Buddha, Vol. 1: Kapilavastu


Osamu Tezuka - 1972
    Tezuka evidences his profound grasp of the subject by contextualizing the Buddha’s ideas; the emphasis is on movement, action, emotion, and conflict as the prince Siddhartha runs away from home, travels across India, and questions Hindu practices such as ascetic self-mutilation and caste oppression. Rather than recommend resignation and impassivity, Tezuka’s Buddha predicates enlightenment upon recognizing the interconnectedness of life, having compassion for the suffering, and ordering one’s life sensibly. Philosophical segments are threaded into interpersonal situations with ground-breaking visual dynamism by an artist who makes sure never to lose his readers’ attention.Tezuka himself was a humanist rather than a Buddhist, and his magnum opus is not an attempt at propaganda. Hermann Hesse’s novel or Bertolucci’s film is comparable in this regard; in fact, Tezuka’s approach is slightly irreverent in that it incorporates something that Western commentators often eschew, namely, humor.

The Customer is Always Wrong


Mimi Pond - 2017
    Oakland in the late seventies is a cheap and quirky haven for eccentrics, and Mimi Pond folds the tales of the fascinating sleazeball characters that surround young Madge into her workaday waitressing life. Outrageous and loving tributes and takedowns of her co-workers and satellites of the Imperial Cafe create a snapshot of a time in Madge's life where she encounters who she is, and who she is not.Employing the same brash yet earnest style as her previous memoir Over Easy, Pond's storytelling gifts have never been stronger than in this epic, comedic, standalone graphic novel. Madge is right back at the Imperial with its great coffee and depraved cast, where things only get worse for her adopted greasy-spoon family while her career as a cartoonist starts to take off.

The Best We Could Do


Thi Bui - 2017
    Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent — the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through.With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. The Best We Could Do brings to life her journey of understanding and provides inspiration to all who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.

Unshelved


Bill Barnes - 2004
    Some of the stories are made up, some of them are based on real life, and some are absolutely true stories sent to us from our readers. And the stranger the story, the more likely it is to be true.

Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home


Nora Krug - 2018
    For Nora, the simple fact of her German citizenship bound her to the Holocaust and its unspeakable atrocities and left her without a sense of cultural belonging. Yet Nora knew little about her own family’s involvement in the war: though all four grandparents lived through the war, they never spoke of it.In her late thirties, after twelve years in the US, Krug realizes that living abroad has only intensified her need to ask the questions she didn’t dare to as a child and young adult. Returning to Germany, she visits archives, conducts research, and interviews family members, uncovering in the process the stories of her maternal grandfather, a driving teacher in Karlsruhe during the war, and her father’s brother Franz-Karl, who died as a teenage SS soldier in Italy. Her quest, spanning continents and generations, pieces together her family’s troubling story and reflects on what it means to be a German of her generation.

All The Answers


Michael Kupperman - 2018
    With the uncanny ability to perform complex math problems in his head, Joel endeared himself to audiences across the country and later became the basis of several characters in fiction. Following a childhood spent in the public eye, Joel deliberately spent the remainder of his life removed from popular scrutiny.In All the Answers, his first graphic novel, Michael recounts the struggle to fully understand his distant father and his complex past, even as the onset of Alzheimer’s threatens to take away his present. With wit and heart, Michael presents a fascinating account of mid-century radio and early television history, the pro-Jewish propaganda the Allies used to counteract the Nazis, and the early age of modern celebrity culture.Filled with wisdom and insight, All the Answers is both a powerful father-son story and an engaging portrayal of what identity came to mean at this turning point in American history. Perfect for fans of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

The Flash, Vol. 1: Move Forward


Francis Manapul - 2012
    Tapping into the energy field called The Speed Force, he applies a tenacious sense of justice to protect an serve the world as The Flash!The Fastest Man Alive returns to his own monthly series as part of the DC Comics—The New 52 event with the writer/artist team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. The Flash knows he can't be everywhere at once, but he has seemingly met his match when he faces DC Comic' hottest new Super Villain, Mob Rule, who really can be everywhere at once!As Mob Rule wages a campaign of crime across Central City, including an electromagnetic blast that plunges the city into darkness, The Flash learns the the only way he can capture Mob Rule and save Central City is to learn how to make his brain function even faster than before—but as much as it helps him, it also comes with a steep price.Collecting: The Flash 1-8

Batgirl, Volume 1: Batgirl Rising


Bryan Q. Miller - 2011
    Now she has become the target of both Gotham City’s heroes (who don’t take kindly to a new person wearing the cape and the cowl) and its villains (who want to see the entire Bat-family six feet under).

