The Manly World of Lloyd Llewellyn


Daniel Clowes - 1994
    The 31 stories collected here combine Dragnet with The Twilight Zone with Tales from the Crypt in a world filled with aliens, good-time girls, and cocktail-bar nihilism. The stories are hip and funny, with a good dose of wacky 1950s paranoia and the kind of tongue-in-cheek morality that characterized the old E.C. horror comics. The Lloyd Llewellyn stories also trace the development of Clowes's style as a comic artist, from the angular early pieces that show the influence of 1950s advertising style to the grotesque Robert Crumb-inspired style of the more recent work in Eightball. Clowes is one of the most gifted comic-book artists around, and the retro-chic world of Lloyd Llewellyn deserves to be seen by a new generation of readers.

Cave In


Brian Ralph - 1999
    Who would have thought a simple quest for food would be so difficult? This completely wordless story is perfect for children ages 5 and older. Grown-ups'll love it, too.

Wally Gropius


Tim Hensley - 2010
    When the elder Thaddeus Gropius confronts Wally with the boilerplate plot ultimatum that he must marry "the saddest girl in the world" or be disinherited, a yarn unravels that is part screwball comedy and part unhinged parable on the lucrativeness of changing your identity.Hensley's dialogue is witty, lyrical, sampled, dada, and elliptical--all in the service of a very bizarre mystery. There's sex, violence, rock and roll, intrigue, and betrayal--all brought home in Hensley's truly inimitable style.Created during an era when another well-off "W" was stuffing the coffers of the morbidly solvent, Wally Gropius transforms futile daydreams and nightmares into the absurdity of capital.

Book of the Damned: A Hellraiser Companion


Clive Barker - 1991
    A Hellraiser Companion, first in a 4 volume set.

Puke Force


Brian Chippendale - 2013
    . . obsessively detailed [comics] feel like [they've] been shot straight from his brain onto the page." - Village Voice Puke Force is social satire written dark and dense across Brian Chippendale's deconstructed multiverse of walking, talking M&Ms, hamsters, and cycloptic-yet-glamorous trivia hosts. In scathingly funny single-page strips that build and build, he takes on social media narcissism, governmental propaganda, racism, and a culture of violence, skewering the malice of the right and the hypocrisies of the left. A bomb explodes in a coffee shop: the incident is played out over and over again from the perspective of each table in the shop, revisiting moments from ten and twenty years before. We see the inevitable as the characters bicker or celebrate, unaware of what's coming. Throughout this dystopic graphic novel, Chippendale uses humor and a frantic drawing style to show how the insidious nature of corporate greed and the commodification of everything have warped society into a killing machine. Sardonic and self-aware, Puke Force asks all the right questions, providing a startling and on-point take on contemporary social issues. Chippendale's artwork makes each panel a masterpiece of thrumming linework and lo-fi magic, as his storytelling wends and winds its way to a fascinating conclusion.

Drawn & Quarterly Showcase: Book One


Chris Oliveros - 2003
    This is the inaugural volume in an annual showcase of new talent, complimenting our annual flagship anthology. This is comics pushing all the boundaries; surreal, edgy stories of wonder that shimmer with visual style and emotional power. They are presented here in a deluxe package to introduce them to new fans of illustrated fiction.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black & White Classics, Vol. 1


Kevin Eastman - 2014
    He shares the story of his master’s murder and asks them to avenge this death and kill the one responsible, the man known as ... Shredder!

Let Us Be Perfectly Clear


Paul Hornschemeier - 2006
    Perfectly Clear brings back into print stories that Hornschemeier published prior to his Three Paradoxes Fantagraphics debut from a variety of sources—his own self-published Forlorn Funnies, as well as strips that originally appeared in independent magazines and papers—none of which has been available to the book trade.The book is designed as a "flip book" in the tradition of the old Ace paperbacks, with one side featuring comedic work (or as comedic as Hornschemeier's mind allows), and the other decidedly more morose. With almost every page, we see a new style, a new direction; with the resultant effect being that of an anthology by creators of vastly contrasting sensibilities.On the "funny" menu, we are treated to Dr. Rodentia (an unfortunate-looking fellow with only apathy as his weapon), a detailed artist's catalogue exploring such modern masterpieces as "Accidental Late-Night Sex With a Radiator," musings on the cancerous nature of civilization as observed by a deceased cat and a cotton-based airbus, the scatological "Feelings Check," the ever pathetic Vanderbilt Millions and his fantasies of self-worth, and the multi-narrative story that started the Forlorn Funnies comics series: "The Men and Women of the Television."Clearly, there is a fine line in the Hornschemeier lexicon between funny and morose.On our "forlorn" plate we are served the cold examination of the dyslexic narcoleptic and his bungled plans of murder, a sea creature's balancing of morality and sustenance, the Western romance "Wanted," a metal man's self-destructive search for meaning, and the story the alternative website Ain't It Cool News describes as delivering "a complicated mixture of disgust and pity."Let Us Be Perfectly Clear demonstrates Paul Hornschemeier's versatility and breadth in an elegantly produced book that will appeal to connoisseurs of contemporary, cutting-edge cartoons and graphic novels.

