - three of them out of print since mid-2008 - into one compact, hardcover omnibus collection. (As the title indicates, this volume favors Jason's pantomime works.) "You Can't Get There From Here," the longest story of the book (and the only one to be printed in color - well, a color), tells the tale of a love triangle involving Frankenstein, Frankenstein's Monster, and The Monster's Bride: Jason cleverly alternates between totally silent sequences involving the three characters and scenes in which Frankenstein's hunchbacked assistant discusses the day's events with a fellow hunchbacked assistant to another mad scientist. (You didn't know they had a union?) "Tell Me Something" is a brisk (271 panels), near-totally-silent (just a few intertitles) graphic novelette about love lost and found again, told with a tricky mixture of forward- and back-flashing narrative. "Meow, Baby" is a collection of Jason's short stories and gags, and finally, "The Living and the Dead" is a hilariously deadpan (and gory) take on the traditional Romero-style zombie thriller. All of these yarns star Jason's patented cast of tight-lipped (or -beaked) bird-, dog-, cat- and wolf-people, and show off his compassion and wry wit. Almost silent is a perfect starting point for a new reader wanting to know what the fuss is all about, and a handsome, handy, inexpensive collection for the committed Jason fan. 292 pgs, B&W, 6.25 x 8.5, Hardcover

Discover the Angel Omnibus, which collects the IDW Angel series: Angel: The Curse, Angel: Old Friends, Angel: Spotlight, and Angel: Auld Lang Syne. This huge collection of comics includes work by New York Times best-selling writer Peter David, and features the most popular characters from the TV show, including Spike and Illyria. TPB, FC, 488 pages, 6" x 9"

IDW's series of adaptations of landmark Angel episodes continues with "A Hole in the World," one of the series' most heartbreaking episodes! Adapting both "A Hole in the World" and "Shells," this five-issue miniseries tells the tragic tale of how Illyria came to fight alongside Angel, and at what terrible cost. 120p

From the creator of Prison Pit comes a hilarious bombardment of political incorrectness, taking full advantage of the medium's absurdist potential. Just when the comics are aspiring to literary respectability, Ryan celebrates the visceral effect that cartooning has had on our collective funny bone for over a century. For the first time, all fourteen issues of Ryan's career-defining comic book series, plus the covers, and even the contentious letters pages, are collected in one place.

Näytettä kustantajan sivuilta. One of the very first autobiographical graphic novels to come from France, Lewis Trondheim’s Approximate Continuum Comics set the standard for the honest, often hilarious chronicling of a cartoonist’s life. Trondheim’s typically graceful, confident cartooning shows him wrestling with his own demons (sometimes, in dream sequences, literally) and an often malevolent world, while trying to maintain his rising career as one of Europe’s most beloved cartoonists. Approximate Continuum finally brings American readers the first portion of the “Trondheim autobio trilogy” that also comprises the Eisner-nominated “At Loose Ends” meditation serialized in Mome and the “Little Nothings” series of short slice-of-life stories. This volume contains the first three chapters serialized in The Nimrod comic book (praised as "A rewarding, pleasurable and entertaining read from a fine talent... well worth the cover price" by The Comics Reporter), the last three (never-before-translated) chapters, and a hilarious “rebuttal” section in which Trondheim’s family and cartoonist friends (including Epileptic creator David B. and Trondheim’s mom) dispute (or ruefully agree with) Trondheim’s depictions. SC / 160 pgs / PC / 6.75 x 10.25

