Manga: Memoirs, true stories and non-fiction

Book Synopsis?One of comics? preeminent humorists.? ?The AV ClubKeiler Roberts mines the passing moments of family life to deliver an affecting and funny account of what it means to simultaneously exist as a mother, daughter, wife, and artist. Drawn in an unassuming yet charming staccato that mimics the awkward rhythm of life, no one?s foibles are left unspared, most often the author?s own.When Roberts considers whether or not to dust the ceiling fan, it?s effectively relevant. She can get lost in the rewarding melodrama of playing Barbies with her daughter and will momentarily snap out of her depression. Her harmless fibs to get through the moment are brought up by her daughter a year or two later, yet without hesitation Roberts will request that her daughter?s imaginary friend not visit when she is around. Her MS diagnosis lingers in the background, never taking center stage.In My Begging Chart, her most encompassing work yet, Keiler meditates on routine and stillness. The vignettes of her everyday life exude immense presence, making her comics thoroughly relatable and reflective of our all-too-human lives as they unfold with humour, sadness, and relieving joy. In transporting these stories onto paper, Keiler observes, and at times relishes, a fleeting present.

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Book SynopsisThe legendary cartoonist aims his pen and paper toward his high school summer jobFor three summers beginning when he was 16, cartoonist Guy Delisle worked at a pulp and paper factory in Quebec City. Factory Summers chronicles the daily rhythms of life in the mill, and the twelve hour shifts he spent in a hot, noisy building filled with arcane machinery. Delisle takes his noted outsider perspective and applies it domestically, this time as a boy amongst men through the universal rite of passage of the summer job. Even as a teenager, Delisle?s keen eye for hypocrisy highlights the tensions of class and the rampant sexism an all-male workplace permits.Guy works the floor doing physically strenuous tasks. He is one of the few young people on site, and furthermore gets the job through his father?s connections, a fact which rightfully earns him disdain from the lifers. Guy?s dad spends his whole career in the white collar offices, working 9 to 5 instead of the rigorous 12-hour shifts of the unionized labor. Guy and his dad aren?t close, and Factory Summers leaves Delisle reconciling whether the job led to his dad?s aloofness and unhappiness.On his days off, Guy finds refuge in art, a world far beyond the factory floor. Delisle shows himself rediscovering comics at the public library, and preparing for animation school?only to be told on the first day, ?There are no jobs in animation.? Eager to pursue a job he enjoys, Guy throws caution to the wind.

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Book SynopsisA five-generation family history told through what is seen and heard, if not said. Let s Not Talk Anymore weaves together five generations of women from Weng Pixin s family, each at age 15. Her lineage is full of breakages her great grandmother Ku?n is sent away from her family in South China, her grandmother Mei is adopted by a neighbor to help with housework, and her mother B?ng is heartbroken by her father s estrangement. Pixin s own story centers on her feelings of isolation and her rebellion from her mother. She extends the line by envisioning a fictional future daughter, Rita, who questions her family s legacy. While spanning 100 years, Pixin moves back and forth in time seamlessly, as each woman experiences loneliness and kinship, hope and longing. As each story develops, generational traumas are revealed and fraught relationships passed on from mother to daughter. Creative impulses are stifled or nurtured. They struggle with poverty and neglect. And at some point each woman begins to separate herself from her situation and understand the woman she will become. Pixin s bold, vibrant paintings fill the aching silences between generations with beauty and emotion. Her paintings conjure complete worlds which these women inhabit. Let s Not Talk Anymore is a family history filled with tender moments as these women find connection with plants, animals, and their own creative pursuits, while struggling to connect with each other.Trade Review[Sweet Time] by Singaporean cartoonist Weng Pixin reflects her endless curiosity, vivid imagination and sense of wonder. Ms Magazine. In this book of sweeping, colorful, totally gorgeous images, [Weng] explores human relationships, loneliness, memory, and beauty. Electric Literature. Compassion and artistic ambition are evident on every page of this memorable debut. Library Journal

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Book SynopsisJourney through the countryside in this magical realist debut from an underground Chinese cartoonistIn Night Bus, a young woman wearing round glasses finds herself on an adventurous late night bus ride that constantly makes detours through increasingly fantastical landscapes. Meanwhile a young cartoonist returns home after art school and tries his hand at becoming a working artist while watching over his aging grandmother whose memory is deteriorating. Nostalgic leaps take us to an elementary school gymnasium that slowly morphs into a swamp and is raided by a giant catfish. Beetles, salamanders, and bug-eyed fish intrude upon the bus ride of the round-glasses woman as the night stretches on. Night Bus blends autobiography, horror, and fantasy into a vibrantly detailed surreal world that shows a distinct talent surveying his past.Nature infringes upon the man-made world via gigantism and explosive abundance?the images in Night Bus are often unsettling, not aimed to horrify, but to upset the balance of modern life.Zuo Ma is part of a burgeoning Chinese art comics scene that pushes emotion to the forefront of the story while playing with action and dreams.

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Book SynopsisJohn Porcellino s visual style is iconographic but infused with the authentic feeling of a note written in love or friendship. Salon. Never before have so few lines conveyed such a wealth of meaning as in John Porcellino s quietly riveting book about memory, relationships, and selfhood. During a period of isolation following a divorce, Porcellino penned Map of My Heart, endowing it with the sensitivity and emotional depth so characteristic to his minimalist style. His tender drawings and spacious panels shape an autobiographical testimony where no moment is too small or insignificant for posterity. Pensive walks in the forest, encounters with rogue woodland creatures, school yard fights, Zen meditations, long lost crushes, and childhood exploits are the heart of this therapeutic account of the ever-fleeting present.Trade Review[King-Cat Comics] swell with passion and heart. USA Today's Pop Candy. John translates authentic experience, stripped down to its bare bones, into rewarding comic vignettes on life and, of course, cats This is essential never-leave my-bag reading. Page 45. With a minimalistic style, in terms of his artwork and the dialogue and descriptions he crafts, Pocellino's work conveys the most essential information of a scene with a meditative beauty that is hard to find in comics. Comic Book Resources

