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

    As Bruce Wayne ponders the future, his early days as The Dark Knight come to mind, when he used his vast fortune to amass an arsenal of high-tech hardware to aid him in his war on crime.

    The story takes place in a small town called Nevermore (taking its name from the same poem as Lenore's namesake "The Raven") and the surrounding wilderness where Lenore's mansion and a nearby graveyard is situated.The primary focus of the graphic novel is dark humor, with many of the stories having twist endings. Common themes are the reinvention of children's songs, games, and nursery rhymes to something more macabre, and subverting all sorts of pop culture icons and cultural figures in to topics of dark comedy. In one story, for instance, Lenore accidentally kills the Easter Bunny. Lenore's actions often result in the death or injury to those around her and in various forms of chaos. Lenore is a character who's a mystery. She often thinks she is doing good and occasionally shows good intentions. Although in recent issues it should be noted that the character has shown a change in personality. When she is asked of what her dream is, she replies that it's to rule the world. To further question this, it should also be mentioned that whenever Lenore gets really upset or angry, she can be very violent and often takes her anger out on whoever made her angry even if it's one of her friends. This results in most of her friends (all for except Mr. Gosh) being very fearful of her. She can also be spiteful. All of this results in Lenore being an enigma due to her at times thinking that she's doing good with meaning to do good and at other times wanting to do something that's more along the lines of being evil.The comic also featured various onetime side stories (One of these stories, Samurai Sloth, is set to star in his own series) and occasionally guest strips from other artists (with Jhonen Vasquez being the most frequent). A recurring comic strip called "Things Involving Me" tells about the author's life and experience in an exaggerated, semi-autobiographical manner.

    It was tough. There were just so many things to keep track of. Cartoons, toys, snacks, school, homework and other kids' stuff. We had no money and we were supposed to listen to everything our parents and teachers said even when they did not make any sense.But we still did whatever we liked anyway.This book tells the childhood stories of five close friends, specifically how they met and became close friends even until today. Some of the stories in here might remind you what it was like when you were a kid.This is the origin story of the Bros from the "Bro, Don't Like That La, Bro" comic series and how different things were back then when nobody knew what the word 'Internet' meant.

    In a dazzling work of graphic fiction, a surreal journey through a wonderland eerily like real life, The Book of Leviathan chronicles an infant's investigations into life's great mysteries. Endowed with a preternatural interest in metaphysics and philosophy, yet as confused as any innocent by the vagaries of adult behavior, little Levi bears the added burden of living in a world that can literally change at the stroke of a pen.Aided by a wise pet ("Cat") and a favorite toy ("Bunny"), Levi encounters a frothing ectoplasmic Hegel and a woefully off-the-mark Freud. In less heady adventures, Levi contemplates why his parents disappear at night (and whether he is wholeheartedly pleased when they return each morning); the regrettable liberties taken with the English language; and the relationship between Bennetton and Pablo Neruda.Peter Blegvad's Book of Leviathan assembles the cream from Levi and Cat's adventures, published in The Independent on Sunday newspaper in the twilight years of the old Millennium. Blegvad's darkly humorous work has been described by Matt Groening as "one of the weirdest things I've ever stared at". Quirky and referential, dark and droll by turn, it follows the faceless baby Levi's journeys into and out of the world. They are escapes, but as some sage once observed, only a jailer would consider the term "escapist" pejorative.

    And Then Emily Was Gone is a dark horror-mystery that tells the story of Greg Hellinger, a man who sees monsters. A former detective driven to the brink of madness by terrifying apparitions, Hellinger is tasked with finding a missing girl named Emily. His search takes him to a remote community in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, where strange and terrible things are happening.Collects the complete, critically acclaimed

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    The daily comic first appeared on-line at www.qwantz.com and now boasts over 300,000 unique readers each month. Fans "click in" to see the philosophical thoughts, rants and misgivings of T-rex, the neurotic main character played by, well, a house-stopming-0apparently-college-educated Tyrannasaurus Rex. He carries on regular dialog with Utahraptor and Dromiceiomimus while God and the Devil make regular off-screen cameos.

    Sama's father has had a heart attack, and doctors give him a month to live. With his teddy bear in tow, Sama crawls under his bed and finds a magical portal to a strange realm called Undertown. What is this dark new world? To find out, Sama begins a journey through the depths of Undertown, where he searches for The Sugar Stone, a magical object that might be able to save his dad! This is volume 1 of the Undertown manga series.

    Skillfully drawn single panels explore a rich imagined world where actions have unexpected consequences and loneliness pervades, but not without a sense of the absurd. The stories read like vignettes that can span a day or decades, all drawn within a bordered page in intimate detail.Each story unfolds quickly and features characters that run the gamut: joke-writing sisters gone awry, a wandering sleepwalker, a pearl with curious properties, an elusive coughing neighbor, a wide-eyed girl of questionable appeal, even a storm drain. Whether animate or inanimate, sweet or monstrous, Lilli has the ability to infuse them all with pathos, humanity, and humor.

    After a decade of work and groundbreaking anthologies, "Everything Together" collects his short-story comics, which condense vast amounts of emotion and information into nuanced cartoon narratives. Harkham's classic style is both articulate and expedient. At the center of the book are two vastly different tales: "Poor Sailor," a sea-faring myth of a man gone to find wealth for his love; and "Somersaulting," a kind of fever dream of teenagers in love, wiling away the summer. Alongside these stories are shorter comic strips tackling everything from Napoleon as a tortured artist to touching examinations of Jewish mysticism and life in a shtetl, to satires on contemporary university life. Throughout these tales, Harkham maintains a light touch and emotive wit. The works in this book confirm his place among the best storytellers of his generation.Sammy Harkham was born in Los Angeles in 1980, moving to Sydney, Australia, at the age of 14. He soon started making his own comics and a zine, "Kramers Ergot," which has evolved into one of the most influential comics anthologies published today. His comic strip "Poor Sailor," originally published in "Kramers Ergot" 4, was subsequently included in "Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2004 "and has been published in French, Korean and Italian. "Kramers Ergot" has been on numerous "best of the year" lists including the "LA Weekly," "Time," "The New York Times," "Dazed and Confused," "The Comics Journal" and "Publishers Weekly." In 2006 Harkham started the ongoing comic series, "Crickets," and edited "The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror," and most recently the eighth volume of "Kramers Ergot." A partner in both the renowned bookstore Family, and the movie theater, Cinefamily, Harkham lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

    Now trapped in hell, with the Spirit of Vengeance bonded to his immortal soul and weighing him down, Johnny may have finally found a way out. But at what cost? From the depths of Hell to the glittering spires of Heaven, the Ghost Rider rides again, blazing new trails and dispensing fiery vengeance in his wake. The demonic team of Daniel Way, Mark Texeira and Javier Saltares reunite to put ol' Flamehead back in the saddle where he belongs. Ready or not, here he comes!COLLECTING: GHOST RIDER 1-19

    He only gets as far as the coffee shop on the next block, but his world is forever changed in the short journey.

    but which way are the new heroes running? The King's favorite king returns in some of his earliest solo sagas Mutated monsters menace the wondrous reign of Wakanda Captivating Kirby classics not seen in nearly 30 years Collects Black Panther #8-13.

    Seeking to put the rage that defined most of his life behind him, Kratos inadvertently sparks a feud with a mysterious cult of berserkers after attempting to save a stranger being mauled by a monstrous bear. But for the former Ghost of Sparta, no good deed goes unpunished.This collection of pulse-pounding skirmishes includes God of War #0-#4.