SPECTACULAR FAUX-WOODCUT VISTAS MAKE TARDI'S GROUNDBREAKING "ICEPUNK" STORY A RETRO CLASSIC In its ongoing quest to showcase the wide range of Jacques Tardi's bibliography, Fantagraphics reaches all the way back to one of his earliest, and most distinctive graphic novels: A satirical, Jules Vernes-esque "retro-sci-fi" yarn executed on scratchboard in a stunningly detailed faux-woodcut style perfectly chosen to render the Edwardian-era mechanical marvels on display. In 1899, "L'Anjou," a ship navigating the Arctic Ocean from Murmansk, Russia, to Le Havre, France comes across a stunning sight: A ghostly, abandoned vessel perched high atop an iceberg. But exploring this strange apparition is the last thing the sailors will ever do, as their own ship is soon dispatched to Davy Jones' locker via a mysterious explosion. Enter Jérôme Plumier, whose search for his missing uncle, the inventor Louis-Ferdinand Chapoutier, brings him into contact with the sinister, frigid forces behind this - and soon he too is headed towards the North Pole, where he will content with mad scientists, monsters of the deep, and futuristic submarines and flying machines. Told with brio in hilarious slabs of vintage purple prose, The Arctic Marauder works both as ripping good adventure story and parody of same, and, predating as it does the later and not dissimilar Adèle Blanc-Sec series, is a keystone in Tardi's oeuvre in his fantastical mode.

Throughout his 25-year career, alternative cartoonist/screenwriter Daniel Clowes has always been ahead of artistic and cultural movements. Clowes has been praised for his emotionally compelling narratives that reimagine the ways that stories can be told in comics. The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist is the first monograph on this award-winning, New York Times-bestselling creator. It includes all of Clowes's best-known illustrations as well as rare and previously unpublished work, all reproduced from the original art. HC, 9x12, 224pgs, FC

Näytettä. Another all-original collection of full-color graphic novellas in the format of Low Moon, Athos in America takes its title from the lead story, a prequel of sorts to the graphic novel The Last Musketeer, in which the seemingly ageless swashbuckler turns up in a bar in 1920 New York and relates the tale of how he went to Hollywood to play himself in a film version of The Three Musketeers. Another tie-in with a previous Jason story occurs in “The Smiling Horse,” in which the characters from the story “&” in Low Moon attempt to kidnap a woman. Also in this volume: “The Brain That Wouldn’t Virginia Woolf,” a mashup of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, told in reverse chronological order; the Bukowski pastiche “A Cat From Heaven” in which Jason works on his comic, has a reading in a comic book store, gets drunk and makes a fool of himself; the dialogue-free (all the text occurs in thought balloons) “Tom Waits on the Moon,” in which we follow four people (one of them a scientist working on a teleportation machine) until something goes wrong; and “So Long Mary Ann,” a prison-escape love-triangle story. HC / 200 pgs / FC / 5.5 x 8.5

Simon Hanselmann's previous best-selling books, Megahex, Megg & Mogg in Amsterdam, and One More Year have all cemented Hanselmann as one of the most exciting graphic novelists of his generation and Bad Gateway is the magnum opus that those books have been building towards. Megg & Mogg's fraught relationship careens into psychological depths that Hanselmann has previously only hinted at as his eternally-stoned, slacker characters begin to reflect the psychological toll that their years of insouciance and self-medication has inflicted. HC, 8x11, 168pgs, FC

After conducting 52 simultaneous robberies in the same city, May and Eugene are now on the run from the law, former accomplices, and their own violent past. What makes these criminals so surprising is that they are a young mother and her preteen son. Bastard traces the escape of May and Eugene as they crisscross the United States, racing to get to their stolen cash. Both bloody and tender and full of plot twists and high tension, Bastard is a hard-boiled page-turner introducing an adolescent anti-hero that you're sure not to forget. SC, 6x8, 192pgs, B&W

Featuring all new comics and interviews from top creators from either side of the Atlantic, Berserker promises a unique perspective on comics and art. Featuring work from Jon Chandler, Anya Davidson, Benjamin Marra, Lane Milburn, Sammy Harkham and Alexander Tucker and with a cover courtesy of Robert Beatty, Berserker gathers together some of the most exciting and provocative voices in contemporary comics. SC, 7x10, 68pgs, FC

Fed up with the restrictions of mainstream comics, cartoonist Wallace Wood created and published witzend. witzend became a cauldron of creativity for Wood and his cartoonist friends like Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Gray Morrow, and Reed Crandall, Steve Ditko, Art Spiegelman, Vaughn Bode, Jim Steranko, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Howard Chaykin, Bernie Wrightson and dozens more. Fantagraphics published the collected witzend in 2014 in a deluxe two-volume box set, selling out immediately. Now we present The Best of witzend, a 280-page distillation of that publishing milestone in a single handsome volume.