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Book SynopsisThis critique of the art world will have you crying with laughterIn Wendy's Revenge, Scott's titular heroine returns with a fresh set of awkward misadventures and messy nights out. When the book opens, aspiring artist Wendy has decided to move to the west coast to clear her head.She plans on getting some quality time with her collaborator and friend Winona, only to find Winona packing up to leave, having decided to move back in with her mom on the rez. All alone, Wendy endeavours to foster community in Vancouver's bleak art scene. When her hope and optimism are all used up, she packs her bags for an artist residency in Japan. Wendy then gallery hops and parties around the globe until she stumbles upon the opportunity to unite with former foe Paloma. Together they enact revenge on VVURST, the German publication that once tore her performance art to shreds.Young artists struggle with mental health issues, they get wasted and hook up with men with gross piercings, and they're afflicted with an insatiable longing for a stable identitystability they themselves undermine. Scott's deceptively simple, inky character drawings evoke millennial culture with such Jungian accuracy that you can't help but stare and giggle in equal measure. Praised by The New Yorker, Guardian, Globe and Mail, and with an appearance in the Best American Comics anthology, it's clear why Walter Scott's Wendy comics have taken critics by storm.

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Book SynopsisStability withers where passion blossoms in this cool-toned meditation on mid-life relationships. A loving home and husband; two grown sons; a lakeside cabin with a picnic table where their initials are carved; and the chance encounter with a woman at a party that destabilizes it all. Elise is in her mid-fifties and is satisfied with life. But the moment she sees Dagmar, she s entranced. What begins as eye contact transitions to harmless texting, and quickly swells into the type of lust and yearning Elise did not know her life was lacking. Both happily married, there s trepidation, but they can t resist. The two arrange to meet, changing the course of Elise s stable and consistent life forever. Though Elise s husband attempts to support her exploration, he also begins an affair with a much younger woman a postgraduate student in her thirties. The cliche of it all is too much for Elise to bear. As their marriage unravels, her love for Dagmar grows stronger. But with Dagmar content to stay in her marriage, Elise is stranded, adrift, completely alone for the first time in her adult life, and searching for someone to blame the other woman. In the blur of a breakdown, she s left facing the reality that, after all, she started it. In lush watercolour washes and pencil crayons, Anneli Furmark s Walk Me to the Corner is a gorgeous portrait of desire and heartbreak, and the painful gamble the heart sometimes choses in spite of the mind.Trade ReviewA love story that takes place against the darkness of winter in 1970s Sweden. The New York Times. [Anneli Furmark is] a wonderfully lyrical cartoonist . . . Best of all, though, are her gorgeous watercolours, which utilise blue and orange ice and fire to such marvellous effect. The Guardian

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Book SynopsisAn immigrant weaves a new, surreal americana, complete with bubblegum fights and bomb queens. Rarely does a new talent arrive in the medium as unmistakably distinct as Rumi Hara. With immersive art and a clear-eyed storytelling rhythm, her uncategorizable debut, Nori, put her playful cartooning on display. Her new collection, The Peanutbutter Sisters and Other American Stories, delights with equal mischievousness. The Peanutbutter Sisters is a glorious balance of contradictions, at once escapism and realism; science fiction and slice of life. Two students explore the urban landscape while following Newton Creek, the polluted Queens-Brooklyn border. As they do, they plan a traditional Japanese play with contemporary pop culture. Another story features an intergalactic race of all living things set in the year 2099 and is a dazzling treatise on the environment and journalism. Yet, sometimes the fantastical collides with the quotidian in the same story. A man struggling with vertigo during quarantine encounters a world of sexual revelry whenever he has a dizzy spell. The Peanutbutter sisters ride a hurricane into NYC and yet aren t able to hitch a ride back with a whale due to a heavily polluted ocean. Hara s magical realist tendencies and diverse cast of characters all contort the tropes of the American comics canon. Yet above all else, her innate control of the comics language her ability to weave the absurd with the real on such a charming and commanding level is refreshingly unrivaled.Trade ReviewRumi Hara s The Peanutbutter Sisters is a celebration of the power, imagination, and ingenuity of women, expressed as a fever dream. In one story, two girls face off in a bubble gum-chewing contest and blow bubbles so big that they consume them; in another, a goddess merely needs to point to trigger a swarm of Bombadonnas to create destruction and chaos. The short stories are punctuated by surreal imagery of the Builders at work at a lumberyard, dressed in matching crotchless suits made of fur. Reading it feels like you re going on a psychedelic trip with Hara, and she s taking you by the hand deeper and deeper into her beautiful, magical, fantastical world. Malaka Gharib, author of I Was Their American Dream and the forthcoming graphic memoir, It Won t Always Be Like This. Striking stories that are precious but not polite, mysterious but inviting, untethered to reality but also the realest thing you could read. Lisa Hanawalt, author of I Want You. What a pleasure it is to lose oneself in Rumi Hara s world one both familiar yet strange with so many delicious details that you ll never want to leave. A delight! Sarah Glidden, author of Rolling Blackouts

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Book SynopsisA wormhole into a fleeting romance told in a mind-bending first-person chorus. Time Zone J is Julie Doucet s first inked comic since she famously quit in the nineties after an exhausting career in an industry that, at the time, made little room for women. The year is 1989 and twenty-three-year-old Doucet is flying to France to meet with a soldier. He s a man she only knows through their mail correspondence, a common enough reality of the zine era, when comics were mailed from cartoonist to reader and close relationships were formed. Time is not on their side the soldier is just on furlough for a few days but the two make the most of their visit and discuss future plans, maybe even Christmas in Doucet s city, Montreal. Based on diary entries from the whirlwind romance, the passion and high emotions of youth before you know the limits of love, before you know the difference between love and lust seep through the pages. In contrast to the tryst, Doucet draws herself today, at fifty-five. After years of being in a crowd of men, Doucet compulsively returns to drawing, creating an alternate universe that foregrounds women. The pages of Time Zone J overflow with images pulled from past and present, faces and people that have inspired Doucet across more than three decades of creative work.Trade ReviewSeething, exuberant . . . Doucet s entire comics oeuvre [is] a lavish history lesson for those who might take today s outpouring of feminist comics for granted. The New York Times Book Review. Raunchy brilliance . . . Her open-ended treatment of female identity is still vital. The New York Review of Books

