Book picks similar to
Against Pain by Ron Regé Jr.


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Primordial (2021) - #1


Jeff Lemire - 2021
    Two years later, the USA responded with two monkeys, Able and Baker. These animals never returned. But, unbeknownst to everyone, they did not die in orbit…they were taken. And now they are coming home.

Gilded Lilies


Jillian Tamaki - 2006
    Included is a reprint of her mini-comic, City of Champions, as well as a new comic, The Tapemines, an 80-page wordless scroll about feral children in forests of cassette tape. With inspirations including German expressionists Georg Grosz and Otto Dix, as well as Japanese and Inuit printmakers, Tamaki's unique style often celebrates the inherent beauty in the grotesque, while remaining character-driven and focused on observational narrative.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth


Grant Morrison - 1989
    Accepting their demented challenge, Batman is forced to live and endure the personal hells of the Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, and many other sworn enemies in order to save the innocents and retake the prison. During his run through this absurd gauntlet, the Dark Knight's own sanity is placed in jeopardy. This special anniversary edition trade paperback also reproduces the original script with annotations by Morrison and editor Karen Berger.

Cry Yourself to Sleep


Jeremy Tinder - 2006
    In this stellar debut, Jeremy Tinder mixes sadness, sweetness and humor to tell a quirky little story of pride-swallowing, fake moustaches, car crashes and friendship.

Micrographica


Renée French - 2007
    A mob of tiny rodents live la vida loca, led by the trash-talking bully Moe and his trash-talking sidekick Preston. Add in Nubbins, the big guy; poor, sweet crapball-lovin' Aldo and a rotting corpse turned playground, and you'll never find a more moving affirmation of traditional values. Inspired by a bald bird sighting while the author was wandering Hunter's Hill in Sydney, Australia, this book is pure weirdness - just what Renee French fans dream of. With guest drawings by Jim Woodring, Penn Jillette, Dean Cameron, Dylan Williams, James Gunn and more.

Jim Henson's Tale of Sand


Jim Henson - 2011
    Discovered in the Archives of the The Jim Henson Company, A Tale of Sand is an original graphic novel adaptation of an unproduced, feature-length screenplay written by Jim Henson and his frequent writing partner, Jerry Juhl. A Tale of Sand follows scruffy everyman, Mac, who wakes up in an unfamiliar town, and is chased across the desert of the American Southwest by all manners of man and beast of unimaginable proportions. Produced with the complete blessing of Lisa Henson, A Tale of Sand will allow Henson fans to recognize some of the inspirations and set pieces that appeared in later Henson Company productions.

Enter The House of Slaughter #0


James Tynion IV - 2021
    if you dare.

I Will Bite You! and Other Stories


Joseph Lambert - 2011
    The comics here are sophisticated, unusual narratives about animal musicians, mischievous children, cavemen and heavenly bodies.

The Great Big Book of Tomorrow: A Treasury of Cartoons


Tom Tomorrow - 2003
    With an ever increasing fan base, an expanding number of publications who regularly feature his work, one of the most popular and most visited web-logs (www.thismodernworld.com), the time is now for The Great Big Book of Tomorrow. This massive collection of Tomorrow's greatest hits, unseen gems and obscurities, new material and color section is the so far definitive collection of one of the most popular 'underground' cartoonists ever--a delight to long-time fans and new readers alike.

Kane Volume 1: Greetings From New Eden: Greetings from New Eden v. 1


Paul Grist - 2004
    following a six month suspension after he shot and killed his partner Dennis Harvey. His fellow police officers give Kane a welcome back gift - a couple of bullets with his name engraved on them. Partnered with a new detective, Kate Felix, Kane soon finds out nothing has changed in the city of New Eden. In his first two days back, Kane has to deal with a siege, a kidnapping and a bomb attack. And then there's the Crime Boss of New Eden, Oscar Darke...

Jack Kirby's The Losers


Jack Kirby - 2009
    At the same time, Kirby also created a series of stories that drew on his own experiences in World War II. Starring DC war heroes including Captain Storm, Johnny Cloud, Gunner and Sarge, this volume features inventive stories in which The Losers stop a German attack using a strategy found in a comic book, German and American athletes who faced each other at the 1936 Berlin Olympics meet again on the field of combat, and much more.

The Escapists


Brian K. VaughanDan Jackson - 2007
    Tells the tale of three aspiring comics creators with big dreams, small cash, and publishing rights to one forgotten Golden Age hero - The Escapist.

Pearls Takes a Wrong Turn: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury


Stephan Pastis - 2018
    Always together—and sometimes with their fellow funny-page characters—the regular Pearls clan weighs in on everything from modern technology to current events to human nature. All the members of the skewed gang are here as Zebra engages in a never-ending war of neighborly hate with the Crocs. As always, Goat offers a voice of reason amid the ongoing chaos that Pastis creates, either from behind the pen or as a character within the strip itself. Includes all cartoons from the collections I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream Because Puns Suck and Floundering Fathers.

Almost Silent


Jason - 2010
    (As the title indicates, this volume favors Jason's pantomime works.) You Can't Get There From Here, the longest story of the book (and the only one to be printed in color well, a color), tells the tale of a love triangle involving Frankenstein, Frankenstein's Monster, and The Monster's Bride: Jason cleverly alternates between totally silent sequences involving the three characters and scenes in which Frankenstein's hunchbacked assistant discusses the day s events with a fellow hunchbacked assistant to another mad scientist. (You didn't know they had a union?) Tell Me Something is a brisk (271 panels), near-totally-silent (just a few intertitles) graphic novelette about love lost and found again, told with a tricky mixture of forward- and back-flashing narrative. Meow, Baby is a collection of Jason's short stories and gags, and finally, The Living and the Dead is a hilariously deadpan (and gory) take on the traditional Romero-style zombie thriller. All of these yarns star Jason's patented cast of tight-lipped (or -beaked) bird-, dog-, cat- and wolf-people, and show off his compassion and wry wit. Almost Silent is a perfect starting point for a new reader wanting to know what the fuss is all about, and a handsome, handy, inexpensive collection for the committed Jason fan.

Lucky


Gabrielle Bell - 2006
    Her simple, unadorned drawing style, heavy narration, and biting wit chronicle transient roommates who communicate only through Post-it notes; aspiring artists who sublet tiny rooms in leaky, greasy broken-down border-house loft apartments crawling with bugs, cats, and bad art. Bell tackles a string of forgettable, unrelated jobs--including nude modeling, artist's assistant, art teacher, and jewelry maker--that only serve to bolster her despair, boredom, and discomfort in her own skin.Bell's self-scrutiny leads her to dream sequences that allow her to rise above her banal actuality and hyperawareness. She fantasizes about her vision of a perfect world as she becomes the accomplished artist and world traveler she longs to be. Bell's daily comics allow her to escape the harsh, judgmental gaze of the world and the monotony of daily life. Her unpolished art speaks to a desire to record all the messy details while the pain and confusion are still fresh.Coming of age amid the zine revolution, cartoonist Gabrielle Bell has been creating her comics to much acclaim, even winning an Ignatz Award for the self-published serialization of Lucky.