After the sci-fi trappings of his earliest stories (as seenin Maggie the Mechanic, the first volume in this series),Hernandez refined his approach, settling on the more naturalisticenvironment of the fictional Los Angeles barrio, Hoppers, and the livesof the young Mexican-Americans and punk rockers who live there. Acentral story and one of Jaime's absolute peaks is "The Death ofSpeedy." Such is Jaime's mastery that even though the end of the storyis telegraphed from the very title, the downhill spiral of Speedy, thelocal heartthrob, is utterly compelling and ultimately quitesurprising. Also in this volume, Maggie begins her on-again off-againromance with Ray D., leading to friction and an eventual separationfrom Hopey.(Note: A number of these stories, including a whole cycleof wrestling stories starring or co-starring Rena Titañon, were notcollected in the hardcover Locas.)

    In it, a serial killer stalks Palomar—but his depredations, hideous as they are, only serve to exacerbate the cracks in the idyllic Central American town as the modern world begins to intrude. "Diastrophism" concludes with the death (the suicide, in fact) of one of Palomar's most beloved characters, and a postscript that provides one of the most hauntingly magical moments of the entire series as a rain of ashes drifts down upon Palomar.Also included are all the post-"Diastrophism" stories, in which Luba's past (as seen in the epic Poison River) comes back to haunt her, and the seeds are sown for the "Palomar diaspora" that ends this dense, enthralling book.

    Now, for the 25th Anniversary of Eightball, Fantagraphics is collecting these long out-of-print issues in a slipcased set of two hardcover volumes, reproducing each issue in facsimile form exactly as they were originally published. Included are over 450 pages of vintage Clowes, including such seminal serialized graphic novels/strips/rants as Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Ghost World, Pussey, I Hate You Deeply, Sexual Frustration, Ugly Girls, Why I Hate Christians, Message to the People of the Future, Paranoid, My Suicide, Chicago, Art School Confidential, On Sports, Zubrick and Pogeybait, Hippypants and Peace-Bear, Grip Glutz, The Sensual Santa, Feldman, and so many more."

    Plus, a new cover by Bolland.

    Buddy Baker is a caring husband, devoted father, animal activist and super-powered being. But as he attempts to live up to all of his roles, he soon finds that there are no black and white situations in life. With a strong focus on storytelling, these thought-provoking and innovative tales make the reader question the actions of Animal Man as well as their own behavior in similar situations.

    This and subsequent issues will Maus, and state-of-the-art work by contemporary American and European artists.

    DeMatteis & Jon J. Muth Collecting both the original run of Moonshadow and its sequel, Farewell Moonshadow in a single paperback volume. Journey from the farther reaches of outer space to the starry skies of the inner spirit as the young dreamer, Moonshadow, and his cynical alien companion, ira, set forth on the unforgettable intergalactic odyssey that science-fiction great Ray Bradbury called beautiful, original, haunting. Mature Readers. SC, 7x10, 464pg., FC

    Crumb and Justin Green, et. al., and today he is the most prolific and creatively fertile artist of his generation. His newest book is a hardcover collection from Pantheon and marks the company's big graphic novel follow-up to Jimmy Corrigan; these books collect the best of his classic, underground work from the 1960s to 1980s. Deitch shares with Crumb a fascination with the "lost America" of the 1920s and '30s, particularly the history of animation (his father was the legendary Gene Deitch of Terrytoons and jazz LP covers fame). Beyond the Pale collects Deitch's best from the '70s and '80s, while All Waldo Comics features the best of his most enduring character, Waldo the Cat. A Shroud for Waldo is a sacrilegious graphic novel about Jesus, Waldo, and Hollywood.

    The agents of these Disruptors all work with a single purpose—the recovery and activation of Foxfire, a long-hidden doomsday device whose unspeakable power is capable of consuming the galaxy in all its incarnations. Standing in the way of the Disruptors is Luther Arkwright, a human anomaly who exists only in a single universe, a man of vast psychic powers and capable of travelling between the parallel realities to counter the Disruptor's malign influence. But the Disruptors are aware of Arkwright and his abilities, and while Arkwright searches the myriad Earths for the location of Foxfire, the agents of darkness race to destroy him... and to ensure their unthinkable ends.

    Here are undimmed masterworks from The Impending Gleam and Atlas, new cherished favorites from The New Yorker, and an abundance of hitherto unseen tours de force. Here, gathered in one place, are the predatory vegetables and pernicious schoolgirls, here the foppish cowboys and slack-minded adventurers, here the wimples and snoods and forbidden pompadours that have established Baxter as our foremost perpetrator of humor at its most satisfyingly surreal. here is the book for every Baxter fan and, for the doubtlessly soon-to-be converted, a perfect introduction to an artist who "betrays all the ominous symptoms of genius"

    Others aren't so sure... Mixes humor and an involving suspenseful yarn.

    Others aren't so sure... Mixes humor and an involving suspenseful yarn.