Näytettä. While Tom Kaczynski’s comics share many of the obsessions found in the prose work of J.G. Ballard, with riffs on dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technology, Kaczynki’s visual storytellingadds an architectural dimension that the written word alone lacks. Beta Testing The Apocalypse includes 10 short stories, depicting the immense political and technological structures and spaces we inhabit that subtly affect and define the limits of who we are and the freedoms we presume to enjoy. Tom Kaczynki is a new, unique voice in the comic firmament. SC / 136 pgs / FC / 6.5 x 9.5

A piercing psychological exploration of the delusional mind of a sexual predator. Drawing on her own traumatic memories of sexual assault, Ninja Bunjevac explores the warped psyche of a sexual predator. Told through a noirish lens, Bezimena is the story of a man who develops a disturbing sexual obsession with a former classmate, steadily losing his grasp on reality. As his fantasies become increasingly lurid, the book’s imagery grows ever more surreal; in her masterfully lush, stippled technique, Bunjevac conjures mesmerizing dreamscapes and eerie allusions to the Greek myth of Artemis and Siproites. Refusing to shy away from the morally grotesque, Bezimena seeks to discover what compels people to commit acts of evil. HC, 8x11, 224pgs, B&W

The 1939 creation of the Sub-Mariner for the first issue of Marvel Comics assures Bill Everett a place in history. Co-creating Daredevil, the Man Without Fear, for Marvel Comics in 1964 gave Everett a link to one of the most popular superheroes of the past 50 years. And producing over 400 additional pages of superhero-related work in the very early days of the Golden Age of Comics (1938-42) makes Bill Everett a legend. This book collects over 200 pages of this never-before-reprinted work from titles such as Amazing Mystery Funnies (1938), Amazing-Man Comics (1939), Target Comics (1940), Heroic Comics (1940), and Blue Bolt Comics (1940). These titles feature an endless array of great vintage Everett characters such as Amazing-Man, Hydroman, Skyrocket Steele, Sub-Zero, The Chameleon, and many more, all produced by Everett’s shop Funnies, Inc. for such clients as Centaur, Novelty Press, and Eastern Color, and all displaying Everett’s brilliant cartooning and energetic storytelling. Edited and compiled by best-selling author and comic-book historian Blake Bell (Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko), Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives is a stunning companion to Bell’s 2010 critically acclaimed Everett biography and art book, Fire and Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner and the Birth of Marvel Comics. This volume follows the format of Bell’s Steve Ditko Archives series (see page 54 of this catalog); never-before-reprinted, beautifully restored, full-color stories from one of comic books’ greatest visionaries and most accomplished artists. Also includes an introduction by Bell that delves even deeper into Everett’s life, fiery personality, and the history of the era. The resultant package enhances Everett’s place in history as one of the first and best comic-book creators of all time. HC / 224 pgs / FC / 7.25 x 9.5

Over 200 pages of neverbefore-reprinted work from Golden-Age-Of-Comics legend Bill Everett. Spanning the years 1938-1940 and culled from such magazines as Amazing Mystery Funnies and Amazing-Man Comics, Heroic Tales features vintage characters such as Amazing-Man, Hydroman, Skyrocket Steele, The Chameleon plus many more. This is a stunning companion to Fantagraphics' critically acclaimed 2010 Everett retrospective, Fire and Water, and features beautifully restored, full-color stories plus an introduction about the man, his art, the history of the era, and his relationship with Marvel Comics. HC / 240 pgs / FC / 7.25 x 10.5

