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Violent Cases


Neil Gaiman - 1987
    After dislocating his arm, a young boy is taken to see a doctor - an aged osteopath who was once the doctor of legendary gangster Al Capone.

Mother, Come Home


Paul Hornschemeier - 2003
    Mother, Come Home is Hornschemeier's graphic novel debut—the quietly stunning tale of a father and son struggling, by varying degrees of escapism and fantasy, to come to terms with the death of the family's mother. The story seamlessly weaves through the surreal and the painfully factual, guided by the careful, somber colors and inventive pacing unique to Hornschmeier's storytelling. Mother, Come Home extracts almost tangible drama from the most tranquil of moments, making that which is unspoken in each panel easily audible, and almost uncomfortably experienced.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures


Phoebe Gloeckner - 2002
    I was a very ugly child. My appearance has not improved so I guess it was a lucky break when he was attracted by my youthfulness." So begins the wrenching diary of Minnie Goetze, a fifteen-year-old girl longing for love and acceptance and struggling with her own precocious sexuality. Minnie hates school and she wants to be an artist, or maybe a speleologist, or a bartender. She sleeps with her mother's boyfriend, and yet is too shy to talk with boys at school. She forges her way through adolescence, unsupervised and unguided, defenseless, and yet fearless.The story unfolds in the libertine atmosphere of the 1970s San Francisco, but the significance of Minnie's effort to understand herself and her world is universal. This is the story of an adolescent troubled by the discontinuity between what she thinks and feels and what she observes in those around her. The Diary of a Teenage Girl offers a searing comment on adult society as seen though the eyes of a young woman on the verge of joining it.In this unusual novel, artist and writer Phoebe Gloeckner presents a pivotal year in a girl's life, recounted in diary pages and illustrations, with full narrative sequences in comics form.

Notes from the Shadowed City


Jeffrey Alan Love - 2016
    He finds himself stranded in a land he does not know and enters a city with no name over which looms an ominous floating citadel. As he seeks a way home, he fills his notebook with drawings and observations of his life in this strange place. It is full of masked swordsmen, cities that walk, ancient gods, swords made from petrified trees and dragons that move mountains. There’s also a mysterious woman who captures his heart.From the imagination of award-winning artist Jeffrey Alan Love comes this illustrated tale of swords and magic, memory and loss, and the overwhelming desire to find a way home no matter the cost. His first book detailing this fantastic journey, Notes From the Shadowed City is told through small moments that create a larger narrative. Love employs his renowned artistry to create a heavily visual narrative boasting more than seventy illustrations, and every spread features his art along with handwritten text—a captivating journal entry that expands into a visual symphony. As you follow in the footsteps of this young man, you’ll be intrigued to seek out the Shadowed City.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1


Emil Ferris - 2017
    Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Pinocchio


Winshluss - 2003
    In this dark rendition, a greedy Geppetto builds Pinocchio as a metallic weapon of war, while Jiminy Cockroach is a homeless squatter living the good life in Pinocchio's skull. Critically acclaimed, Pinocchio won the Grand Prize at France's Angouleme comics festival in 2009. Exquisite drawings by celebrated cartoonist Winshluss bring to life a rich tale of greedy fools, lust, sadness, redemption, and hope. Teamed with brilliant colorist Cizo, Winshluss creates an epic adventure through a lush world. As we follow Pinocchio along the way, the stories and vinettes intertwine, offering subtle political critiques and send ups of popular culture. We meet seven sleazy dwarves, follow Jiminy's struggles as a novelist, watch a blind tramp find God, and see the innocent, yet powerful Pinocchio encircled by those who would use him for their own ends. Winshluss has perfected the wordless comic. Each page is perfectly composed - not a panel is wasted. The artwork is primarily done in pen and ink, and watercolor but switches to paint for larger splash panels. The art also references a terrific range of illustrative styles and history in the story from late 18th century pen and ink, to early French film pioneer Georges Melies, through early Disney, and underground comix. Born in 1970, Winshluss is the creator of numerous comics and graphic novels that have garnered awards and acclaim across Europe. Winshluss is the pen name of Vincent Parronnaud, perhaps best known as co-director of the animated film Persepolis (with Marjane Satrapi), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe and Cannes' Palm d'Or. Currently, he and Satrapi are teaming up again to adapt Satrapi's 2006 book "Chicken with Plums.""

