Best of
Surreal

2007

The Complete Novels


Flann O'Brien - 2007
    His five novels–collected here in one volume–are a monument to his inspired lunacy and gleefully demented genius. O’Brien’s masterpiece, At Swim-Two-Birds, is an exuberant literary send-up and one of the funniest novels of the twentieth century. The novel’s narrator is writing a novel about another man writing a novel, in a Celtic knot of interlocking stories. The riotous cast of characters includes figures “stolen” from Gaelic legends, along with assorted students, fairies, ordinary Dubliners, and cowboys, some of whom try to break free of their author’s control and destroy him. The narrator of The Third Policeman, who has forgotten his name, is a student of philosophy who has committed murder and wanders into a surreal hell where he encounters such oddities as the ghost of his victim, three policeman who experiment with space and time, and his own soul (who is named “Joe”). The Poor Mouth, a bleakly hilarious portrait of peasants in a village dominated by pigs, potatoes, and endless rain, is a giddy parody aimed at those who would romanticize Gaelic culture. A naïve young orphan narrates the deadpan farce The Hard Life, and The Dalkey Archive is an outrageous satiric fantasy featuring a mad scientist who uses relativity to age his whiskey, a policeman who believes men can turn into bicycles, and an elderly, bar-tending James Joyce. With a new Introduction by Keith Donohue

Powr Mastrs 1


C.F. - 2007
    might be the best choice." This first book by C.F. (also known in the East Coast underground music scene as Kites) is perhaps the most anticipated graphic novel debut of the year. Coming out of the fabled Providence, Rhode Island, art and noise scene, "Powr Mastrs" is an intense fantasy story projected to run to 10 volumes. In it, C.F. narrates the story of a tribe of mystical warriors whose power relations are constantly in flux. As power shifts, so do physical and psychological identities. In this first volume, we are introduced to the central characters and the complex geographies in which they wander. Overflowing with graphic ideas, from the intricately designed costumes each character wears to C.F.'s exacting architectural detail, "Powr Mastrs" is rendered in a distinctive pencil line that has already attracted much attention in sources like the groundbreaking comics anthology, "Kramers Ergot,"

Rice Boy: The First Book


Evan Dahm - 2007
    Included in this volume are chapters 1 through 11 of the comic, and various additional artworks. The story of Rice Boy is available, in what may have been a poor financial decision, for free online at www.rice-boy.com

Kokou no Hito, Volume 1-17 (Kokou no Hito, #1-17)


Shin'ichi Sakamoto - 2007
    Despite knowing that one misstep could send him spiraling to his death, he moves forward, and upon finally reaching the top, Mori experiences a sense of fulfillment. That feeling, which seems to be telling him, "You're alive!" gives birth to an adrenaline for rock-climbing.*From volume 4 on, Sakamoto Shinichi has done both story and art. 17 Volumes (Complete) Associated names:孤高の人孤高之人고고한 사람AscensionKoko no HitoThe Climber

Partial List of People to Bleach


Gary Lutz - 2007
    A stunning collection of new and rare stories by Gary Lutz, the celebrated author of Stories in the Worst Way and I Looked Alive.

Krazy and Ignatz, 1941-1942: A Ragout of Raspberries


George Herriman - 2007
    The gorgeous evolution continues in Fantagraphics's fourth color volume (subtitled "A Ragout of Raspberries"), which includes the Sunday strips from all of 1941 and 1942. The color format opens the floodgates for a massive amount of spectacular, rare color art from series editor Bill Blackbeard and designer Chris Ware's files. Most of these strips in this volume have not seen print since originally running in Hearst newspapers over 60 years ago.For this volume, critic Jeet Heer contributes an essay about the history and precedents of Herriman's unique use of language, exploring his characters' loquacious lexicography.

Madman and the Atomics


Mike Allred - 2007
    They fight crime, befriend monster aliens and find love in Snap City! Spun off from the pages of Madman, Frank "Madman" Einstein also appears alongside the Mutant Street Beatniks turned Super-Heroes.Contains: The Atomics #1-15

Little Nemo in Slumberland, Vol. 1


Winsor McCay - 2007
    The first in a full color oversized collection of the signature strip from America's greatest comic illustrator of all time. It includes rare Nemo promo art, the series that featured many of Nemo's characters first " Tales of The Jungle Imp" in color, and that wonderful New strip from 1905-1909.

The Harbour Beyond The Movie (Salt Modern Poets)


Luke Kennard - 2007
    Luke Kennard is an award-winning poet, critic and short-fiction writer. He works as a research student and assistant teacher at the University of Exeter. He is an award-winning man.His first award-winning collection of prose poems The Solex Brothers was published by Stride Books in 2005 and won an award. He has worked as regional editor for Succour, a biannual journal of poetry and short fiction based at the University of Sussex and as an associated reader for The Kenyon Review. He is currently reviews editor of Exultations and Difficulties. His award-winning poetry has appeared in numerous print and on-line journals. He exists in a permanent state of award-winning; he is like a giant magnet for awards or, if awards are moths, a giant light.His award-winning work for the stage has been written with and performed by the theatre company Pegabovine in Bristol, Birmingham, London, Scarborough (as part of the National Student Drama Festival, 2003 and 2004, wherein it won an award) and at the Edinburgh International Fringe (wherein it did not win an award). The Sunday Times described their work as "wit of a different order," but did not specify which one. Chortle magazine described it as "delightful" - which is probably less equivocal. He is constantly decorated for his achievements in the form of awards - which he has won, does win and will continue to win, because he is a winner. What a guy.Luke Kennard is tall, nervous, polite and frequently scorches the end of his nose. He was educated at Holyrood Community School and the University of Exeter. He is married and lives in Devon, birthplace of the memorial bench. Essentially a lower-middle class purist, his favourite canape is the cocktail sausage roll. He will probably have rosettes and medals incorporated into his gravestone, somehow.Luke Kennard, award-winner, won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2005. This has been described as a travesty and a slap in the face for writers of genuine talent. Ever since he has been forced to travel under a false name and wear nose-moustache-glasses for fear of being assaulted by embittered poets, young and old. I suppose he could just smash them in the head with one of his awards. He was received by the Orthodox church in 2006 and is working on his humility.

Haunted House


Pierre Reverdy - 2007
    Described by André Breton as among the ten books he would most like to take to a desert island, Haunted House combines the oblique, dreamlike world of Reverdy's poetry with a more ironic, whimsical tone of mock grandeur. John Ashbery's translations, published here for the first time in the UK, extends his life-long engagement with French literature, one that has vitally informed his own work in poetry, literature, and the arts.

I Cut My Finger


Stuart Ross - 2007
    The poems here show Ross's ever-expanding breadth, from his trademark humour and surrealism, to pointedly experimental works and poems of human anguish. Here, a poet includes a letter threatening suicide in his submission of poems to a literary journal; a businessman dons flippers to swim along the sidewalk to his downtown office; the U.S. military follows a trail of red ants to glacial redemption; the writer finds profound joy in a tower of canned niblets. But beneath the slapstick exterior of so many of Ross's poems there lurk dark threats and darker pleasures.