Search results for ""Drawn and Quarterly""

Spring Break, 2009: Five days, three friends, and one big city. Roaming marks a triumphant return to the graphic novel and a deft foray into new adult fiction for Caldecott Medal authors Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. Over the course of a much-anticipated trip to New York, an unexpected fling blossoms between casual acquaintances and throws a long-term friendship off-balance. Emotional tensions vibrate wildly against the resplendently illustrated backdrop of the city, capturing a spontaneous queer romance in all of its fledgling glory. Slick attention to the details of a bustling, intimidating metropolis are softened with a palette of muted pastels, as though seen through the eyes of first-time travelers. The awe, wonder, and occasional stumble along the way come to life with stunning accuracy. Roaming is the third collaboration from the critically acclaimed team behind Skim and Governor General s Literary Award winner This One Summer. Moody, atmospheric, and teeming with life, the magic of this comics duo leaks through the pages with lush and exquisite pen work. The Tamakis singular, elegant vision of an urban paradise slowly revealing its imperfections to the tune of its visitors rhythms is a masterpiece a future classic for generations to come.

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Lulu Moppet is an outspoken, brazen young girl who doesn't follow the rules--whether they've been set by her parents, the neighborhood boys, or society itself. In spring 2019 D+Q begins a landmark reissue series of Lulu's suburban hijinks: she goes on picnics, babysits, and attempts to break into the boys' clubhouse again and again. The cartoonist John Stanley's expert timing and constant gags made these stories unbelievably enjoyable, which made Marge's Little Lulu a defining comic of the postwar period. First released in the 1940s and 1950s as Dell comics, Little Lulu as helmed by Stanley remains one of the most entertaining works in the medium. In this first volume, Little Lulu: Working Girl, we meet the mainstay characters: Lulu, Tubby, Alvin, and oodles more neighborhood kids. Little Lulu's comedy lies in the hilarious dynamic between its cast of characters, so it's a joy to see them come to life. Lulu's assertiveness, individuality, and creativity is empowering to witness--the series is powerfully feminist despite the decades in which the stories were created. It's her strong personality that made her beloved by such feminist icons as Patti Smith, Eileen Myles, and more. Lovingly restored to its original full color, complete with knee-slapping humor and insightful representation of how young children behave, Little Lulu: Working Girl is a delight for readers of all ages.

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Moomin s pushy relations have come to stay, and in the process of getting them out, he unwittingly embarks on a quest for fame and fortune with his sly friend Sniff. But it s much harder to get rich than either of them expects, whether it s through selling rare creatures to the zoo, using a fortune-teller to find treasures, or making modern art. Through a stroke of luck, however, Moomin meets the love of his life, Snorkmaiden, and with her help he finds the self-confidence he needs to get his house back. The iconic first Moomin comic strip by Tove Jansson, Moomin and the Brigands is a thrilling introduction to the vibrant inhabitants of Moominvalley we ve come to know and love.

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Since the 2011 release of Goliath, Tom Gauld has solidified himself as one of the world s most revered and critically- acclaimed cartoonists working today. From his weekly strips in the Guardian and New Scientist, to his lauded graphic novels You re All Just Jealous of My Jet- pack and Mooncop, Gauld s fascination with the intersection between history, literary criticism, and pop culture has become the crux of his work. Now in paperback, with a new cover and smaller size, Goliath is a retelling of the classic myth, this time from Goliath s side of the Valley of Elah. Goliath of Gath isn t much of a fighter. He would pick admin work over patrolling in a heartbeat, to say nothing of his distaste for engaging in combat. Nonetheless, at the behest of the king, he finds himself issuing a twice-daily challenge to the Israelites: Choose a man. Let him come to me that we may fight. Quiet moments in Goliath s life as an iso- lated soldier are accentuated by Gauld s trademark drawing style: minimalist scenery, geometric humans, and densely crosshatched detail. Simultaneously tragic and bleakly funny, Goliath displays a sensitive wit and a bold line - a traditional narrative reworked, remade, and revolutionized into a classic tale of Gauld s very own.

