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Notes from the Nervous Breakdown Lane: Cartoons by Ken Brown
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Things Are Meaning Less
Al Burian - 2002
You might know Al from his zines Burn Collector and Natural Disasters or from the band Milemarker or his so-true-it-kicks-your-face-off column in Punk Planet. This, however, is Al's collection of comics published in the late '90s by designer and fellow zinester Ian Lyman. From Portland to Providence, Al patrols his world with a dark, stoic humor. He's a Saul Bellow-ian everyman, up against the wall, suffering the blows, looking for love and loving the metal. Like Al's latest issue of Burn Collector, the comic-heavy #14, the drawing here is simple but it's the kind of simple that doesn't come with beginner's luck. The stuff here is the result of years of fighting and trouble-making, of mistakes made and a life scratched out among the sticks and stones. As says Al, "These are things drawn on napkins in airports, xeroxed illicitly during work." So goes the work and world of Al Burian.
Who I Am and What I Want
David Shrigley - 2003
In this mock autobiographical collection his mischievous drawings capture life's anxieties and ambitions from the mundane to the surreal. Here, at last, is The Truth about beer, doctors, shadow puppets, lunch, dolphins, boredom, and supernatural forces. Seductively strange and addictively amusing, this edgy little book welcomes the uninitiated and rewards the faithful.
Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War
John Wagner - 2004
But that pales in comparison to the second phase - a co-ordinated nuclear strike which devastates the Block Mania survivors and leaves Mega-City One ripe for invasion... by the treacherous thugs of East-Meg One Now, a beleaguered Dredd and a few survivors must strike back by any means they can find... because if they fail, Mega-City One is doomed forever With art by fan favourites Brian Bolland (Batman), Steve Dillon (Preacher), Carlos Ezquerra (Just a Pilgrim), Mike McMahon (Slaine) and Ron Smith (Transformers), this deluxe hardcover edition is a must for every Judge Dredd and 2000 AD fan
Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons
Gahan Wilson - 2009
His work has been seen by millions—no, hundreds of millions—in the pages of Playboy, The New Yorker, Punch, The National Lampoon, and many other magazines; there is no telling, really, how many readers he has corrupted or comforted. He is revered for his playfully sinister take on childhood, adulthood, men, women, and monsters. His brand of humor makes you laugh until you cry. And it’s about time that a collection of his cartoons was published that did justice to his vast body of work.When Gahan Wilson walked into Hugh Hefner’s office in 1957, he sat down as Hefner was on the phone, gently rejecting a submission to his new gentlemen’s magazine: “I think it’s very well-written and I liked it very much,” Hefner reportedly said, “but it’s anti-sin. And I’m afraid we’re pro-sin.” Wilson knew, at that moment, that he had found a kindred spirit and a potential home for his cartoons. And indeed he had; Wilson appeared in every issue of Playboy from the December 1957 issue to today. It has been one of the most fruitful, successful, and long-lived relationships between a contributor and a magazine, ever.Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons features not only every cartoon Wilson drew for Playboy, but all his prose fiction that has appeared in that magazine as well, from his first story in the June 1962 issue, “Horror Trio,” to such classics as “Dracula Country” (September 1978). It also includes the text-and-art features he drew for Playboy, such as his look at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, his take on our country’s “pathology of violence,” and his appreciation of “transplant surgery.”Wilson’s notoriously black sense of comedy is on display throughout the book, leaving no sacred cow unturned (an image curiously absent in the book), ridiculing everything from state sponsored executions to the sober precincts of the nouveau rich, from teenage dating to police line-ups, with scalding and hilarious satirical jabs. Although Wilson is known as an artist who relishes the creepy side of modern life, this three-volume set truly demonstrates the depth and breadth of his range—from illustrating private angst we never knew we had (when you eat a steak, just whom are you eating?) to the ironic and deadpan take on horrifying public issues (ecological disaster, nuclear destruction anyone?).Gahan Wilson has been peeling back the troubling layers of modern life with his incongruously playful and unnerving cartoons, assailing our deepest fears and our most inane follies. This three-volume set is a testament to one of the funniest—and wickedly disturbing—cartoonists alive.Nominated for two 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (Best Archival Collection/Project: Strips; Best Publication Design).