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Book SynopsisThe classic book featuring Maybonne Mullen and her little sister Marlys is back in print! Lynda Barry captures all the glorious magic and excruciating pain of junior high school in this Ernie Pook Comeek collection from the early 90s. The star of this collection is 14 year old Maybonne who relays the angst and insecurity of life through hand scrawled diary entries, class assignments, and letters, in cursive with doodle and bubble letters. Of course, there is the ever-annoying yet adorable little sister Marlys who never fails to read her big sister s diary. Barry deftly portrays the capricious nature of teen friendships, adolescent peer-pressure, and the kill or be killed nature of a middle school s social scene in her signature style. No one but Lynda Barry can so naturally zero in on the joyous urgency yet heartbreaking poignancy of childhood. In an authentic teen voice full of diffidence and melodrama, the bespectacled and freckled Maybonne relates all of life s indignities on equal measure. Heartbreaking stories of a broken home, child molestation, an alcoholic absentee father and a bitter mom emerge between strips about home ec class, summer vacation, and babysitting, illustrating Barry s peerless ability to make the reader both cry and laugh.Trade ReviewBarry s prose cleverly reveals the comedy inherent in adolescent self-dramatization; her quirky drawings, which resemble notebook doodles, somehow capture the appearance of the nerdy heroine and her baby sister. Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times

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Book SynopsisA memoir about trauma and writing yourself to a place of healing. At 15, Emily is a relatively typical teenage girl living in the Maritimes. She lives with her eccentric dad as he prepares to build a log cabin. She rides her beloved horse and spends all her free time taking in the fresh air. But things aren t perfect, the winters are harsh and her dad s place is cold and draughty. Enter their neighbour who sees a girl in need and offers to lend a hand. Three words: Our Little Secret, and Emily's fate is sealed. Twenty five years later, Emily is adrift and depressed when she spots her neighbour again on a ferry. The events of that long-ago winter come rushing back, and she is forced to reckon with the past anew. She vows that she will bring him to justice, tell her secret, and come to terms with the wounds that defined so many years of her life. Inept lawyers, expensive therapy, and a broken justice system block Emily s path to peace. Only when she rediscovers her youthful artistic talent by putting pen to paper does she see a way out. Now in her fifties, Carrington has crafted a compulsively readable debut that shows a powerful command of the comics medium. Our Little Secret is a testament to survival and to the importance of telling your story your way.

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Book SynopsisAre we not all criminals eating our take-out, foraging for mushrooms, lapping at puddles? What happens when sleep becomes commodified? What if all the people at your local cafe were piloting drone strikes? What is the hidden cost and darkness of the society we must all engage with? Mr. Colostomy opens up cans of worms faster than they can restock the Goya on your bodega shelves. Who is Mr. Colostomy? Why, he s a manifestation of a searching consciousness, a marginally employable horse detective who sleeps outside, standing up. As he attempts to unravel a ridiculous plot that follows the disappearance of a couple of brats who turn into atomic particles after sundown, Mr. Colostomy remains always alien, a mutant mustang, an eccentric equus who might just be trying to make a buck in Babytown, the Babylon built by babes or, is a more sinister plot a-hoof? The surreal comedy of Mr. Colostomy is enhanced by Thurber s process of creating the comic through parapraxis, meaning with no forethought or pencilling. This comic honours the mistake as the desired or hidden expression of the unconscious. All that matters is that the comic is funny or real or neither! All comics were created in a public space in order to swim in or feel the audience.Trade Review[Art Comic is a] raw, bizarre meditation on why we idiot humans bother to create anything. Vulture. A blistering take on the art world, rife with cameos from Robert Rauschenberg to Matthew Barney. Thurber s absurd narrative takes to task the often farcical nature of a notoriously self-aggrandizing industry. Artsy

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Book SynopsisAn ambitious feminist anthology chronicling Indigenous rebellions around the world. In 1930s Bolivia, self-described Anarchist Cholas form a libertarian trade union. In the Northern Highlands of Vietnam, the songs of one girl s youth lead her to a life of activism. In the Philippines, female elders from Kalinga blaze a trail when pushed into impromptu protest. Equally striking accounts from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, India, Nepal, Peru and Thailand weave a tapestry of trauma and triumph, shedding light on not-too-distant histories otherwise overlooked. Indigenous Peoples all over the world have always had to stand their ground in the face of colonialism. While the details may differ, what these stories have in common is their commitment to resistance in a world that puts profit before respect, and western notions of progress before their own. Movements and Moments is an introductory glimpse into how Indegenous Peoples tell these stories in their own words. From Southeast Asia to South America, vibrant communities must grapple with colonial realities to assert ownership over their lands and traditions. This project was undertaken in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Indonesien in Jakarta. These stories were selected from an open call across 42 countries to spotlight feminist movements and advocacies in the Global South.Trade ReviewThe artwork throughout is excellent... Taken together, these shorts carry a cumulative power, offering a heartening reminder of the strength and spirituality within resistance and a potent call to arms against injustice. Publishers Weekly. I am grateful for the heart that was poured into these comics, and even more so for the bravery of the people whose stories they tell. This book made me feel a little stronger. It helped me remember some things I had begun to forget. Eleanor Davis, The Hard Tomorrow. Movements and Moments is an important collection of unique, vibrant voices that together sing in unison the stories of identity, liberation, determination, and resilience. To finally gain the perspectives of Indigenous women from South America, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania is a powerful, uplifting celebration of communities who have been underrepresented and overlooked for far too long. Rina Ayuyang, Blame This on the Boogie. This anthology is an excellent, engaging historical resource. ALA Booklist.