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Ever wanted to know how to be awarded the Best Dad in the Whole World? Guy Delisle has all the answers for you in these light-hearted, entertaining tales of parental mishaps and practi--cal jokes gone wrong. Whether he's helping remove a pesky, wob--bly, but not quite loose tooth or trying to win at hide-and-seek, his antics will resonate with every parent who has ever wanted to give a sarcastic answer to a funny question from their kid. Even More Bad Parenting Advice marks Guy Delisle's second foray into the world of offering bad advice to parents, and a sec--ond opportunity to express the minor frustrations and many joys of parenting. Delisle's skilful hand at illustration and ironic way with words, which helped to popularize his travelogues about daily life in faraway places, are just as much the stars here as he or his children are. His sense of comic timing shines through in these simply told stories; with their lively flow, a change in facial expression or a few words can serve as the anecdote's punch line. Even More Bad Parenting Advice celebrates the reality that parenting isn't all first steps and gold-starred report cards; it's stinky diapers and never-ending drives to the grocery store too.

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Award-winning author Lynda Barry is the creative force behind the genre-defying and bestselling work What It Is. She believes that anyone can be a writer and she has set out to prove it. For the past decade, Lynda has run a highly popular writing workshop for non-writers called Writing the Unthinkable - the workshop was featured in the New York Times magazine. Syllabus: Notes from an accidental professor is the first book that will make her innovative lesson plans and writing exercises available to the public for home or classroom use. Barry's course has been embraced by people of all walks of life - prison inmates, postal workers, university students, teachers, and hairdressers - for opening paths to creativity. Syllabus takes the course plan for Lynda Barry's workshop and runs wild with it in Barry's signature densely detailed style. Collaged texts, ballpoint pen doodles, and watercolour washes adorn Syllabus' yellow lined pages, which offer advice on finding a creative voice and using memories to inspire the writing process. Throughout it all, Lynda Barry's voice (as author and teacher-mentor) rings clear, inspiring, and honest.

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Another classic Moomin story reworked in full color, with a kid-proof but kid-friendly size, price, and format. A housekeeping and mothercraft expert named Mrs. Fillyjonk moves in next door to the Moomins. Seeing the state of the Moomin house, she takes action, shaming them into hiring a maid. When Misabel the maid arrives, it's immediately clear she needs a little cheering up, and since Mrs. Fillyjonk has mysteriously disappeared, the Moomins set about teaching her how to enjoy life. Lessons and poignant reminders of the importance of simple pleasures abound in Moominmamma's Maid, the classic tale from Tove Jansson.

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Look through Bendik Kaltenborn's kaleidoscopic glasses and glimpse the world the way he sees it: a vibrantly colourful planet populated by lumpy, big-nosed people totally absorbed in their own off-kilter personal dramas. Adult Contemporary is a collection of odd imaginings, surrealist comics, and physical comedy gags from Kaltenborn, a New Yorker and New York Times illustrator. People scramble around in a world they don't understand, happy as can be. An author finds unexpected and lethal love in his own garden. A marriage is threatened by soup. Drunk old men quarrel about literature in the witching hour. A con details a small and silly bank robbery from the 1980s. CEOs do push-ups. Norwegian cartoonist Bendik Kaltenborn's Adult Contemporary reads as homage to the art of mid-twentieth century cartooning and absurdist sketch comedy. His characters pace about like Groucho Marx, pratfall like Dick Van Dyke, and mug like Jim Carrey. His virtuosic gift as an illustrator and designer shines through in these pages; indisputable in the multiplicity of styles he employs, and in the immediate appeal of the book as a whole. From extended, off-beat jokes about obnoxious businessmen to gorgeous full-page gag illustrations, Adult Contemporary is always able to find something to laugh at.