Black is the Color begins with a 17th century sailor abandoned at sea by his shipmates, and as it progresses he endures, and eventually succumbs to, both his lingering death sentence and the advances of a cruel and amorous mermaid. The narrative also explores the experiences of the loved ones he leaves behind, on his ship and at home on land, as well as of the mermaids who jadedly witness his destruction. At the heart of the story lie the dubious value of maintaining dignity to the detriment of intimacy, and the erotic potential of the worst case scenario. Julia Gfrörer's delicate drawing style perfectly complements the period era of Black Is the Color, bringing the lyricism and romanticism of Gfrörer's prose to the fore. Black Is the Color is a book as seductive as the sirens it depicts. SC / 72 pgs / BW / 6 x 9

Preview. The entire Eisner Award-winning series in a single book! Something is very wrong with Natasha. She's... happy?! She's reveling in the perfect life she never dreamed she could have. But scratching the surface of that peaceful existence reveals something very wrong lurking beneath it - and a woman like Nat just can't help but scratch. Beyond the Golden Gate Bridge lies a mystery only the Marvel Universe's greatest spy can solve, but doing so will be the most emotional adventure of her long life! As the Black Widow adjusts to a revised status quo in San Francisco, allies old and new will help her target a mysterious emerging threat in the city by the bay - a dangerous villain known only as Apogee. But even more deadly is the Living Blade - the one skeleton in Natasha's closet she hoped she'd never encounter again! Collecting BLACK WIDOW (2020) #1-15. SC, 336pgs

Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Manuele Fior’s Blackbird Days is a collection of ten short stories about a father who loses his son in a Berlin park, a teacher abandoning her students in Paris, a young woman’s first impressions of Oslo, a couple vacationing in Italy after receiving bad news, a man’s suffering during WWI, a painter visiting the baths on Ischia and a grandmother’s tale of how she escaped war in Indochina. The book is rounded out with an autobiographical snapshot of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, and a finale in which two giant robots battle it out in the center of that city. Manuele Fior (5,000 KM Per Second, The Interview) has established himself as one of the unequivocally great graphic novelists working today. HC, 7x10, 104pgs, FC

THE LEGENDARY ANTI-WAR COMIC COLLECTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITS ENTIRETY. Written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by such luminaries as Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, John Severin, Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Russ Heath, Reed Crandall, and Gene Colan, Blazing Combat was originally published by independent comics publisher James Warren in 1965 and ’66. Following in the tradition of Harvey Kurtzman’s Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, Goodwin’s stories reflected the human realities and personal costs of war rather than exploiting the clichés of the traditional men’s adventure genre. They were among the best comics stories about war ever published. Blazing Combat ended after its fourth issue when military post exchanges refused to sell the title due to their perception that it was an anti-war comic. Their hostility was fueled by the depiction of the then-current Vietnam War, especially a story entitled “Landscape,” which follows the thoughts of a simple Vietnamese peasant rice-farmer who pays the ultimate price simply for living where he does — and which was considered anti-war agitprop by the more hawkish members of the business community. As one letter writer in the third issue put it, "Do you seriously expect to make money with a war magazine that publishes nothing but anti-war stories?"While most stories took place during World War II, they ranged in settings from the 18th century to the present-day. Some dealt with historical figures, such as Revolutionary War general Benedict Arnold and his pre-traitorous victory at the Battle of Saratoga, while "Foragers" focused on a fictitious soldier in General William T. Sherman's devastating March to the Sea during the American Civil War. "Holding Action", set on the last day of the Korean War, ended with a gung-ho young soldier, unwilling to quit, being escorted over his protests into a medical vehicle. Writer Archie Goodwin and the original publisher James Warren discuss the death of Blazing Combat and market censorship as well as the creative gestation of the series in exclusive interviews. Superb reproduction from the original printer's film negativeso Deluxe, hardcover edition. Breathtaking art from several acknowledged masters of the form. Candid, revealing interviews with Blazing Combat publisher James Warren and writer/editor Archie Goodwin. Format: Softcover Pages: 208 Dimensions: 8" x 10" Colors: black & white (with some color)