Best of
Graphic-Novels-Comics-Manga

2012

City of Bones


Mike Raicht - 2012
    Set in modern day New York, the Mortal Instruments series centers on the "Shadowhunters," human-angel hybrids that hunt down demons while also keeping peace between the warlocks, vampires, werewolves, faeries and other mythical creatures who inhabit the Earth.

The Park Bench


Christophe Chabouté - 2012
    Faber now brings his work to the English-speaking world for the first time.Through Chabouté's elegant graphic style, we watch people pass, stop, meet, return, wait and play out the strange and funny choreography of life. Fans of The Fox and the Star, The Man Who Planted Trees and Richard Linklater's Boyhood will find this intimate graphic novel about a simple park bench - and the people who walk by or linger - poignant, life-affirming and brilliantly original.

Abstract City


Christoph Niemann - 2012
    His posts were inspired by the desire to re-create simple and everyday observations and stories from his own life that everyone could relate to. In Niemann’s hands, mundane experiences such as riding the subway or trying to get a good night’s sleep were transformed into delightful flights of visual fancy. The struggle to keep up with housework became a battle against adorable but crafty goblins, and nostalgia about New York manifested in simple but strikingly spot-on LEGO creations. This brilliantly illustrated collection of reflections on modern life includes all 16 of the original blog posts as well as a new chapter created exclusively for the book. Also available from Christoph Niemann: Sunday Sketching and I LEGO N.Y. Praise for Abstract City: “Everyday experiences—from looking at leaves to riding city subways—are funny and fresh and often a source of wonder when depicted by this brilliant graphic designer.” —Readers Digest “I will call Christoph when anything awful happens to me. And he will make me laugh like crazy about the whole thing. Because he is insanely funny and completely tenderly true. I love every column he did and will do.” —Maira Kalman, author/illustrator of And the Pursuit of Happiness “Christoph Niemann is the best illustrator alive. Every single time I come across a piece of his work, which is often as he either works all the time, or worse, draws incredibly fast, it is wonderful. While the rest of us are lucky to get a proper piece out here and there, Christoph produces hit after hit after hit. If he wasn’t such a genuinely sweet man, we’d surely hate his ass a lot.” —Stefan Sagmeister, author of Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far “Few books have more probingly and humorously gotten inside the mind and day-to-day experience of an artist.” —NPR.org "What’s terrifying (to me, certainly, and possibly to many of his peers) is that nearly every idea he has seems to be equally well formed . . . once again, performing neat, virtuosic circles around the rest of us, to our delight." —PRINT magazine "Irresistible." —Very Short List “A masterpiece of sophisticated humor, this is a brilliant one-of-a-kind work.” —Library Journal, starred review

Namesake, Volume 1


Isabelle Melançon - 2012
    She finds out that these are places she already knows – fantasy and fairy lands made famous through the spoken word, literature and cinema. Her power as a Namesake forces her to act as a protagonist in these familiar stories as she figures out how to get home. But as she travels, she discovers that those controlling her story have their own selfish goals in mind – and her fate is the key to everyone’s happy ending.This volume collects the prologue through chapter 5 of the popular webcomic.

1000 Words


Wenqing Yan - 2012
    "Mister, can you teach me how to draw?"A young girl looks to art in hopes of mending her broken family.She seeks the help of an enigmatic artist, and with his guidance she will slowly come to understand the true worth of a picture.

Deadpool (2012) #1


Brian PosehnGerry Duggan - 2012
    The world needs someone with the reputation, skills and plausible deniability to take out these com-monsters-in-chiefs... In Wade We Trust!

Dogs: Bullets & Carnage, Vol. 8


Shirow Miwa - 2012
    When Miss Liza learns the truth behind the kidnapping of the Lost Children, the mutual distrust and anger only grow, with potentially fatal results. But Heine’s biggest problem by far lies in Naoto’s hands: the black sword that was made to kill his kind. When figures from Heine’s past confront him, will Naoto act as his ally…or his enemy?

Creepy Presents Richard Corben


Richard Corben - 2012
    For the first time ever, Corben's legendary Creepy and Eerie short stories and cover illustrations are being collected into one deluxe hardcover With an informative foreword by artist and comic-book colorist Jose Villarrubia - who also provides color restoration - this volume features Richard Corben's original stories, Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, and collaborations with comic-book writers Bruce Jones, Bill DuBay, Doug Moench, Gerald Conway, and others

LESSA


Pogo - 2012
    But I... should look for my sister; also, the Gods are here to help humans to prevent the attacks.An ongoing webcomic, new episode every Wednesday.#1-58Continued in LESSA 2 - The Crimson Night

A Cat's Life


Gemma Correll - 2012
    Worshipped since ancient times, cats are fickle, capricious and fiendishly clever. Oh, did we mention "vain," "elegant" and "charming"? Life has got to be on their terms or not at all. These willful creatures are masters of our homes, our wallets--and our hearts. By treating us with casual indifference our feline taskmasters keep us in our rightful place. We're just here because someone has to buy the catnip and pay the astronomical heating bills. Call a dog, he'll come running. Call a cat, he'll probably take a message and get back to you later. There's so much we can learn from our feline friends.