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Tove Jansson's Moomin stories made her one of the most be--loved Scandinavian authors of the twentieth century. Jansson's whimsical tales of Moominvalley resonate with children for their light-hearted spirit, and with adults for their incisive com-mentary on the banality of everyday life. 2014 marks the cente--nary of her birth, and Jansson is being honoured with events in England, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, Japan, Australia, Italy, Spain, and France. Drawn and Quarterly is joining the festivities by releasing Moomin: The deluxe anniversary edition, a slipcased, hardcover collection of the complete Tove Jansson-penned Moomin comic strip, replete with all of her most popular story--lines and original pencil sketches. It has been more than sixty years since the Moomin comic strip debuted in the London Eve--ning News. By the end of its run in 1975, Moomin was syndicated in more than forty newspapers around the world, and hailed for its light-handed, charming stories. The comics were revived in 2005 by Drawn and Quarterly and published to widespread acclaim, sparking a new genera--tion of devoted Moomin fans with international editions around the world. Moomin: The deluxe anniversary edition celebrates the classic comics the world adores, and will feature an essay about Tove's work on the Moomin strip.

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First Year Healthy purports to be the story of a young woman, recently released from the hospital after an outburst, and her burgeoning relationship with an odd, perhaps criminal Turkish immigrant. In a scant thirty-two pages, working with a vibrant, otherworldly palette of magentas, yellows, and greys, Michael DeForge brings to life a world whose shifting realities are as treacherous as the thin ice its narrator walks on. First Year Healthy is all it appears to be and more: a parable about mental illness, a folk tale about magical cats, and a bizarre, compelling story about relationships. Michael DeForge's singular voice and vision have, in a few short years, rocketed his work to the apex of the contemporary comics canon. Ant Colony was his first book with Drawn and Quarterly: it appeared on the New York Times Graphic Bestseller list and was lauded by the Chicago Tribune, Globe and Mail, and Harper's Magazine. His effortless storytelling and eye for striking page design make each page of First Year Healthy a fascinating puzzle to be unravelled. First Year Healthy is knotty and mysterious - it demands to be read and reread.

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In 1980, Sylvie Rancourt and her boyfriend moved to Montreal from rural Northern Quebec. With limited formal education or training, they had a hard time finding employment, so Sylvie began dancing in strip clubs. These experiences formed the backbone of the first Canadian autobiographical comic book, Melody, which Rancourt wrote, drew, and distributed, starting in 1985. Later, Rancourt collaborated with artist Jacques Boivin, who translated and drew a new series of Melody comics for the American market - the comics were an instant cult classic. The Rancourt drawn-and-written comics have never before seen English publication. These stories are compelling without ever being voyeuristic or self-pitying, and her drawings are formally innovative while maintaining a refreshingly frank and engaging clarity. Whether she's divulging her first experiences dancing for an audience or sharing moments from her life at home, her storytelling is straightforward and never sensationalized. With a knowing wink at the reader, Rancourt shares a world that, in someone else's writing, might be scandalous or seedy, but in hers is fully realized, real, and often funny. The Drawn and Quarterly edition of Melody, featuring an introduction from Chris Ware (Building Stories), will place this masterpiece of early autobiographical comics in its rightful place at the heart of the comics canon.

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The 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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Sarah Glidden is a progressive Jewish American twenty-some- thing who is both vocal and critical of Israeli politics in the Holy Land. When a debate with her mother prods her to sign up for a Birthright Israel tour, Glidden expects to find objective facts to support her strong opinions. During her two weeks in Israel, Glidden takes advantage of the opportunity to ask the people she meets about the fraught and complex issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but their answers only lead her to question her own take on the conflict. Simple linework and gorgeous watercolors spotlight Israel's countryside, urban landscapes, and religious landmarks. With straightforward sincerity, lovingly observed anecdotes, and a generous dose of self-deprecating humor, How to Understand Is-rael in 60 Days or Less is accessible while retaining Glidden's distinctive perspective. Over the course of this touching memoir, Glidden comes to terms with the idea that there are no easy answers to the world's problems, and that is okay. Glidden's debut book, How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less landed on several best of the year lists, including Entertainment Weekly; earned a YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens distinction; and won an Ignatz Award. Her second book, Rolling Blackouts, which documents her experience shadowing journalists in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, will also come out this fall from Drawn and Quarterly