Crowded, Vol. 2: Glitter Dystopia


Christopher Sebela - 2020
    Low-rated DFEND bodyguard Vita is keeping her safe for 30 days from a desperate population looking to get rich quick with a gun and a dream.After escaping a big, televised attempt on their lives and the Reapr campaign blowing past two million bucks, Charlie and Vita abandon Los Angeles for the utopian desert paradise of Las Vegas in search of who started the Reapr campaign and how to shut it down. In the process, the human debris of Charlie's past and the well-kept secrets of Vita's old life will come spilling out too. As tensions rise and the attempted murderers keep coming, the only thing more unlikely than Charlie and Vita surviving their Reapr killers is them surviving each other.Collecting the second arc of the critically-acclaimed ongoing series by Eisner-nominated writer CHRISTOPHER SEBELA (SHANGHAI RED, HIGH CRIMES, WE(L)COME BACK), RO STEIN & TED BRANDT (CAPTAIN MARVEL: RAVEN THE PIRATE PRINCESS), TRIONA FARRELL (RUNAWAYS, MECH CADET YU) and CARDINAL RAE (BINGO LOVE, ROSE).Collects CROWDED 7-12

The Sculptor


Scott McCloud - 2015
    Thanks to a deal with Death, the young sculptor gets his childhood wish: to sculpt anything he can imagine with his bare hands. But now that he only has 200 days to live, deciding  what  to create is harder than he thought, and discovering the love of his life at the 11th hour isn't making it any easier! This is a story of desire taken to the edge of reason and beyond; of the frantic, clumsy dance steps of young love; and a gorgeous, street-level portrait of the world's greatest city. It's about the small, warm, human moments of everyday life…and the great surging forces that lie just under the surface. Scott McCloud wrote the book on how comics work; now he vaults into great fiction with a breathtaking, funny, and unforgettable new work.

The Flash, Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice


Joshua Williamson - 2017
    the Flash, learns more about the source that fuels his incredible powers, this same Speed Force that flows through him is unleashed all over Central City, striking cops, criminals and ordinary civilians alike, it’s up to the Flash to train this new wave of speedsters to use their amazing abilities wisely!But while some may become his partners in crime-fighting—forming a true “Speed Force”—others will use their godlike powers for a more sinister purpose. And the Flash is about to learn that there’s some evil even he can’t outrun… Meanwhile, the Scarlet Speedster is also discovering secrets about his past beyond anything he’d ever dreamed—how he created a Flashpoint that changed history and helped create a new world, watched over by forces unknown.The race is on as writer Joshua Williamson (Justice League vs. Suicide Squad) and artist Carmine di Giandomenico (All New X-Factor) present The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice—the starting line of a bold new era for the Scarlet Speedster, bursting from the blockbuster DC Universe Rebirth event! Collects: The Flash: Rebirth #1 and The Flash #1-8. A great new jumping-on point is here in The Flash Vol. 1: Lightning Strikes Twice, a part of the critically acclaimed, best-selling, all-new line of volume one graphic novels, DC Universe Rebirth!

Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie


Anne Martinetti - 2014
    This beautifully illustrated graphic novel traces the life of the Queen of Whodunnit from her childhood in Torquay, England, through a career filled with success, mischief, and adventure, to her later years as Dame Agatha. Revealing a side to Christie that will surprise and delight many readers, Agatha introduces us to a free-spirited and thoroughly modern woman who, among other things, enjoyed flying, travel, and surfing. Centering around an episode in 1926 when Christie staged her own disappearance, Agatha is an intriguing, entertaining, and funny exploration of the 20th century’s best-loved crime novelist.

Barefoot Gen, Volume One: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima


Keiji Nakazawa - 1973
    New and unabridged, this is an all-new translation of the author's first-person experiences of Hiroshima and its aftermath, is a reminder of the suffering war brings to innocent people. Its emotions and experiences speak to children and adults everywhere. Volume one of this ten-part series details the events leading up to and immediately following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Bubble


Jordan Morris - 2021
    Humans like Morgan, who’s Brush-born and Bubble-raised and fully capable of fending off an Imp attack during her morning jog. She’s got a great routine going—she has a chill day job, she recreationally kills the occasional Imp, then she takes that Imp home for her roommate and BFF, Annie, to transform into drugs as a side hustle. But cracks appear in her tidy life when one of those Imps nearly murders a delivery guy in her apartment, accidentally transforming him into a Brush-powered mutant in the process. And when Morgan’s company launches Huntr, a gig economy app for Imp extermination, she finds herself press-ganged into kicking her stabby side job up to the next level as she battles a parade of monsters and monstrously Brush-turned citizens, from a living hipster beard to a book club hive mind.

Creepshow


Stephen King - 1982
    Graphic adaptation art by Bernie Wrightson.Contents:· Father’s Day · gs * · The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill [adapted from “Weeds”, Cavalier May ’76] · gs * · The Crate [Gallery, Jul ’79] · gs * · Something to Tide You Over · gs * · They’re Creeping Up On You · gs *