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Book SynopsisA deeply emotional visual representation of a teenager s confusion. Still reeling from the death by suicide of his drug addicted father, Travis moves in with his grandmother to become her caretaker as she battles cancer. Meanwhile he tries to live a typical teen life of pulling pranks, occasional shoplifting, dating, and endless drives through the twisting backroads of Central Massachusetts with Nirvana s Nevermind as the soundtrack. When the police intervene after a prank backfires, the boys realize that their time as children is rapidly disappearing and they may never fully understand each other as they move apart. After his Lynd Ward Prize-winning graphic novel, King of King Court, explored the power that parents hold over their children s emotional lives, Travis Dandro employs his signature dream imagery and crass humour to tell the story of teenage independence and resilience as he prepares to head off to art school. Hummingbird Heart is a detailed and stylish account of a time of great uncertainty. Dandro s densely crafted pages create a deeply emotional experience as his story swings from character confrontation to finely-wrought domestic detail a slapstick cafeteria destroying brawl gives way to the beautifully rendered flight of the impossible hummingbird.Trade ReviewTravis Dandro uses words, pictures, pattern, and texture to conjure moments from his life that are at once specific and fleeting. In its remembrance of profound loss and deep love for friends and family, Hummingbird Heart beats fast but feels timeless. - Jason Lutes, author of Berlin. Dandro has a gift for the cinematic. Times Literary Supplement. This is a powerful debut, skilfully drawn, cleverly told and as raw as a wasp sting. The Guardian. Inventive... A visually engaging and human story of early trauma and how art and the imagination persist through the toughest of times. Library Journal

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Book SynopsisA celebrated masterwork shimmering with vulnerability from one of alt-manga's most important female artists. 'Now that we ve woken from the dream, what are we going to do?' Chiharu thinks to herself, rubbing her husband s head affectionately. Set in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo, Yamada Murasaki's Talk To My Back (1981 84) explores the fraying of Japan's suburban middle-class dreams through a woman's relationship with her two daughters as they mature and assert their independence, and with her husband, who works late and sees his wife as little more than a domestic servant. While engaging frankly with the compromises of marriage and motherhood, Yamada remains generous with the characters who fetter her protagonist. When her husband has an affair, Chiharu feels that she, too, has broken the marital contract by straying from the template of the happy housewife. Yamada saves her harshest criticisms for society at large, particularly its false promises of eternal satisfaction within the nuclear family as fears of having been 'thrown away inside that empty vessel called the household' gnaw at Chiharu s soul. Yamada was the first cartoonist in Japan to use the expressive freedoms of alt-manga to address domesticity and womanhood in a realistic, critical, and sustained way. A watershed work of literary manga, Talk To My Back was serialized in the influential magazine Garo in the early 1980s, and is translated by Eisner nominated Ryan Holmberg.

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Book SynopsisMaybonne and Marlys Mullen endure the mortifying highs and lows of middle school in this Lynda Barry classic. Collected from the strip Ernie Pook s Comeek, which was serialized in alternative weeklies across the continent, My Perfect Life captures the moment when Lynda Barry finding the perfect balance in longer form storytelling between the belly aching laughs and the brutal reality checks. Along with the 2022 release Come Over Come Over, this collection continues to spotlight the life of teenager Maybonne Mullen. She suffers through the utterly relatable insults of junior high and the excruciating embarrassment caused by her little sister Marlys. Hovering in the background, however, is a broken home, parents struggling with addiction, a grandmother who takes her granddaughters from the diverse big city to a bewilderingly bland small town. Yet fitting into the new school and surroundings is, of course, paramount to a young teenager. Maybonne begins September full of life and excitement. As the school year progresses, she experiences bullying, her first boyfriend, family drama, drinking, and more. The book ends with Maybonne withdrawn and jaded as the reality of her world outweighs the magic.Trade ReviewMy Perfect Life is [Barry s] finest, funniest, most affecting graphic novel to date, partly because she s perfected her draughtsmanship, but also because it observes the Aristotelian dramatic unities, sort of. Entertainment Weekly Barry s carefully chosen words and scribbly drawings capture the melodramatic fantasies and insecurities of adolescence more accurately than most conventional novels do. Los Angeles Times

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Book SynopsisTake flight to this post-apocalyptic utopia filled with birds. Long after the demise of humankind, birds roam freely around a new earth complete with fruitful trees, sophisticated fungal networks, and an enviable socialist order. The universal worm feeds all, there are no weekends, and economics is as fantastical a study as unicorn psychology. No concept of money or wealth plagues the thoughts of these free-minded birds. Instead, there are angsty teens who form bands to show off their best bird song and other youngsters who yearn to become clothing designers even though clothes are only necessary during war. (The truly honourable professions for most birds are historian and/or librarian.) These birds are free to crush on hot pelicans and live their best lives until a crash-landed human from the moon threatens to change everything. Michael DeForge s post-apocalyptic reality brings together the author s quintessential deadpan humour, surrealist imagination, and undeniable socio-political insight. Appearing originally as a webcomic, Birds of Maine follows DeForge s prolific trajectory of astounding graphic novels that reimagine and question the world as we know it. His latest comic captures the optimistic glow of utopian imagination with a late-capitalism sting of irony.Trade ReviewDeForge examines both how we build our own sense of self and how others take on the roles we create for them. The Guardian. Frequently funny, sometimes harrowing, and always deeply strange. Slate. Another DeForge classic tender, depressing, and overflowing with his mind-melting, uber-satisfying surrealist style. Interview Magazine

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Book SynopsisA funny and insightful retrospective collection from a celebrated cartoonist. Universally beloved cartoonist Guy Delisle showcases a career-spanning collection of his work with a sly sense of humour and warm characterization. Before Delisle became an international superstar with his globe-hopping travelogues, he was an animator experimenting with the comics form. Always aware of the elasticity of the human form and honing his keen observer s eye, young Delisle created hilarious set pieces. World Record Holders ranges from wistful childhood nostalgia to chagrined post-fame encounters, touching on formally ambitious visual puns and gut-busting what-ifs. Delisle again and again shows how life is both exhilarating and embarrassing. Delisle visits an exhibition of his work in another country and is confronted by an angry spouse who blames him for destroying her marriage. A juvenile game of Bows and Arrows turns menacing as arrows shot straight up in the air turn into barely visible missiles of death. A coded message from space creates different reactions from different people debates, dance festivals, gallery shows. Translated by Helge Dascher and Rob Aspinall.Trade ReviewPraise for Guy Delisle: 'One of the greatest modern cartoonists.' The Guardian

