He Done Her Wrong


Milt Gross - 1930
    Sharing the same goofy, over-the-top comic mayhem that was Chaplin's trademark, and preceding the expressive, cartoony art style of MAD magazine legend Harvey Kurtzman, all of He Done Her Wrong's hilarious slapstick, tragic heartbreak, heroism and villainy, character development, high emotions and raucous thrills somehow manages to take place, astonishingly, without a single word of text, or conversation, or even a footnote.The story follows the convoluted misadventures of a naive frontiersman with superhuman strength exploited by a larcenous robber baron who eventually double crosses our hero and steals his girl. The pursuit leads to New York City where a sordid cast of cantankerous salesmen, officious government bureaucrats, bumbling hospital attendants, a lusty widow with a defensive Chihuahua and one angry barber wreak more havoc in our characters' lives than a hundred Little Rascals in a Marx Brothers film.Born in the Bronx in 1895, Gross would go on to spend his teenage years working as an office assistant at the Hearst publication The New York Evening Journal. He befriended the paper's renowned comic strip bullpen that included such early 20th century comics legends as Tad Dorgan, Cliff Sterrett, Harry Hershfield and Tom McNamara, who allowed Gross to cut his teeth drawing background and dialogue lettering jobs on their strips. He eventually won space on the paper's sports page for his first large daily strip titled Kinney B. Alive, making its debut in 1916. The strip only lasted for one week, but subsequent efforts such as Frenchie, White Feitlebaums in the South Seas, Count Screwloose of Toulouse and the best-selling books Hiawatta Wit No Udda Pomes and Nize Baby asserted more staying power. Gross' stylized cartooning won the public devotion of such noteworthy fans as President Calvin Coolidge and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. According to The Comics Journal, Gross's skillful work displays a "Fast-action style Furiously tangled line work A freewheeling onslaught of immensely droll squiggles apparently done at top speed Inspired slapdash like nothing else in the cartoon art of his time [Gross] was a master of graphic invention and a one-man comic riot."He Done Her Wrong is a classic comics work, legendary among aficionados, and arguably the 20th century's first graphic novel. Fantagraphics Books is proud to put this back into print in a facsimile edition, unabridged, with newly designed covers.

Locas II


Jaime Hernández - 2006
    Even though her love life remains as chaotic as ever, Hopey takes her first few steps toward responsible adulthoodwith a real job (as a teacher), while a demoralized, divorced Maggie ends up as the manager of a fleabagapartment building where she continues to wrestlewith the demons of her past most prominently in thestunning centerpiece of the volume, the graphic-novel-length Maggie serial, with its stunning, hallucinatorydream finale.Meanwhile, Ray still carries a major torch for Maggie, butfalls in with the Frogmouth, the volatile bombshell whoseties to local thugs cause him no small amount of grief.Of course, Maggie, Hopey, and Ray s paths continue tointersect in Hernandez s increasingly complex, intricate, and always vitally realized world.This omnibus volume compiles stories originally printed in the pages of the comics Penny Century, the one-shot special Maggie & Hopey Color Fun (presented here in black and white), and Love and Rockets Vol. II, and was formerly collected in the volumes Dicks and Deedees, Locas in Love, Ghost of Hoppers and The Education of Hopey Glass.

The Property


Rutu Modan - 2013
    As they get to know modern Warsaw, Regina is forced to recall difficult things about her past, and Mica begins to wonder if maybe their reasons for coming aren’t a little different than what her grandmother led her to believe.

Walt and Skeezix, Vol. 1: 1921-1922


Frank King - 2005
    Not only does this volume reprint the first two years of the strip in which King’s friendly and nostalgic imagination took shape but each book in the series features an eighty-page color introduction by Jeet Heer of Canada’s National Post. Each introduction will also feature never-before-seen archival photos and ephemera from the personal collection of King’s granddaughter. Walt & Skeezix is not just a collection of a classic comic strip—it is the story of a great American cartoonist. Few cartoon strips have this kind of longevity and quality; Gasoline Alley has been with us since 1919 and is a gentle mirror held up to ordinary American life in the early twentieth century. It started as a mild satire on the post-WWI “craze” for cars, but it wasn’t long before it developed into a quirky family story attracting an audience of more than thirty million readers in four hundred–plus newspapers. Gasoline Alley, an affectionate portrait of modern living, is remembered for being the first strip to set itself in contemporary American history. The characters of Gasoline Alley grow up, go to war, and have grandchildren. The strip always reflects the kind, sweet pace of life.

Supergod


Warren Ellis - 2009
     Behold the apocalyptic tomorrow, when supermen kill us all and end the world just because we wanted to be rescued by human-shaped things from beyond Science itself!

Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko


Blake Bell - 2008
    Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko is a coffee table art book tracing Ditko's life and career, his unparalleled stylistic innovations, his strict adherence to his own (and Randian) principles, with lush displays of obscure and popular art from the thousands of pages of comics he's drawn over the last 55 years.

