Collects THE FIX #9-12.

    The inventive and varied page designs offer perfect counterpoint to the staccato tempo of this hard-boiled jazz-age tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets.Here is a poem that can make even readers with no time for poetry stop dead in their tracks. Once read, large shards of this story of one night of debauchery will become permanently lodged in the brain. When The Wild Party was first published, Louis Untermeyer declared: "It is repulsive and fascinating, vicious and vivacious, uncompromising, unashamed . . . and unremittingly powerful. It is an amazing tour de force."

    Looking to prove that any man can be pushed past his breaking point and go mad, the Joker attempts to drive Commissioner Gordon insane. After shooting and permanently paralyzing his daughter Barbara (a.k.a. Batgirl), the Joker kidnaps the commissioner and attacks his mind in hopes of breaking the man. But refusing to give up, Gordon maintains his sanity with the help of Batman in an effort to beset the madman.

    Subsisting entirely on junk food and beer, El Borbah conducts his investigations with tough talk and a short temper. He smashes through doors and skulls as he stalks a perfectly realized film-noir city filled with punks, geeks, business-suited creeps and mad scientists.El Borbah features five science-fiction and true-detective episodes: In "Robot Love," rebellious kids in nightclubs replace their "parts" with mechanical substitutes as part of a new fad, only to find that their parents have been automating themselves all along; in "Love in Vein" a mad visionary sperm donor plans a master race and turns "his" kids against their parents; "Bone Voyage" details the exploits of a cult called the Brotherhood of the Bone, a kind of cross between the Masons and the Mansons. The fantastic plots take up the weird fears of a scientific society, but the action is pure pulp. Charles Burns effortlessly spins yarns with gritty punchlines and pictures so perfect they must have existed in some collective memory of junk drama. And through it all crashes El Borbah, trying to make an honest buck from dishonest people.Burns is the author of Black Hole, the acknowledged masterpiece of the form that Fantagraphics serialized through the 1990s and will be collected into a massive graphic novel in 2005 by Pantheon Books. El Borbah is Burns' earliest work, created in the early 1980s, though the work remains eerily contemporary. Steeped in a "sci-fi-noir" aesthetic informed by Burns' steadily childhood diet of B-movies and comic books, but with a sophisticated sense of humor that is often as disturbing as it is funny, El Borbah is comics as its most entertaining.

    But who knew that after donning this mask even the wimpiest geek would become an indestructible, shape-changing supertornado with a mind for mischief and an appetite for destruction?Equally adept with gun, knife, bat, bomb, pie, or bat-knife-gun-pie-bomb, geek-turned-superfreak the Mask cuts a crazed swath of cartoon mayhem!• This original comic trilogy inspired the hit film The Mask, which has grossed over $450 million worldwide since its release in 1994.This volume collects The Mask, The Mask Returns, and The Mask Strikes Back.

    Military bases around the world. Uncensored by commercial editorial restrictions, Wood pulled out all the stops — producing a thrilling and salacious Cold War spy serial run amok with brutal violence and titillating sex, all in an effort to boost morale and support our troops! Initially brainwashed by the terrifying, voluptuous, and always half-naked Madame Toy to be “the perfect assassin” for the Red forces, Cannon was eventually rescued and brainwashed (again) by the CIA until he had no emotions whatsoever. Under the employ of our government’s Central Intelligence Agency, Cannon experiences action like no other agent!

    Even though her love life remains as chaotic as ever, Hopey takes her first few steps toward responsible adulthoodwith a real job (as a teacher), while a demoralized, divorced Maggie ends up as the manager of a fleabagapartment building where she continues to wrestlewith the demons of her past most prominently in thestunning centerpiece of the volume, the graphic-novel-length Maggie serial, with its stunning, hallucinatorydream finale.Meanwhile, Ray still carries a major torch for Maggie, butfalls in with the Frogmouth, the volatile bombshell whoseties to local thugs cause him no small amount of grief.Of course, Maggie, Hopey, and Ray s paths continue tointersect in Hernandez s increasingly complex, intricate, and always vitally realized world.This omnibus volume compiles stories originally printed in the pages of the comics Penny Century, the one-shot special Maggie & Hopey Color Fun (presented here in black and white), and Love and Rockets Vol. II, and was formerly collected in the volumes Dicks and Deedees, Locas in Love, Ghost of Hoppers and The Education of Hopey Glass.

    Eisner was a master of utilizing the comics format to its greatest strengths, and his Spirit stories are some of his finest examples! This volume also features an introduction by New York Times best-selling novelist Neil Gaiman (THE SANDMAN).

    From the fly’s birth to his inevitable end, we see everything this creature goes through simply to survive… from the fly’s perspective. We guarantee you’ve never looked at your kitchen the way the fly does. While there’s plenty of humor, there’s thrills and chills as well, especially when the fly meets a spider. You may never have liked flies before, but once you meet this little guy, you may be surprised how much you can like a fly.