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Book SynopsisA boldly drawn, unforgettable memoir about trauma and the barriers to gender affirming health care. In the winter of 2004, a shy woman named Emma sits in Toby s office. She wants to share this wonderful new book she s reading, but Toby, her therapist, is concerned with other things. Emma is transgender, and has sought out Toby for approval for hormone replacement therapy. Emma has shown up at the therapy sessions as an outgoing, confident young woman named Katina, and a depressed, submissive workaholic named Ed. She has little or no memory of her actions when presenting as these other two people. And then Toby asks about her childhood..As the story unfolds, we discover clues as to Emma s troubled past and how and why these other two people may have come into existence. As Toby juggles treating three separate people, each with their own unique personalities and memories, he begins to wonder if Emma is merely acting out to get attention, or if she actually has Dissociative Identity Disorder. Is she just a troubled woman in need of help? And is the third person in her brain protecting her, or derailing her chances of ever finding peace? The Third Person is a riveting memoir from newcomer Emma Grove. Drawn in thick, emotive lines, with the refined style of a comics vet, Grove has created a singular, gripping depiction of the intersection of identities and trauma. The Third Person is a testament to the importance of having the space to heal and live authentically.Trade ReviewEmma Grove has written a beautiful, vulnerable, exquisite book that offers an uncommonly clear look at a mind learning to know itself. - Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby

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Book SynopsisAn immersive curation of Genevieve Castree s stunning life s work and expansive artistic legacy. It s not easy to label an artist like Genevieve Castree cartoonist, illustrator, musician, sculptor, stamp collector, activist, correspondent a person with busy hands and a mind too creative and wild to stop doing. Those familiar with Castree s seminal memoir about her childhood, Susceptible (included fully within), will know that she, to a large degree, raised herself. It was in those unattended, semi-feral childhood years that Genevieve used art to pull herself out of what could have otherwise been a bleak existence. Instead, she found beauty and depth around her and blended it gorgeously with the harsh, devastating realities of this world, creating a body of work that is so stunning, heartbreaking, and magical that it leaves you aching. From rarely- or never-seen illustrations and comics, to album covers and photographs, to studio scraps, Genevieve Castree: Complete Works 1981-2016 is a breathtaking collection of Castree s work and soul. A remarkable woman who made remarkable art, her love and spirit weep and shine from the pages. With an introduction from Castree s widower Phil Elverum, who devoted himself to designing and curating the book, we gain further insight into the details of her life. Translations are lovingly and expertly provided by Elverum and Aleshia Jensen.Trade ReviewBoth newcomers and readers already in love with Castree s sui generis style will feel the vital force of her life and work. Publishers Weekly, Starred Review. [A] breathtaking collection of Castree's work and soul. CBC Books. The book is beautiful, mysterious, dreamlike as if you re being told someone else s secrets. Arpad Okay, ComicsBeat. Sorrow and elation coexist in surprising, contrary harmony in Castree s work, its evocative lines, its meditative harmonies.-The Paris Review. A masterfully understated evocation of filial love and impending loss. -Montreal Gazette. An aching clarity [is] evident in her sombre grey tones and her dexterous, serpentine lines. -Globe and Mail. Genevieve Castree: Complete Works 1981-2016 is indeed the whole journey for Castree as an artist... Here we get to see it all in unparalleled form, a curation of love and veneration and sophistication. Comics Beat

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Book SynopsisA laugh out loud funny parable for the digital age. There once was a lady who was very creepy. She moved about the world in seemingly normal ways, except for one tremendously bizarre tic. First she sought out kids transfixed by their screens, staring blindly and blank-faced at nearly any device, and then she would snatch something precious from them. In this picture book for grown-ups, sibling duo Keiler Roberts and Lee Sensenbrenner render a compelling and downright creepy modern fable about kids who are hooked on their digital devices. Creepy is the contemporary answer to the shocking tales of the Brothers Grimm and bedtime moral stories like the boy who cried wolf or the princess and the pea: in it, Roberts and Sensenbrenner provide a shrewd and comical commentary on the increasing digitization of childhood. Known for her award-winning autobiographical comics, Roberts s signature deadpan humour is on full display in these vibrantly painted pages. It s safe to say that no one tackles the peril of screen time as vividly or absurdly as this pair.Trade ReviewKeiler Roberts is my new hero. Chicago Tribune. Candid and funny, My Begging Chart finds whimsy in the minutiae of everyday life. Shelf Awareness. Thoroughly entertaining... Roberts s slightly warped perspective hilariously and poignantly reflects the transient absurdity of domestic life. Publishers Weekly, Starred Review.

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Book SynopsisLynda Barry s Ernie Pook s Comeek... made the world look wild, ugly, joyful, and mysterious.' The New Yorker. Maybonne Mullen is 'riding on a bummer' according to her little sister, Marlys. As much as teenage Maybonne prays and tries she just can t connect to the magic of living. How can she when there s so much upheaval at home and school, not to mention the world at large? And yet Marlys always seems able to tap into it. In It s So Magic, the Mullen family dynamics are in flux. Uncle John makes a brief return to town to the delight of the girls. Freddy is finally reunited with his sisters. Marlys falls in love for the first time. And after they finally settle into a routine at their grandmother s, the Mullen siblings find out that their mother might be ready to take them back in. With war in the background and precarious parental support, the siblings long for peace, finding it in the small things like grocery-store turkey-drawing contests and fishing trips. Narrated by Maybonne, Marlys, and Freddy, It s So Magic captures Lynda Barry s unparalleled ability to depict the magic of youth experiencing firsts in a world that contains as much humor as it does hardship.Trade ReviewBarry captures the voice of a young person so stunningly brilliantly.' Autrostraddle. 'Barry [explores] the strange geometries of childhood that moment when someone can simultaneously be friend, rival, and crush.' The Guardian