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Prepare to be disturbed and blown away. The stuff is remarkable, amazing.-Los Angeles TimesGood-Bye is the third in a series of collected short stories from Drawn & Quarterly by the legendary Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi, whose previous work has been selected for several annual top 10 lists, including those compiled by Amazon and Time.com. Drawn in 1971 and 1972, these stories expand the prolific artist''s vocabulary for characters contextualized by themes of depravity and disorientation in twentieth-century Japan.Some of the tales focus on the devastation the country felt directly as a result of World War II: a prostitute loses all hope when American GIs go home to their wives; a man devotes twenty years of his life to preserving the memory of those killed at Hiroshima, only to discover a horrible misconception at the heart of his tribute. Yet, while American influence does play a role in the disturbing and bizarre stories contained wit

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Ron Regé is one of a handful of cartoonists in the history of the medium not only to reinvent comics to suit his own idiosyncratic impulses and inspirations as an artist, but also to imbue it with his own peculiar, ever-changing emotional energy. To me, he is unquestionably one of the greats.'' Chris WareSkibber Bee ByeRon Regé, Jr., creates his own visual poetry that sets him apart from other cartoonists as one of the most original artists to enter the medium in the past decade. His storytelling is neither linear nor altogether accessible; however, his recognizable thin line and cute characters draw you into a dreamlike, sensitive fantasy world that, as odd as it seems, is entirely realistic.

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Walt & Skeezix is the first-ever collection of the classic twentieth-century newspaper strip Gasoline Alley, and Book One is the beginning of a handsome multivolume series edited and designed by comics virtuoso Chris WareChris Ware has often cited Gasoline Alley as one of his favorite comic strips ever, and he has lovingly edited and designed Walt & Skeezix: Book One, the first-ever collection of the classic newspaper strip created by one of the pioneering giants of American comic strips, Frank King. Not only does this volume reprint the first two years of the strip in which King''s friendly and nostalgic imagination took shape but each book in the series features an eighty-page color introduction by Jeet Heer of Canada''s National Post. Each introduction will also feature never-before-seen archival photos and ephemera from the personal collection of King''s granddaughter. Walt & Skeezix is not just a collection of a cl

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A new paperback edition of the modern classic timed to the release of the Alexander Payne-produced film version. Meet Wilson, an opinionated middle-aged loner who loves his dog and quite possibly no one else. In an ongoing quest to find human connection, he badgers friend and stranger alike into a series of one-sided conversations, punctuating his own lofty discursions with a brutally honest, self-negating sense of humor. After his father dies, Wilson, now irrevocably alone, sets out to find his ex-wife with the hope of rekindling their long-dead relationship, and discovers he has a teenage daughter, born after the marriage ended and given up for adoption. Wilson eventually forces all three to reconnect as a family - a doomed mission that will surely, inevitably backfire. Daniel Clowes, one of the leading cartoonists of our time creates a thoroughly engaging, complex, and fascinating portrait of the modern egoist - outspoken and oblivious to the world around him. Working in a single-page gag format and drawing in a spectrum of styles, the cartoonist of Ghost World, Ice Haven, and The Death-Ray gives us Wilson, his funniest and most deeply affecting novel to date.

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Lynda Barry's bestselling treatise on creativity, What It Is, is now available in paperbackHow do objects summon memories? What do real images feel like? What is an image? What is the past? For decades, these questions have permeated the pages of Lynda Barry's compositions, with words attracting pictures and conjuring places through a pen that first and foremost keeps on moving. Barry's What It Is demonstrates a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive mind who wishes to write or to remember.In this exploratory workbook, confessional, and memoir each page is a full-color collage that is a gentle guide to the creative process packed full ofswirling collaged images with pen and ink drawings on Barry's signature legal paper. Barry's award winning book is an invigorating example of exactly what it is: The ordinary is extraordinary.

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Everybody's favorite party girl Wendy is so backWhen Wendy is nominated for the coveted National FoodHut Contemporary Art Prize alongside her friend Winona, all of her millennial dreams seem to be coming true. She lives a post-pandemic, polyamorous fine artist's lifestyle in the big city and basks in the glory of national attention with the success of her popular comic strip, Wanda.But not even achieving bona fide art star fame can hide the truth: a never-ending struggle with imposter syndrome. After she cracks in an online interview and gets dragged in the comments section, she heads straight to a local watering hole to drown her sorrows. Several lines of coke, too many drinks, and one all night rager with fans later, Wendy is ready to curse Gen Z and confront her addictions. All the while, she and Winona drift apart as a younger Indigenous artist wedges herself between them. Will Wendy's commitment to change wind up short-lived?The Wendy Aw