    As a consequence of this accident, he developed phenomenal physical strength. But what actually happened? How did Obelix make that life-altering plunge?Here is the full story of what took place on that incredible day.

    Buddy Baker is a caring husband, devoted father, animal activist and super-powered being. But as he attempts to live up to all of his roles, he soon finds that there are no black and white situations in life. With a strong focus on storytelling, these thought-provoking and innovative tales make the reader question the actions of Animal Man as well as their own behavior in similar situations.

    Tolkien and Seamus Heaney to a multitude of Hollywood screenwriters. Beaowulf tells of the tale of a Scandinavian hero in lands that would become what is now Denmark and Sweden. A monster, Grendel, has arrived in the kingdom of the Danes, devouring its men and women for over a decade until Beowulf arrives to save them.Garcia and Rubin faithfully follow the original story for a graphic-novel version that is neither revisionist nor postmodern. It captures the tone and important details of the poem, translating its potent, epic resonance and melancholy into a contemporary comic that isn't standard swords and sorcery or heroic fantasy fare. This is an ancient story with a modern perspective that respects the source material.

    But the arrival of Diego the Seal in this sinister and soulless port may just change that. There, Diego is courted by the upper echelons of the city, who want to groom him for the Nobel Prize of Love.Eisner-nominated creator Nicolas De Crécy ("Foligatto," NBM's "Salvatore") has created here a totally original world, rich in absurdist humor, and presented in a beautiful tumult of painted colors.

    His father gave him that gun for his birthday. The gun never fired a shot and now the thief that stole a life has snatched that shining weapon.Peppino Lo Cicero spent his life taking orders from the great dons of Napoli. When his son Nino is killed he puts down the fishing rods of his retirement and picks up his old pistols, looking for revenge. Shots ring out over Peppi's gray head once again as he searches for his son's murderers and the beautiful black revolver he gave to Nino on the last night of his life. The fabric of their lives has always been shot through with violence but as Peppino clings to his quest for vengeance he reconsiders that which has always been precious to him. Spare, romantic and slightly surreal, it is truly a terrible thing for a father to have to bury his son.Winner of the "book of the year" award in Frankfurt Bookfair 2003Winner of the Coccobill award as best author 2003 (Milano comics festival Cartoomics)Winner of the special award A.N.A.F.I. 2003 (Associazione Nazionale Amici Fumetto Italiano)Winner of grand prix in Romics comic festival (Rome 2003)Nominated for the best volume 2003 in Angouleme Comics festival Nominated as best artist 2003 in Naples Comics Festival (Comicon)Nominated as best artist 2003 in Milano Comics Festival (Cartoomics)

    Then Bill Watterson came along and reminded a new generation of what older readers and comic strip aficionados knew: A well-written and beautifully drawn strip is an intricate, powerful form of communication. And with Calvin and Hobbes, we had fun—just like readers of Krazy Kat and Pogo did. Opening the newspaper each day was an adventure. The heights of Watterson's creative imagination took us places we had never been. We miss that.This book was published in conjunction with the first exhibition of original Calvin and Hobbes Sunday pages at The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library. Although the work was created for reproduction, not for gallery display, was a pleasure to see the cartoonist's carefully placed lines and exquisite brush strokes. In an attempt to share this experience with those who were unable to visit the exhibition, all of the original Sunday pages displayed are reproduced in color in this book so that every detail, such as sketch lines, corrections, and registration marks, are visible. On the opposite page the same comic strip is printed in full color. Because Watterson was unusually intentional and creative in his use of color, this juxtaposition provides Calvin and Hobbes readers the opportunity to consider the impact of color on its narrative and content.When I first contacted Bill Watterson about the possibility of exhibiting his original work, I used the term "retrospective." He replied that we might be able to do an exhibit, but that calling it a retrospective made him uncomfortable. He felt that a longer time was needed to put Calvin and Hobbes in the historical perspective implied by that term. Nonetheless, this show is a "look back" at the comic strip as we revisit favorites that we remember. Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995 is particularly interesting because each work that is included was selected by Bill Watterson. His comments about the thirty-six Sunday pages he chose are part of this volume. In addition, he reflects on Calvin and Hobbes from the perspective of six years, and his essay provides insights into his life as a syndicated cartoonist.Reprint books of Calvin and Hobbes are nice to have, but the opportunity to see the original work and read Bill Watterson's thoughts about it is a privilege. He generously shared not only the art, but also his time and his thoughts. When I first reviewed the works included in the exhibit, I knew that everyone who visited it would begin with laughter and end with tears.On behalf of all who enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes, thank you, Bill Watterson.--Lucy Shelton Caswell, Professor and Curator The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library, June 2001