The Cruise of Lost Souls


Pierre Christin - 1975
    After a military device is mysteriously hidden in the town, Liternos is literally lifted from the ground and sent on an incredible journey across the countryside. As the floating town nears the ocean, it raises the spirits of other villagers and peaks the interest of an army that are having strange problems of their own.

Last Look


Charles Burns - 2016
    The fragments of the past collide with the reality of the present, nightmarish dreams evolve into an even more dreadful reality, and when you finally find out where all of this has been going, and what it means . . . it will make you go right back to the first page and read it all again with new eyes. Just like Doug.(With full-color illustrations throughout)

King of the Flies Vol. 1: Hallorave


Mezzo - 2005
    (He is the titular King.)King of the Flies is designed as a trilogy of albums, which will combine to form a single graphic novel of stunning intricacy and intensity. (Vol. 2, “The Beginning of All Things,” will be released by Fantagraphics in the Summer of 2010.)

The White Lama Book 1: The First Step


Alejandro Jodorowsky - 1988
    The son of white explorers. Gabriel is actually the reincarnation of the Grand Lama of Tibet. In his quest to learn the sacred ways and confront a great prophecy, Gabriel begins an arduous physical training program under the tutelage of the master warrior, Tzu. Meanwhile, corruption has found its way into the Grand Lama's own monastery in his absence. Now Gabriel must awaken his own mystical powers and overcome great challenges if he is to find his way to the monastery and fulfill his destiny.

Yukiko's Spinach


Frédéric Boilet - 2001
    Passionate, gentle, fresh and vibrant, it is a love so strong it hurts. Quietly paced, the story unfolds in a host of innovative techniques both narrative and visual. At the heart of the title is Boilet's deliberate (mis)use of the pronounced Japanese for [i]navel[/i] and [i]spinach[/i]. First serialized in 2000 - 2001 in the monthly Furansugo Kaiwa it is the defining work of Boilet's [i]Nouvelle Manga[/i] movement.

Dungeon: Twilight - Vol. 2: Armageddon


Joann Sfar - 2006
    Marvin, saved at the last minute from certain death in a duel by his young warrior admirer Marvin the Red, simply cannot be let to die like he wishes!

Babette


Hermann Huppen - 1984
    Hermann, international comics superstar and creator of Jeremiah, Bernard Prince, Comanche, Blood Ties, and Rodrigo, is one of comics most skilled and versatile storytellers, a master of light, shadow, composition, and character. Few creators of graphic fiction are capable of producing such a sweeping, ambitious work that succeeds so gloriously on so many levels. The Towers of Bois-Maury is Hermann's masterwork, a series of vast scope, breathtaking imagery, and emotional intensity and is another essential Venture graphic album, produced in a beautiful laminated hardcover English-language edition in association with Strip Art Features

PLUTO: Naoki Urasawa x Ozamu Tezuka, Band 001


Naoki Urasawa - 2004
    Europol's top detective Gesicht is assigned to investigate these mysterious robot serial murders; the only catch is that he himself is one of the seven targets.

Three Shadows


Cyril Pedrosa - 2007
    The taste of cherries, the cool shade, the smell of the river... That was how we lived, in a vale among the hills—sheltered from storms, ignorant of the world, as though on an island, peaceful and untroubled.And then...And then everything changed.Can you ever escape your fate?Three shadows stand outside the house—and Louis and Lise know why the spectral figures are there. The shadows have come for Louis and Lise’s son, and nothing anyone can do will stop them. Louis cannot let his son die without trying to prevent it, so the family embarks on a journey to the ends of the earth, fleeing death.Poignant and suspenseful, Three Shadows is a haunting story of love and grief, told in moving text and sweeping black and white artwork by Cyril Pedrosa.

Exterminator 17


Jean-Pierre Dionnet - 1979
    Nikopol Trilogy artist, Enki Bilal, teams with world-renowned writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet to create a unique science fiction adventure. For generations, warrior robots called, "Exterminators" have fought in deadly environments across the galaxy. When the soul of the man who created the Exterminators is transferred into one of his killing machines, a series of events is set into motion that will lead to the liberation of his creations from their human masters. Exterminator 17 will mark the first time that Humanoids Publishing will follow a graphic album with a comic series. Fans of Bilal should also take note that Exterminator 17 features a master re-coloring by comics veteran Dan Brown.

It Was the War of the Trenches


Jacques Tardi - 1993
    (His very first—rejected—comics story dealt with the subject, as does his most recent work, the two-volume Putain de Guerre.) But It Was the War of the Trenches is Tardi’s defining, masterful statement on the subject, a graphic novel that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.Tardi is not interested in the national politics, the strategies, or the battles. Like Remarque, he focuses on the day to day of the grunts in the trenches, and, with icy, controlled fury and disgust, with sardonic yet deeply sympathetic narration, he brings that existence alive as no one has before or since. Yet he also delves deeply into the underlying causes of the war, the madness, the cynical political exploitation of patriotism. And in a final, heartbreaking coda, Tardi grimly itemizes the ghastly human cost of the war, and lays out the future 20th century conflicts, all of which seem to spring from this global burst of insanity.Trenches features some of Tardi’s most stunning artwork. Rendered in an inhabitually lush illustrative style, inspired both by abundant photographic documentation and classic American war comics, augmented by a sophisticated, gorgeous use of Craftint tones, trenches is somehow simultaneously atypical and a perfect encapsulation of Tardi’s mature style. It is the indisputable centerpiece of Tardi’s oeuvre.It Was the War of the Trenches has been an object of fascination for North American publishers: RAW published a chapter in the early 1980s, and Drawn and Quarterly magazine serialized a few more in the 1990s. But only a small fraction of Trenches has ever been made available to the English speaking public (in now out of print publications); the Fantagraphics edition, the third in an ongoing collection of the works of this great master, finally remedies this situation.

The Collector


Sergio Toppi - 2010
    But beware, a man who comes into possession of such items does not hesitate to use any means without scruple. Set against the backdrop of late 19th-century colonialism, The Collector is a delightful, swashbuckling adventure by a master of European comic books - Sergio Toppi!

Stigmata


Lorenzo Mattotti - 1998
    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) applies his virtuosic pen to novelist and screenwriter Claudio Piersanti’s gripping fable of good, evil, sacrifice and ultimate redemption.

Torpedo Volume One


Enrique Sánchez Abulí - 1983
    Abuli's distinctive narrative builds the story over time and Jordi Bernet's masterful renditions of the title character are stunningly cinematic - Torpedo is the Godfather of comics, in both subject matter and execution.

Transports of Love


Nicolas de Crécy - 2005
    The privacy, as it turns out, is to build a mode of transportation that can get him through earth and seas to his beloved far, far away. As unpredictable and totally original as 'Glacial Period,' this is a Plymptonesque tale filled with absurd, irresistible bittersweet humor.