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Book SynopsisFrom toddler antics to doctor appointments, Keiler Roberts breathes humour and life into the fleeting present. Keiler Roberts affirms her status as one of the best autobiographical cartoonists working today with The Joy of Quitting, a work encompassing 8 years of hilarious moments in the author s life, mined from the universal. It spans her frantic child-rearing, misfires in the workplace, and frustrating experiences with the medical system. In one strip, the author and her daughter Xia have itchy scalps. Roberts asks her husband to check her hair and all she gets is the cursory remark that he just sees a bunch of bugs. In another, Xia describes her oddly shaped poop in precise detail. We then see Xia sitting at the breakfast table telling the family that she recently learned the word nuisance and everyone agrees it s a good word for her to know. As Xia grows from toddler to big kid, the family evolves and its dynamics shift in subtle ways, changes that pass all too suddenly in real life captured forever with Roberts s keen observational humour. The Joy of Quitting is Roberts magnum opus of domestic comedy, highlighting how she continues to work within and expand the rich tradition of autobiographical comics. Again and again, Roberts shows us that most meaningful moments or gestures often don t have any meaning at all.Trade ReviewI love the way Keiler Roberts use[s] diary comics to endow small, throwaway moments with the dignity and weight of larger ones. Liana Finck, The New York Times. Her work gives off a kind of radical stillness. It always lowers my blood pressure... Keiler Roberts is my new hero. Christopher Borrelli, The Chicago Tribune

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Book SynopsisAn internationally-renowned cartoonist and reluctant war vet details Japan's involvement in World War II. Showa 1939-1944: A History of Japan continues Eisner award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki's historical and autobiographical account of Japanese life in the twentieth century. This volume covers the devastation of the Sino-Japanese War and the first few years of the Pacific War a chilling reminder of just how harsh life in Japan was during this hostile era. Pivotal events like the attack on Pearl Harbor are reframed as part of a larger context detailing the country's brutal military expansion into Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Its effects on the otherwise unseen Japanese populace similarly come to the fore. On a personal level, these years mark a dramatic transformation in Mizuki's life too. His idyllic youth in the countryside comes to an abrupt halt when he is conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army against his will. On the tiny island of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, a constant struggle for survival ensues. Not only must he fend off attacks from Allied forces, but from the harsh discipline of his own commanding officers too. It is here that Mizuki comes to understand the misery and beauty of the island itself, a place that will permanently mark and haunt him for the rest of his life.

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Book SynopsisA sweeping yet intimate portrait of World War II s legacy in Japan. Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan continues Eisner award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki's historical and autobiographical account of Japanese life in the twentieth century. In this volume, the tail-end of the Pacific War and its devastating consequences upon the author and his compatriots loom large. Two rival navies engage in a deadly game of feint and thrust, waging a series of ruthless military campaigns across the Pacific islands. From Guadalcanal to Okinawa, Japan slowly loses ground. When the United States unleashes the atomic bomb then still a new and now enduringly terrible weapon it is the ultimate, definitive blow. The catastrophic fallout from both explosions surpasses the limits of popular imagination. Mizuki's own life is irrevocably changed in the shadow of history. After losing an arm during his time in service, the author struggles to forge a path into the future. Should he remain on the island of Rabaul as an honored friend of the local Tolai? Or should he return to the rubble of Japan and return to his earliest artistic inclinations? This penultimate installment of a landmark series is a searing condemnation of war, told with the deft hand of Japan's most celebrated cartoonist.

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Book SynopsisThe final, Eisner Award-winning chapter of a legendary cartoonist s history of Japan. Showa 1953-1989: A History of Japan concludes award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki's stunning historical and autobiographical series about Japanese life in the twentieth century. The final volume picks up in the wake of utter defeat in World War II, covering the United States shift from enemy to ally. Jobs, money, and opportunity are funneled along in a bid to establish the country as a bulwark against Communist expansion. Japan thus reinvents itself, emerging as an economic powerhouse. Events like the Tokyo Olympiad and the World's Fair reintroduce the world to a much friendlier Japan, but this period of peace and plenty conceals a populace still struggling to come to terms with the devastation of their all-too-recent past. Mizuki's own struggles mirror those of the nation during this period of recovery and reconciliation. He fights his way back from poverty, rising to the rank of cartoon celebrity beloved by millions of manga-reading children. However, prosperity cannot bring the happiness Mizuki craves, as he struggles to find meaning in the sacrifices made during the war. This visionary series, told by a true man of his time, is a magnum opus fully representative of the graphic novel as world literature.

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Book SynopsisThe book that brought pre-eminent Manga-ka Shigeru Mizuki to the English-speaking world. Kokopo, 1943. A platoon of soldiers is ordered into battle. The objective is death. The alternative is certain execution as a consequence of survival. Inspired by Eisner Award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki's own mandatory tour of duty as an active combatant in the Imperial Japanese Army, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths portrays a flailing infantry unit on its last legs near the end of the Second World War. This deeply personal and landmark anti-war work could only have been made by a pacifist. The desperation and moral depravity on display is devastating. Mizuki's fanciful characters must make do against a photo-realistic backdrop teeming with tropical life that remains inhospitable. Indeed, commanding officers prove even more ferocious than the wild unknown of Papua New Guinea. And yet the human instinct endures, seeing through the absurdity of such a rigid and outdated command structure with gallows humor.

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Book SynopsisHarvey Knight s Odyssey is the latest book in Nick s deepening catalog of jocular misery. Solarism is a religion that acknowledges there is a balance of light and dark in the Universe. But while Solarists believe it is possible to achieve a state of Pure Light by exposing themselves to the rays of the sun (or tanning beds on cloudy days), the Forces of Dark conspire against them and send hooded Shadow Men to eliminate the Light. Subsequently, Solarists must kill these Shadow Men. It s the only way. When a thief infiltrates the sacred chambers of the Solarists, Assistant-to-the-Master Harvey Knight must test the strength of his beliefs in order to restore order. Or maybe he s plotting to overthrow the leader and make the religion his own. Either way, it s an odyssey. Nick Maandag has been making bone-dry hilarious comics for years, exploring the ridiculousness of human vanity and beliefs. He approaches each comic with the understanding that we are all desperate to be seen and find the most outrageous ways to make that happen. Few cartoonists elicit belly laughs the way Maandag does.