Red Room: The Antisocial Network


Ed Piskor - 2021
    It livestreams murders as entertainment. Who are the killers? Who are the victims? Who is paying to watch? How to stop it? Red Room is constructed as a series of interconnected stories, shining a light on the characters who exist in the ugliest of corners in cyberspace. Piskor cuts the graphic horror with his sharp sense of humor, gorgeous cartooning, and dynamic storytelling. Red Room peels back the curtain on the side of humanity few of us knew existed, let alone understood. Fans and followers of Piskor’s YouTube channel sensation, Cartoonist Kayfabe, have already made Red Room: The Antisocial Network one of the most eagerly anticipated and talked-about releases of 2021. It is the first in a series of graphic novels, with the second scheduled for release in Summer 2022.

MOME Summer 2005


Eric Reynolds - 2004
    - A new quarterly anthology of the best new talent in the sequential arts- In color, part-color, and black-and-white- The regular roster of artists gives the series a concrete identity- Quarterly schedule allows readers to look forward to favorite artists on a regular basis- Created for a general audience of literature fans, with a focus on contemporary fiction and narrative

All About P'Gell


Will Eisner - 1998
    There are 17 classic stories, reprinted in black and white. Contains the complete stories “The Portier Fortune,” “Saree,” “The School For Girls,” “Saree Falls In Love,” “Il Fuce’s Locket,” “Black Gold (The Lands of Ben Adim),” “Competition,” “Money,” “Assignment Paris (The Spanish Jewels),” “Teachers Pet,” “The Seventh Husband,” “A Ticket Home,” “The Loot Of Robinson Crusoe (The Island Of Pearls),” “Staple Springs,” “L’Spirit,” “The Incident of the Sitting Duck,” and “The Capistrano Jewels.”

The Blot


Tom Neely - 2007
    That’s something of the premise behind The Blot by Tom Neely, one of the most bizarre and original graphic novels I’ve read this year. In a crisp, clean, yet utterly surreal drawing style, Neely depicts the odd adventures of an Average Joe whose face is periodically ravaged by a giant ink blot. The man tries to escape the blot, control the blot, even meets a woman who helps him understand the blot. [...] What starts out as semi-humorous and absurdist gains depth and poignancy -- a luminous quality, a quality of something pulled whole out of the subconscious, permeates the latter portions of The Blot. -Bookslut.com

Wish You Were Here No. 1: The Innocents


Gipi - 2005
    "The Innocents," which includes two narrative tracks in different drawing styles, is a contemplative, beautifully drawn graphic novelette about these three characters' meeting. Future issues will focus on other members of this group of friends, a bit like Jaime Hernandez's "Locas" stories, with supporting characters stepping into the spotlight as former "lead" characters become part of the background...

Preacher vol. 1-9


Garth Ennis - 1996
    The entire run has been collected in nine trade paperback editions. The final monthly issue, number 66, was published in July 2000.Preacher follows the story of Preacher Jesse Custer, his best friend, and his girlfriend, as they explore a world that fuses Southern culture and supernatural elements, especially religious ones, in a way that is highly provocative, exploratory, and controversial.Preacher draws on movies, particularly Westerns, for many of its stylistic elements.

Dungeon: Zenith - Vol. 3: Back in Style


Joann Sfar - 2009
    Two stories continue the heyday of Dungeon, in the first, Isis is to be married to the Keeper but she wants Herbert! Besides, the whole affair promises to ruin the Dungeon completely. In the second, besides the continued Keeper financial mishaps, Herbert wishes to make his comeback to his hometown where his name is mud. He disguises himself with a potion that makes him the mask of death . Only one problem: if he laughs, he becomes himself again!