Unlike those works, Ripple is a highly realistic story in terms of subject matter and drawing style. Martin is a floundering painter desperately attempting to pursue his fine art inclinations rather than toil in the world of commercial art. He hires a homely model, Tina, to pose for a series of "erotic" paintings that he hopes will be his breakthrough into the gallery world. Over time, Martin and Tina's relationship evolves from a tenuous working relationship to a confused sexual one. Martin's initial repulsion for Tina slowly turns to attraction and eventually lust, causing him to re-evaluate his own notions of beauty and sexuality. Meanwhile, Tina's own motives behind working for Martin are slowly turned upside down as well, building the book towards its inevitably explosive end. Throughout it all, Ripple is a complex love story poked and prodded from all angles, from Martin and Tina's physical and emotional feelings toward each other, Martin's dishonesty to himself, Tina's self-loathing, and everything in between. Sad, funny, and often uncomfortably titillating, Ripple is a remarkably introspective graphic novel, rendered with kinetic realism in a pen technique that calls to mind a more controlled Edward Sorel and Jules Feiffer.

    from Latin America to escape her shady past, only to fall into a new shady life. After a go at the adult entertainment business, Maria marries a drug lord and her dangerous past is nothing compared to her new life in America. The drug lord's son, Gorgo, secretly falls in love with her and he watches over her like a guardian angel. Danger and corruption (and of course sex) drive the first half of this love story. Long-time Love and Rockets readers will find the storyline familiar... and that's because, in an Adaptation-style meta twist, Maria M. is actually the B-movie film adaptation of the life story of Luba's mother Maria, as previously seen in its "real" version in the classic graphic novel Poison River (available in the Beyond Palomar collection) -- starring Maria's own daughter playing her own mother. Confused? Don't be! Maria M. will work perfectly on its own terms as the kind of violent, sexy pulp tale that Gilbert Hernandez has proven so adept at these past several years, and the "source material" for the story will just provide an extra layer of delight for the cognoscenti. Part two of Maria M. will be released in 2014.

    Consisting of 108 pages of hand-painted illustrations, Red is a groundbreaking mix of Haida imagery and Japanese manga. Now available in paperback, the hardcover edition was nominated for the B.C. Bookseller’s Choice Award, a Doug Wright Award for Best Book and a 2010 Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Cartoonist. It was also an Amazon Top 100 book of 2009.Red is the prideful leader of a small village in the islands off the northwest coast of British Columbia. His sister was abducted years ago by a band of raiders. When news comes that she has been spotted in a nearby village, Red sets out to rescue his sister and exact revenge on her captors. Tragic and time- less, it is reminiscent of such classic stories as Oedipus Rex and Macbeth. Red is an action-packed and dazzling graphic novel that is also a cautionary tale about the devastating effects of rage and retribution.

    Following his acclaimed collection of short comics, Welcome to the Dahlhouse, Ken Dahl cements his status as one of the best cartoonists of his generation with this brutally honest account of disease and self-acceptance.

    Lili and her sister Pearl encounter all the triumphs and cruelties of teenage life when they move to a boring suburb and they search for new friends. Drechsler's style is always arresting and surprisingly revealing. Her dialogue rings out with the subtlety and candor of teenage voices raised in anger, mockery and joy.

    The lead character in most is Bitchy Bitch, the perma-nently PMS'd and PO'd embodiment of the female id, who also stars in her own series of cartoon shorts on the Oxygen Network's X-Chromosome animated series.The raunchiest collection, focusing on Bitchy's sexual excapades.

    Youth Is Wasted collects several of Noah Van Sciver's most outstanding short stories from his critically acclaimed, award-nominated comic book series, Blammo, as well as various anthology submissions.

    In 1972, ten women cartoonists got together in San Francisco to rectify the situation and produce the first and longest-lasting all-woman comics anthology, Wimmen’s Comix. Within two years the Wimmen’s Comix Collective had introduced cartoonists like Roberta Gregory and Melinda Gebbie to the comics-reading public, and would go on to publish some of the most talented women cartoonists in America — Carol Tyler, Mary Fleener, Dori Seda, Phoebe Gloeckner, and many others. In its twenty year run, the women of Wimmen’s tackled subjects the guys wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole: abortion, menstruation, masturbation, castration, lesbians, witches, murderesses, and feminists. Most issues of Wimmen’s Comix have been long out of print, so it’s about time these pioneering cartoonists’ work received their due. Presented as a gorgeous two-volume slipcased set, The Complete Wimmen’s Comix includes the ground-breaking 1970 one-shot, It Ain’t Me, Babe, the very first all-woman comic book ever published. Edited with an introduction by Trina Robbins.