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Book SynopsisA cutting portrayal of the pursuit of work-life balance from the cartoonist of Shit is Real. To achieve the proper work-life balance perhaps we just need the right therapist to coach us through our day-to-day. Anita, Sandra, and Dex have ambitions. Anita wants to move from making utility ceramics to fine art sculpture but her pent up dissatisfaction results in an outburst that puts her studio mate s work at risk. Sandra juggles her practical administrative day job at a startup with her wellness influencer channel, finding both in jeopardy when a messy affair with her coworker comes to light. In another corner of the same startup, Dex s innovative ideas are rejected, leading him to spend his days hacking and working as a bike courier. All three are disillusioned with their daily grinds. As the pressure for self-improvement builds they all end up looking to the same therapist for answers. Soon the boundaries between work and life begin to bleed into each other and it becomes increasingly impossible to find balance. All the solace the characters expect their therapist to provide is obscured by her quirks, whims, and psycho-parlance, leading to sessions that are neglectful at best and actively inhibit growth at worst. In striking colors and trippy transformational sequences, Aisha Franz captures the comedic absurdity of contemporary work-life and wellness culture.

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Book SynopsisA rip-roaring journey through the highs and lows of tour life. Welcome aboard the tour van of Major Threat Brooklyn s finest rock band yet to catch a break as they traverse the US of A on a last-ditch summer festival tour. On drums we ve got band dad Ed, the stoic drummer who keeps bumping into tech bro co-workers that he can't quite relate to. On bass, there s Paul, a man of mostly mystery, who drinks hard and yet manages to glide through life, intelligible to no one except energy-drink guzzling Marco, the baby of the band and newest replacement lead singer. And of course there's the gentle and serene Lilith, a weed lollipop sucking, stuffed-animal backpack wearing guitarist healing from heartbreak. There s sex, drugs, and rock n roll, sure, but there s also tender moments as the motley crew take turns behind the wheel, compiling lists of the hottest hunks and best guitar riffs to pass the miles. From tour fashion to breakdowns mechanical and emotional Leslie Stein holds no bars in this incredibly funny and heartfelt love-letter meets parody of life on the road. Her first full-length fiction, Brooklyn's Last Secret expertly showcases Stein s trademark cocktail of charm, wit, and whimsey, leaving readers decidedly affected by their time spent in her world. With her smoothest line and most stunning watercolor washes to date, Brooklyn's Last Secret reveals a lighter, more humorous tone from the LA Times Book Prize winning cartoonist.

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Book SynopsisA crisis of faith follows mother and daughter in this beautifully rendered, harrowing WWII memoir. With the heartrending We Are on Our Own, Miriam Katin recounts the story of her escape from German-occupied Hungary as a child, led by her determined mother. The two fled Budapest near the end of WWII and at the age of sixty-three Katin enshrined her memory in these extraordinary pages, originally published in hardcover more than fifteen years ago. In 1944, Miriam is a toddler beloved by her dog Rexy, but when her mother is forced to give up their Jewish dog to the German authorities, Miriam s world begins to unravel. The two flee to the countryside after faking their deaths and traversing lands blanketed with snow. Miriam s fragmented childhood memories of forests, chocolate, strange men, and the noise of war are reconstituted in this beautifully told epic journey where the innocence of a child is set against unthinkable violence. Another crisis, one of faith, haunts the severed family on their path. Struggling to reunite with Miriam s father who has been conscripted to the Hungarian army, mother and daughter contemplate God, wondering how He could allow such destruction. Poetic words of the Torah combine with images of war as Miriam examines the theological dilemma both victims as well as survivors of the Shoah. When Miriam and her mother hide with a winemaker, they soothe their nerves with the tonic, reciting God is red. God is in the glass. God, they understand, is in the very human will to survive, and in that pursuit of survival, we are truly on our own.Trade ReviewRichly illustrated in pencil, this book should not be missed by anyone with an interest in history, love or faith so anyone, really. Time

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Book SynopsisThe very first Drawn and Quarterly Kitaro collection, now back in print with a lush new cover. Kitaro seems just like any other boy. Of course, he isn t what with his one eye and jet-powered geta sandals, and the fact that he can shape shift like a chameleon. It s all a part of being a 350 year-old yokai, a Japanese spirit monster. Against a backdrop of photorealistic landscapes, Kitaro and his otherworldly cartoon friends plunge into the depths of the Pacific Ocean and forge the oft-unseen wilds of Japan s countryside. The twelve stories in this special collection include more works published in the golden age of GeGeGe no Kitaro between 1967 and 1969. It is a must-have for Kitaro s most devoted fans and features one of the earliest battles of monster versus giant robot battles seen in print. In another very special episode, our titular good guy even battles vampires, werewolves, and witches alongside creepy compatriots and occasional foes. Kitaro, as seen on TV and played in video games, is now a cultural touchstone for several generations. This updated and newly released edition is a wonderful companion to the classic all-ages Kitaro series that blends the eerie with the comic. The Eisner-Award winner Shigeru Mizuki s offbeat sense of humor and genius for the macabre make for a delightful, lighthearted romp where bad guys always get what s coming to them.