Triple Shot, Double Pump, No Whip Zits: A ZITS Treasury
Jerry Scott - 2012
He daydreams about the day when his band records its first monster hit single and he and his bandmates all pile into his van for their cross-country, sold-out concert tour. Between naps, study hall, and band practice, Jeremy still manages to find time to be the star of this hugely popular comic strip.Jeremy is a good kid. He is intelligent and kind, yet he still has the attitude that one would expect from a teenager. His unpredictable mood swings and monosyllabic answers to his parents’ mild-mannered questions often leave them baffled and bemused.Zits was created in 1997 by Pulitzer Prize– and Reuben Award–winning editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman and Reuben Award–winning cartoonist/writer Jerry Scott. The creators, who are parents themselves, have a keen insight into the many physical and emotional changes that teens go through during adolescence, and they have the gift of addressing these common dilemmas with compassion and humor.
What Am I Doing Here?
Abner Dean - 1947
He used the elegant draftsmanship and single-panel format of the standard cartoons of the day, but turned them into more than just one-off jokes. With an inimitable mixture of wit, earnestness, and enigmatic surrealism, Dean uses this most ephemeral of forms to explore the deepest mysteries of human existence.What Am I Doing Here? depicts a world at once alien and familiar, in which everyone is naked but act like they’re clothed—a world of club-wielding commuters and byzantine inventions, secret fears, and perverse satisfactions. Through it all strolls (or crawls, or floats, or stumbles) Dean’s unclad Everyman, searching for love, happiness, and the answers to life’s biggest questions.
What's New, Vol. 1: The Collected Adventures of Phil and Dixie
Phil Foglio - 1991
Originally published by Palliard Press.
Sock Monkey: The Glass Doorknob
Tony Millionaire - 2002
Sock Monkey And The Other Toys Marvel At The Prismatic Spectrum On The Parlour Floor, Coming From The Glass Door Knob. Winter Turns To Spring, And The Apple Tree Sprouts New Leaves, Casting A Warm Green Shadow On The Door. The Door Knob Seems To Be Broken, Ending The Light Show, Until Mr Crow Plans To End The Door Knob With Scientific Techniques.
The Misadventures of Grumpy Cat and Pokey! (Grumpy Cat And Pokey Vol. 2)
Royal McGraw - 2016
Grumpy Cat, the Internet's cutest curmudgeon, brings her hilarious brand of sass to comic shops everywhere with the official Grumpy Cat Free Comic Book Day 2016 special! Readers of all ages will love the misadventures of this killjoy kitten and her high-spirited brother Pokey! 8,000,000 Facebook likes and 306,000 Twitter followers can't be wrong - Grumpy Cat is a worldwide sensation and a (devilishly) delightful giveaway for comic shop fans and newcomers!
Grendel: Devil Tales
Matt Wagner - 1999
These tales of corruption, paranoia, vengeance, and the Devil feature the bold, experimental storytelling that cemented Wagner`s reputation as one of the comics medium`s leading innovators. Story, art, and new cover painting by Matt Wagner, colors by Eisner award-nominee Bernie Mireault.
Wally Gropius
Tim Hensley - 2010
When the elder Thaddeus Gropius confronts Wally with the boilerplate plot ultimatum that he must marry "the saddest girl in the world" or be disinherited, a yarn unravels that is part screwball comedy and part unhinged parable on the lucrativeness of changing your identity.Hensley's dialogue is witty, lyrical, sampled, dada, and elliptical--all in the service of a very bizarre mystery. There's sex, violence, rock and roll, intrigue, and betrayal--all brought home in Hensley's truly inimitable style.Created during an era when another well-off "W" was stuffing the coffers of the morbidly solvent, Wally Gropius transforms futile daydreams and nightmares into the absurdity of capital.
Deadpool Kills Deadpool #4
Cullen Bunn
Which incarnation of Deadpool will be eliminated in this issue? And will the tragedy prove too much for Wade Wilson?
Return to the Big Fancy: A Riotous Descent Into the Depths of Customer, Corporate, and Coworker Hell
Freeman Hall - 2012
But instead of fame and fortune, he found himself stuck behind a wall of script-killing rewrites, unable to make a living.In Return to the Big Fancy, Freeman shares his wildly entertaining journey back through the fiery gates of Retail Hell. He thought he had seen it all in his day, but with the bar set higher than ever before, employees are now graciously bowing before Corporate as they climb over fellow salespeople, and even friends, to earn enough transactions and commissions to actually survive. As he learns more of the wretchedness that has befallen the sales floor, he realizes that The Big Fancy has its customers and its employees on a short leash. But leave it to Freeman and the threat of disappearing commissions to rally the retail slaves and show Corporate who's really in charge!
Childproof: Cartoons about Parents and Children
Roz Chast - 1997
A perfect Mother's Day and Father's Day gift, as well as an absolute must-have for new and seasoned parents. 120 illustrations. of color cartoons.