Creeping Death from Neptune: Horror and Science Fiction Comics


Basil Wolverton - 2012
    Following a well-received exhibit of original art in New York City s Gladstone Gallery (which The New York Times called exuberantly grotesque ) came 2009 s publication of The Wolverton Bible (Fantagraphics Books). Though his comic book work has been reprinted endlessly, it has either been modernized with digital colors or presented in austere black and white. The time has come for a robust volume of Wolverton s comics taken from their original printed source the comic books themselves.A pioneer from the first generation of comic book artists, Wolverton arrived just as publishers began embracing original material, turning away from the newspaper-strip reprints that had been sustaining the industry since its inception our years earlier. One of the first to realize the value of in-house features was Centaur Publications, whose art director Lloyd Jacquet gave Wolverton his big break in comics in 1938, accepting Meteor Martin for Amazing Man Comics and Space Patrol for Amazing Mystery Funnies. Jacquet soon established an independent comics packager, Funnies, Inc., for which he asked Wolverton to invent a new science-fiction character. The artist came up with the iconic Spacehawk, who made thirty appearances in Target Comics. Prime examples of Wolverton s iconic space hero will be featured in Creeping Death from Neptune.Fed up with the publisher s constant meddling with Spacehawk, Wolverton dropped his creation in 1942 and concentrated on humorous features for the rest of the decade. His short-lived return to serious subjects in 1951 resulted in some of the most intense horror and science-fiction stories of the pre-code era, including the classics Brain Bats of Venus, Escape to Death, and Robot Woman, all of which appear in this volume.Created with the full cooperation of the Wolverton estate, Creeping Death from Neptune will also examine, for the first time, the artist s personal ledgers and diaries, shedding new light on his working methods and his day-to-day life as a freelance comic book artist. The digital restoration of the printed art will be performed with subtlety and restraint, mainly to correct registration and printing errors, with every effort made to retain the flavor of the original comic books.

Jim Henson's Labyrinth: The Novelization


Ted Naifeh - 2012
    Archaia and the Jim Henson Company and proud to present an original prequel to Jim Henson’s classic fantasy film.

Batman (2011-2016) Annual #1


Scott Snyder - 2012
    FREEZE is introduced to The New 52!What is Mr. Freeze's relationship to the COURT OF OWLS? Is he an ally – or do they want him dead?"NIGHT OF THE OWLS" continues here!

City of Bones


Mike Raicht - 2012
    Set in modern day New York, the Mortal Instruments series centers on the "Shadowhunters," human-angel hybrids that hunt down demons while also keeping peace between the warlocks, vampires, werewolves, faeries and other mythical creatures who inhabit the Earth

Year One


Ramsey Beyer - 2012
    Follow Ramsey and her canine companion, Rover, as she documents the excitement of unknown possibility, friendships old and new, complicated romance, grief, loss, and the growth that accompanies change. Ramsey's search for a sense of "home" comes with plenty of great punk anecdotes and memories along the way.

The Cartoon Utopia


Ron Regé Jr. - 2012
    is a very unusual yet accomplished storyteller whose work has a passionate moral, idealistic core that sets him apart from his peers. The Cartoon Utopia is his Magnum Opus, a unique work of comic art that, in the words of its author, focuses on "ideas that I've become intrigued by that stem from magical, alchemical, ancient ideas & mystery schools." It's part sci-fi, part philosophy, part visual poetry, and part social manifesto. Regé's work exudes psychedelia, outsider rawness, and pure cartoonish joy. In The Cartoon Utopia, Utopians of the future world are attempting to send messages through consciousness, outside of the constricts of time as we understand it. They live in a world of advanced collective consciousness and want to help us understand how to achieve what they have accomplished. They get together to perform this task in a way that evolved out of our current system of consuming information and entertainment. In other words, the opposite of television. Instead, these messages appear in the form of art, music and storytelling.

Knite


Wenqing Yan - 2012
    The gears of China's industrial revolution turn, unceasing, manufacturing the wants of an entire world. The consequences soar upwards until the lights of the heavens have dimmed and vanished altogether…But there will be stars this night.The Knites have made it their mission bring the stars back to the night in China, hanging from the tails of kites. Some call it foolishness; others will find hope in the Knites' work. Hope that someday the shroud will lift, and people will see beyond the towering monoliths of industry and gaze upon the true stars once more.

After Nothing Comes


Aidan Koch - 2012
    They are drawn in a diaphanous, haptic style that suggests dreams and memories. In washes of ink, pencil smudges, white paint, and traces of drawings removed, Koch creates resonate tone poems on paper.

Stupid Dreams: The Complete 5-Minute Comics Collection


Joey Alison Sayers - 2012
    Here's a collection of "five-minute comics" (each one is actually drawn in under five minutes, she swears she used a timer!). They relentlessly poke fun at everyday life situations and pretty much every taboo subject you can think of.

Transposes


Dylan Edwards - 2012
    The result is laugh-out-loud funny, heartbreaking, challenging, inventive, informative, and invites the reader to explore what truly makes a man a man.Includes a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Alison Bechdel (Fun Home, Are You My Mother?)

Play Time!


Simon Tofield - 2012
    In full colour (on compatible devices) and featuring a selection of brand new cartoons, Simon's Cat is back, smaller, cheaper and cuter, but still up to his usual tricks.NB: Although the cover states 'Simon's Cat' before the 'Play Time!' title, the title page of the book simply states 'Play Time!' and that is therefore how it is catalogued.

Simon's Cat: Wake Up!


Simon Tofield - 2012
    In full colour and featuring a selection of brand new cartoons, Simon's Cat is back, only smaller, cheaper and cuter but as sleepy as ever.

Borderlands: Origins #2 Lilith


Mikey Neumann - 2012
    

The Darkness: Rebirth Volume 1


David Hine - 2012
    Only his desire to make his life truly perfect will be his undoing. What will Jackie do when everything begins to slip away?Collects THE DARKNESS #101-105.