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Book SynopsisA Filipino-American take on Depression-era noir featuring mistaken identities, speakeasies, and lost love. The year is 1929 and Bobot is just another migrant worker in rural California. Or rather, a migrant worker with a law degree from the Philippines reduced to manual labor in America. Bobot, like so many other young Filipinos, finds himself bunking in the fields, picking fruit by day. When his cousin writes claiming to have spotted his estranged wife in nearby San Francisco, he swipes a co-worker s favorite nightclub suit and heads to the big city to find her. What follows is classic noir with seedy dives, mouthy pool sharks, and obsession. Rina Ayuyang indulges her passion for old Hollywood and elaborate movie musicals while exploring her immigrant roots in a playful and mysterious drama, creating something she never saw but always had hoped for a classic tale about people who looked just like her. The Man in the McIntosh Suit is a gripping, romantic, and psychological exploration of a fledgling community chasing the American dream in an unwelcoming society heightened by racial hostility and the bubbling undercurrent of the coming Great Depression.Trade ReviewReaders will be swept off their feet by this irresistible bildungsroman. Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisA slow-motion drive-by view of a collapsing universe meant to sit in the palm of your hand. How fast can you go in a buggy drawn by the flap of a butterfly s wings? How do you measure the speed of waking from a dream? Such abstract inquiries into the unrelenting absurdity of contemporary life make up this omnibus of meditative vignettes from one of mainland China s most prolific and recognizable yet anonymous new underground cartoonists of the current generation. Every story in 20 km/h toes the line between pun and poetry, and lands somewhere just short of a zen koan: Come back to it as often as you like, it will never read quite the same way twice. A nondescript figure awakes from an assembly line of identically fashioned companions and boards a rowboat destined for the unknown. A man holds the key to sleep in his hand and uses it to disappear into his mattress. The moon is plucked from the sky and fed into a vending machine for a can of soda. Woshibai s minimalist renderings are a startlingly delightful cocktail of existential dread and silent slapstick that arrest the mind s eye with equal parts humor and grace.Trade ReviewSilent, short, unexpected, surreal there s a snackable brevity to them that s unsurprisingly amassed a huge following. SOLRAD. Woshibai's hilariously clever comics explore themes of mundanity and reverie . . . Saying so much with so little is certainly [his] charm. It s Nice That

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Book SynopsisA portrait of flourishing desire in a body ever-changingAs she examines her life experience and traumas with great care, Delporte faces the questions about gender and sexuality that both haunt and entice her. Deeply informed by her personal relationships as much as queer art and theory, Portrait of a Body is both a joyous and at times hard meditation on embodiment?a journey to be reunited with the self in an attempt to heal pain and live more authentically.Delporte''s idyllic colored pencil drawings contrast with the near urgency that structures her confessional memoir. Each page is laden with revelation and enveloped in organic, natural shapes?rocks, flowers, intertwined bodies, women''s hair blowing in the wind?captured with devotion. The vitality of these forms interspersed with Delporte?s flowing handwriting hold space for her vivid and affecting observations.Skillfully translated by Helge Dascher and Karen Houle, Portrait of a Body provokes us to remain open to the lessons our bodies have on offer.

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Book Synopsis'If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough.' - Robert Capa. 'Robert Capa: A Graphic Biography' is a brilliant portrayal of the career of the great war photographer who, at the time of his death in 1954, had only one wish: to be an unemployed war photographer. 'It is not always easy' he said, 'to stand aside and be unable to do anything except record the suffering.' Born in 1913 to a Jewish family in Budapest, Endre Friedmann left home at 18 for Germany where he studied journalism and political science and worked in a photo agency darkroom. In 1933, Friedmann went to Paris where he shared a darkroom with Henri Cartier-Bresson and lived with Gerda Taro, also a photographer. Together they contrived the name and image 'Robert Capa, famous American photographer'. Capa made several trips to document the Spanish Civil War, where he took the seminal image, 'Death of a Loyalist Soldier' for which he was heralded as 'the greatest war photographer in the world'. By the start of World War II, Capa was in New York freelancing for LIFE, Time, and other publications. He went abroad with the US army to record Allied involvement in WWII, including D-Day on Omaha beach. Disembarking from a landing boat, he took the only images of the invasion. He went on to cover the war in Leipzig, Nuremberg, Berlin, London and Paris. Even now, it is the D-Day images that marked him as the world's greatest war photographer. 'Robert Capa: A Graphic Biography', written in the first person, follows his personal and professional life and through his eyes, the social upheaval and earth-shattering wars of the 20th century. It shows his intimate life and his relationships with the day's larger-than-life personalities: Ingrid Bergman, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and many others. Sepia watercolours wash the book in the fog of war and recall Capa's generation on the cusp of colour film. They show his professional work, his personal battles, his victories and struggles, and his legacy: the founding of the Magnum, a cooperative photo agency which gives photographers control of their work. In 1954, having sworn off war photography but in need of money, he left to cover his fifth war, in Indochina. Driven by his conviction that 'if your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough,' he was with a French patrol when he stepped on a landmine and was killed, camera in hand.

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Book SynopsisArt has always played a significant role in the history of the labour movement. Songs, stories, poems, pamphlets, and comics, have inspired workers to take action against greedy bosses and helped shape ideas of a more equal world. They also help fan the flames of discontent. Radical social change doesn''t come without radical art. It would be impossible to think about labour unrest without its iconic songs like "Solidarity Forever" or its cartoons like Ernest Riebe''s creation, Mr. Block.In this vein, The Graphic History Collective has created an illustrated chronicle of the strike—the organized withdrawal of labour power—in Canada. For centuries, workers in Canada—Indigenous and non-Indigenous, union and non-union, men and women—have used the strike as a powerful tool, not just for better wages, but also for growing working-class power. This lively comic book will inspire new generations to learn more about labour and working-class history and the power of solidarity.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis utterly unique book for kids 4 to 8 explores super-small creatures with astounding abilities through rhyming and comic-style spreads.Did you know that some of the smallest creatures on Earth have real-life superpowers?The minute oribatid mite can lift more than 1,000 times its own weight. A tiny type of salamander (called an axolotl) can regrow body parts. And the almost microscopic tardigrade? It can survive practically anywhere, even in outer space! Acclaimed author Tiffany Stone combines comic panels and zany rhymes to share incredible facts about our world’s miniature marvels, while illustrator Ashley Spires’ cartoon-style illustrations make these itty-bitty superheroes (and supervillains) pop from the page.From glow-in-the-dark sharks to immortal jellyfish and tiny cats with lethal aim, Super Small shows readers that just because you are small, it doesn’t mean you aren’t super—and sometimes being small can be super in and of itself.Trade Review"The focus in this poetry collection is on superpowers in tiny packages. Stone sings the praises of each... and Spires gives these peewee powerhouses confident looks to match the breezy tone and adds clever touches... Small wonders."—Kirkus STARRED Review"Super cute, illuminating... the illustrations have an instant glossy appeal... [and with] giggle-grabbing verse."—School Library Journal

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