Everybody is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations


Peter Bagge - 2009
    And of course, Bagge's well-researched comic strip "essays" crackle with the same energy and wit that propelled him into the collective Gen X consciousness with his comic book series Hate.Favorite topics include the erosion of our civil liberties (whether the post-9/11 Bush administration's gradual erosion of the Bill of Rights, the insanity of the war on drugs, or nanny-state meddling), ongoing boondoggles of the American public (for professional sports stadiums or ineffective public transportation systems), the Iraq war(Bagge is vociferously against it), so-called art and so-called entertainment, the homeless, the mall-ification of America, politicians both in general and in particular (including the 2008 presidential race and a revelatory one-on-one with Republican not-so-hopeful Ron Paul that soured Bagge on the candidate forever), the conservative/religious war on sex and drugs, and whether citizens should be allowed to own bazookas. Each piece features the voluble Bagge himself front and center as the puzzled, indignant, or deeply conflicted everyman-on-the-street trying to make sense of this 21st Century.And of course, every panel is delineated in Bagge's glorious, laugh-out-loud stretchy 4-color cartoon style, making even his disquisitions on some very serious topics go down as smoothly as Buddy Bradley's latest escapade. Nominated for a 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award (Best Humor Publication).

Pantheon: The True Story of the Egyptian Deities


Hamish Steele - 2014
    The most important myth in Ancient Egypt is faithfully retold in glorious black and white! Horus, son of Isis, vows bloody revenge on his Uncle Set.

Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Vol. 1


Alex Raymond - 2004
    Zarkov can prevent doomsday. Taking Flash Gordon and Dale Arden captive, he takes off in a rocket to deflect the hurtling planet and save the world. The mad Zarkov, Flash and Dale survive a crash landing on Mongo, only to be captured by the diabolical Ming the Merciless. And the true adventure begins.

Eerie Archives, Vol. 1


Archie GoodwinDonald Norman - 2004
    Eerie magazine, like its killer kin Creepy, features work from many of the masters of comics storytelling. For fans of spectacular spookiness, mind-bending sci-fi, and astonishing artwork, the Eerie Archives library is a must have!

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black


E.B. Hudspeth - 2013
    A city of gas lamps, cobblestone streets, and horse-drawn carriages—and home to the controversial surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a grave robber, young Dr. Black studies at Philadelphia’s esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the world’s most celebrated mythological beasts—mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs—were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind?  The Resurrectionist offers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from a childhood spent exhuming corpses through his medical training, his travels with carnivals, and the mysterious disappearance at the end of his life. The second book is Black’s magnum opus: The Codex Extinct Animalia, a Gray’s Anatomy for mythological beasts—dragons, centaurs, Pegasus, Cerberus—all rendered in meticulously detailed anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. The Resurrectionist tells his story.

The Book of Revelation


Matt Dorff - 2012
    The book of Revelation may be the most analyzed text in all of Scripture. And yet it remains the most mysterious. Now comes an illustrated graphic novel version of this amazing book, including all 404 verses of this scriptural masterpiece. Stand in the Apostle John's sandals and watch the New Testament's climactic war between good and evil unfold in dramatic and dazzling imagery. See the Lamb, the Seven-Headed Dragon, and the Beast as never before. Take a thrilling ride through ancient prophecy. Discover anew the story of the ultimate fulfillment of John's faith as the final battle is fought between God and Satan. Including a translation by Fr. Mark Arey and Fr. Philemon Sevastiades, an adaptation by Matt Dorff, and illustrations by renowned artist Chris Koelle, The Book of Revelation is an emotionally stirring and thought-provoking way to experience this timeless narrative.

Intron Depot


Masamune Shirow - 1992
    American editions of his spectacular graphic epics have been highly praised and voraciously collected. Now, his gorgeous and highly detailed color art has been collected for the first time into a single, handsome trade paperback. Beautifully printed in Japan and featuring text in both Japanese and English, this package features nearly two hundred full-color Shirow works, 47 published for the first time anywhere in the world! This book is a nearly complete archive of Shirow's color work from 1981 to 1991, including material from Appleseed, Dominion, Black Magic, Orion, and much more. This is an absolute must for fans of Shirow, science-fiction and fantasy art, and manga.

Strange Planet


Nathan W. Pyle - 2019
    Pyle comes an adorable and profound universe in pink, blue, green, and purple. Based on the phenomenally popular Instagram of the same name, Strange Planet covers a full life cycle of the planet’s inhabitants, including milestones such as:The Emergence DayBeing Gains a SiblingThe Being Family Attains a BeastThe Formal Education of a BeingCelebration of Special DaysBeing Begins a VocationThe Beings at HomeHealth Status of a BeingThe Hobbies of a BeingThe Extended Family of the BeingThe Being Reflects on Life While Watching the Planet RotateWith dozens of never-before-seen illustrations in addition to old favorites, this book offers a sweet and hilarious look at a distant world not all that unlike our own.

The Harrowing of Hell


Evan Dahm - 2020
    But what if that first fevered, dreamlike writing about this moment of profound historical upheaval were to be resurrected itself, brought back to life in a haunting and exhilarating bedtime fable for our modern age?In The Harrowing of Hell, Evan Dahm draws upon a wide array of texts both ancient and modern, religious and historical, to create a brand new window into the life and death of Christ, a vision of a dying man’s revolutionary drive and fervent belief in humanity’s salvation from all manner of jailers. Discarding the heroic, demon-smiting Christ that has taken hold in the popular imagination, this story gives us a peaceable and contemplative Christ, defiantly at odds with the ancient and modern desires of His flock.A richly symbolic, densely illustrated allegorical tale that echoes back to us from ancient times, The Harrowing of Hell is a fascinating reinterpretation of one of the most important religious figures in history, before He was the god of the wealthy and powerful, before He was recast as the warrior worshipers preferred.