X-Men: The Ultimate Guide


Peter Sanderson - 2000
    X-Men 3 arrives in theaters May 26th.

The Sandman Companion


Hy Bender - 1999
    A fascinating mythology of horror and consequence, this epic masterfully combined intriguing literature with captivating art. THE SANDMAN COMPANION is an exhaustive guide to this legend. Revealing hitherto undisclosed information and behind-the-scenes secrets, this book features in-depth interviews, never-before-seen illustrations, character origins, and story explanations and analysis. Also including excerpts from the original proposal for the series, this handbook is the perfect complement to the Sandman graphic novels.

Comics and Sequential Art


Will Eisner - 1985
    Readers will learn the basic anatomy, fundamentals of storycraft and how the medium works as a means of expression.

The Book of Bunny Suicides


Andy Riley - 2003
    We'll never quite know why, but sometimes they decide they've just had enough of this world- and that's when they start getting inventive. The Book of Bunny Suicides follows over one hundred bunnies as they find ever more outlandish ways to do themselves in. From an encounter with the business end of Darth Vader's lightsaber, to supergluing themselves to a diving submarine, to hanging around underneath a loose stalactite, these bunnies are serious about suicide. Illustrated in a stark and simple style, The Book of Bunny Suicides is a collection of hilarious and outrageous cartoons that will appeal to anyone in touch with their evil side.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die


Peter Boxall - 2006
    Each work of literature featured here is a seminal work key to understanding and appreciating the written word.The featured works have been handpicked by a team of international critics and literary luminaries, including Derek Attridge (world expert on James Joyce), Cedric Watts (renowned authority on Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene), Laura Marcus (noted Virginia Woolf expert), and David Mariott (poet and expert on African-American literature), among some twenty others.Addictive, browsable, knowledgeable--1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die will be a boon companion for anyone who loves good writing and an inspiration for anyone who is just beginning to discover a love of books. Each entry is accompanied by an authoritative yet opinionated critical essay describing the importance and influence of the work in question. Also included are publishing history and career details about the authors, as well as reproductions of period dust jackets and book designs.

Showa, 1926-1939: A History of Japan


水木しげる - 2013
    This volume deals with the period leading up to World War II, a time of high unemployment and other economic hardships caused by the Great Depression. Mizuki's photo-realist style effortlessly brings to life the Japan of the 1920s and 1930s, depicting bustling city streets and abandoned graveyards with equal ease. When the Showa era began, Mizuki himself was just a few years old, so his earliest memories coincide with the earliest events of the time. With his trusty narrator Nezumi Otoko (Rat Man), Mizuki brings history into the realm of the personal, making it palatable, and indeed compelling, for young audiences as well as more mature readers. As he describes the militarization that leads up to World War II, Mizuki's stance toward war is thoughtful and often downright critical--his portrayal of the Nanjing Massacre clearly paints the incident (a disputed topic within Japan) as an atrocity. Mizuki's "Showa 1926-1939" is a beautifully told history that tracks how technological developments and the country's shifting economic stability had a role in shaping Japan's foreign policy in the early twentieth century.

The Sandman: King of Dreams


Alisa Kwitney - 2003
    Author Alisa Kwitney explores its beginnings and chronicles the comic's emergence as a unique and undeniable force in the literary world. Richly illustrated, this history shows how Gaiman and The Sandman's gifted artists, such as Dave McKean and Yoshitaka Amano, create a haunting (and haunted) main character who wields immense power. With illustrations never before published, behind-the-scenes stories, handwritten notes, and interviews with Gaiman himself, this volume is a true testament to the dream king and his creator.

Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations


Jeffrey Brown - 2007
    Featured in McSweeney's and on NPR's This American Life, and praised by comic luminaries Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes, Brown's work has always paid tribute to felines as they curl up on couches and purr on the peripheries of his autobiographical stories. Cat Getting Out of a Bag follows his cat Misty -really, any cat- as she goes about her everyday activities and adventures. In a series of drawings, Brown perfectly captures the universal charm of cats in a lovely book sure to please fans and cat lovers of any stripe.

Wolverine: Inside The World Of The Living Weapon


Matthew K. Manning - 2009
    While he was part of the Weapon X program his skeletal structure was bonded with the near-destructible alloy adamantium, and now very little can stop him. DK's publishing program celebrates Wolverine's classic comic book roots, with gorgeous imagery, classic story lines, and a nod to the franchise that Wolverine has become. Super-fans can learn about Wolverine's comic book debut (a cameo in a Hulk comic in 1974), and the development of his character, his story, the X-Men, and more in our comprehensive and spectacularly illustrated Ultimate Guide. MARVEL, Wolverine and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc., and are used with permission. _ Copyright (c) 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. www.marvel.com. This book is produced under license from Marvel Characters, Inc.

The DC Comics Encyclopedia


Scott Beatty - 2004
    It includes brand-new artwork of some of DC's most famous characters, as well as recalling famous storylines and battles.

DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle


Daniel Wallace - 2010
    Here, for the first time, is the chronological account of the adventures of both the characters and the company that created them. The" DC Chronicle Year by Year" traces DC's fascinating story: the company's beginnings as National Allied Publications in the 1934, and its subsequent change to Detective Comics, Inc. in 1937. The book details all the major DC publishing landmarks and more, displayed clearly, month by month. Highlighting the debuts of Superman and Batman, the geniuses that invented them, and the real-life events-like the Vietnam War, the atom bomb, the Space Race- that shaped the atmosphere of the times, "DC Chronicle Year by Year" follows the characters' foray into the real world through TV series and blockbuster movies. Features original cover art by well-known DC artist Ryan Sook and a foreword by Paul Levitz, who was president of DC Comics from 2002 - 2009. TM & (c) DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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.

Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human


Grant Morrison - 2011
    1 in 1938, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and timeless: Superman, a caped god for the modern age. In a matter of years, the skies of the imaginary world were filled with strange mutants, aliens, and vigilantes: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and the X-Men—the list of names as familiar as our own. In less than a century, they’ve gone from not existing at all to being everywhere we look: on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and dreams. But what are they trying to tell us?For Grant Morrison, arguably the greatest of contemporary chroniclers of the “superworld,” these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero—why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are . . . and what we may yet become.

What It Is


Lynda Barry - 2008
    What It Is demonstrates a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or to remember. Composed of completely new material, each page of Barry’s first Drawn & Quarterly book is a full-color collage that is not only a gentle guide to this process but an invigorating example of exactly what it is: “The ordinary is extraordinary.”

The Little World of Liz Climo


Liz Climo - 2013
    Through her comics, we make unexpected yet wise discoveries: how armadillos make fast-and-easy Halloween costumes, how dinosaurs deal with their inquisitive children, or the ingenious ways that animal friends can work together to ensure their juice is always freshly squeezed.