    He completed approximately 50 stories between 1939-1941, all unified by a unique artistic vision. Whether it’s the superhero Stardust doling out ice cold slabs of poetic justice, or the jungle protectress Fantomah tearing evildoers from limb to ragged limb, contemporary readers are stunned by the pop surrealism and outright violent mayhem of Hanks’ work. Originally featured in two paperback volumes, this deluxe hardcover collects—for the first time—all of Hanks’ previously published material, plus several gems newly discovered for this volume, making this the very first complete collection of the works of Fletcher Hanks.

    Hothead Paisan, the over-caffeinated, media-crazed psychotic lesbian "with scary hair and a fetish for guns, grenades, mallets, and sharp objects, " returns for more search-and-destroy missions and preventative homicides A cult favorite, The Complete Collection combines Hothead Paisan and Revenge of Hothead Paisan with new strips in a single volume for the first time.

    . . . Gabby Schulz has gone on to create a similarly unnerving web comic series titled Sick."—FlavorwireThe author of the perennial classic, Monsters (written as Ken Dahl), Gabby Schulz returns with a new graphic novel, Sick, which Hicksville author Dylan Horrocks calls "a punch in the face and well worth reading." Like Monsters, Sick focuses on health and social policy, this time expanding from the subject of STDs and their stigma to the larger, hot-button issue of national healthcare.Severely ill, uninsured, alone, and confined to his bed for weeks, Schulz was left searching—only to find himself. Sick documents his discovery in gory, glorious, water-colored detail, finally completed and collected here for the first time in a beautiful, album-sized hardcover edition.Since Monsters, Schulz has produced a host of online comics including SEXISM, a viral sensation written up everywhere from the Stranger to Scientific American. The web-serialized Sick was an Ignatz Award nominee for Outstanding Online Comic. His work has appeared on narrative.ly and BuzzFeed and in Arthur magazine.Gabby Schulz, sometimes known as Ken Dahl, grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. His graphic novel, Monsters won two Ignatz Awards, was an Eisner Award nominee, and was a Best American Comics selection. His other works include the collection Welcome to the Dahl House and the web comic Sick, an Ignatz Award nominee for Outstanding Online Comic. Schulz currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.

    New York Sketches features 15 full-color reproductions of the beautiful ink-and-watercolor drawings that Tomine began after moving from California to the city. Each shows his unparalleled eye for detail: a police officer scrutinizes a stylish young mother; a girl remains content but completely motionless through four subway stops; a disgruntled worker kicks a chair while he sweeps. This remarkable portfolio is printed on finely textured 130-lb. Cougar paper, accordion folded so that images can be detached for framing or displayed upright together. It is the only full-color project featuring new art from Adrian Tomine, one of the most respected and perhaps the most widely visible alternative cartoonists of our time.

    Borb is a downtrodden urban Candide whose misfortunes pile up at an alarming rate. The narrative is presented as a series of daily newspaper strips as the author draws on the long and complex tradition of the comic strip slapstick vagabond archetype. At once hilarious, horrifying, and full or heart, Borb depicts the real horrors specific to present-day urban homelessness. Borb is Little's most complex and challenging work.Jason Little studied photography at Oberlin College, and now resides in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their daughter Zelie Goldberg-Little. He has been drawing cartoons since he was a child. In addition to acclaimed Shutterbug Follies and Motel Art Improvement Service, he also created the Xeric Award–winning Jack's Luck Runs Out, as well as a number of short works for various cartoon anthologies.

    It was discovered by a seven-year-old boy named Al Ledicker, and the story that followed is one that veteran underground cartoonist Kim Deitch (Boulevard) has chronicled for the last 20 years in a series of interrelated stories that have appeared in a variety of magazines. Collected for the first time, Shadowland offers a narrative which ranges from the late 19th century to (more or less) the present day. Delineated in Deitch's charming, uniquely retro style, Shadowland is a tumble down the rabbit hole of sexy Hollywood starlets, little green (actually, gray) aliens, flying pigs and performing elephants, incest, murder, and eternal youth.