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.

Shoplifter


Michael Cho - 2014
    Studying English literature in college, she imagined writing a successful novel and leading the idealized life of an author. But she’s been working at the same advertising agency for the past five years and the only thing she’s written is . . . copy. Corrina knows there must be more to life, but and she faces the same question as does everyone in her generation: how to find it? Here is the brilliant debut graphic novel about a young woman’s search for happiness and self-fulfillment in the big city.(With two-color illustrations throughout.)

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir


Riad Sattouf - 2014
    Venturing first to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment. The ultimate outsider, Riad, with his flowing blond hair, is called the ultimate insult… Jewish. And in no time at all, his father has come up with yet another grand plan, moving from building a new people to building his own great palace.Brimming with life and dark humor, The Arab of the Future reveals the truth and texture of one eccentric family in an absurd Middle East, and also introduces a master cartoonist in a work destined to stand alongside Maus and Persepolis.

Isaac the Pirate: To Exotic Lands


Christophe Blain - 2001
    He runs into a rich Captain who is taken by his abilities and hires him with a handsome stipend to come along in his voyages. It turns out he's a pirate. Isaac went to make some quick money and come back and marry the love of his life but has embarked upon a series of at turns hilarious and dark adventures on the high seas from the Caribbean to the icy North, with apparently no end in sight. Meanwhile, his girlfriend is getting attention from another.

5,000 km Per Second


Manuele Fior - 2009
    Executed in stunning watercolors and broken down into five chapters (set in Italy, Norway, Egypt, and Italy again), 5,000 Kilometers Per Second manages to refer to Piero and Lucia's actual love story only obliquely, focusing instead on its first stirrings and then episodes in their life during which they are separated--a narrative twist that makes it even more poignant and heart-wrenching. 5,000 Kilometers Per Second is another delicate graphic-novel masterpiece from Europe.

The Nao of Brown


Glyn Dillon - 2012
    She’s suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and fighting violent urges to harm other people. But that’s not who she really wants to be. Nao has dreams. She wants to quiet her unruly mind; she wants to get her design and illustration career off the ground; and she wants to find love, perfect love. Nao’s life continues to seesaw. Her boyfriend dumps her; a toy deal falls through. But she also meets Gregory, an interesting washing-machine repairman, and Ray, an art teacher at the Buddhist Center. She begins to draw and meditate to ease her mind and open her heart—and in doing so comes to a big realization: Life isn’t black-and-white after all . . . it’s much more like brown.

Exquisite Corpse


Pénélope Bagieu - 2010
    It's also why she doesn't know that Rocher is supposed to be dead. Turns out, Rocher faked his death years ago to escape his critics, and has been making a killing releasing his new work as "lost manuscripts," in cahoots with his editor/ex-wife Agathe. Neither of them would have invited a crass party girl like Zoe into their literary conspiracy of two, but now that she's there anyway. . . . Zoe doesn't know Balzac from Batman, but she's going to have to wise up fast... because she's sitting on the literary scandal of the century!

Notes for a War Story


Gipi - 2004
    Obviously there were other wars going on, but they didn't have anything to do with us. There were wars for blacks. Wars for Arabs. Wars for Slavs. Our war started on the 18th of January, and in a few days, everything had changed."So recounts Giuliano, a loner among outsiders, one of three young drifters caught up in the whirlwind of a war in the Balkans. The three boys are like passing shadows; they live in abandoned houses, dodge the occasional bomb, and steal car parts for money. Meeting Felix—a powerful, fast-talking mercenary—changes everything for them. Felix is an expert manipulator; he speaks to their ambition and to their desires for power, wealth, and purpose. They're instantly hooked, especially the trio's unofficial leader, Stefano, and they soon escalate from petty crime to working on behalf of a mafia-style militia, bullying and extorting money in Felix's name. But as Giuliano comes to realize, they don't know what they're fighting for—if they're even fighting for anything.Notes for a War Story is an astonishing look at life in a lawless, war-torn nation, heightened by the harsh, moving, pencil and watercolor artwork of Italy's best graphic novel author.

Everything Together: Collected Stories


Sammy Harkham - 2012
    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.