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Dhaliwal creates a land ruled by magic and fire, where the sky is thick with witchesA witch's work is never done when she works for the people. With the success of her town relying on her magic, demands are high. But what happens when a witch can''t keep up with the magical requests? She is burnt, of coursein a cruel ritual that extinguishes her magic and erases all her memories, making her just like everybody else. But when a burning ceremony is interrupted by rain in Chamomile Valley, a witch is left writhing at the stake. It''s up to a witch doctor and her toad friend to save the singed witch and nurse her back to health. Can they help her before her magic is lost forever?Aminder Dhaliwal's A Witch's Guide to Burning is a whimsical and humorous allegory for burnout in a society in desperate need of self-care. With a lavish blend of prose, illustration, and comics, Dhaliwal crafts an enthralling hybrid adventure story like you've never seen before. Fo

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No matter how wrong relationships can be, there's nothing quite like getting them right.Every guy's been a creep at one point or another. That's just the way it is. Or at least, that's what Cleo tells herself once she finds out her boyfriend might not be the man she thought he was. Is it possible to keep loving someone you're not sure you can trust? More to the point, should you? Once the fabric of Cleo's relationship rips at the seams, the life she had built with himabroad and away from those closest to herunravels right before her eyes. Yet, letting it fall to pieces as she walks away is only half the story.So Long Sad Love swaps out the wobbly transition of weaving a new existence into being post-heartbreak for the surprising effortlessness and simplicity of a life already rebuilt. Cleo not only rediscovers her identity as an artist but uncovers her capacity to find love where she has always been most at home: with other women.Mirion Malle da

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The 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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From 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.

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The satirical saga of three artists seeking recognition. But there can be only one Artist. A novelist, single, forty-four years old. A painter, divorced, forty-six years old. A musician, single, forty-two years old. On the outer limits of relevancy in an arts culture that celebrates youth, these three men make up the artist group Arcade. Caught in circular arguments about what makes real art and concerned about the vapid interests of their younger contemporaries, none of them are reaping the benefits of success. But there s always another chance to make it. When it comes time, out of the three, who will emerge as an acclaimed artist? More important, when one artist s star rises, will he leave the rest behind? Following Yeong-shin Ma s hit manhwa, Moms, this plunge into artistic friendships is as hilarious and infuriating as it is real. With absurdist style and off-beat humour, Artist simultaneously caricatures and complicates the figure of the artist. The friendships between the three are impassioned and mercurial, resulting in conflicts about fashion choices, squabbles with foreign children, and changes in one another's artistic fortunes for better and worse. As the story progresses we see the ways that recognition or lack thereof moulds each character s outlook, whether they will be changed by the scene or end up changing it to fit their ideals.

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A 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.

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The 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.

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A 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.

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An 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.

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Unvarnished. Punk. The New York Times. King-Cat Classix collects material from the first fifty issues of John Porcellino s King-Cat Comics as they appeared in self-published, handmade zines throughout the 1990s. These strips span Porcellino s dynamic evolution from saturated, punk drawings to his characteristic refined minimalism, revealing his work as nothing short of a catalyst that has inspired artists like Chris Ware in the emerging literary comics scene. In the inky drawings featuring beloved pets, awkward teenage one-night-stands, and everyday blunders, we see a nascent style steeped in truth and transparency one that continues to ring true today. Porcellino s mind is spread out on the page, with an uninhibited id running wildly about dreams and sexual fantasies, not unlike the gritty, stabbing pen strokes of Julie Doucet. He sketches fragmented moments and glimpses of interaction that seem to reflect the very manner in which we process memory: we are made up of a stream of consciousness, captured in fleeting mental images, and Porcellino externalizes that messy internal reality. Follow along the path of Porcellino s dynamic evolution and relish in the inspirational power of this groundbreaking collection.

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The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud collects the best short stories from Kuniko Tsurita s remarkable career. While the works of her male peers in literary manga are widely reprinted, this formally ambitious and poetic female voice is like none other currently available to an English readership. A master of the comics form, expert pacing and compositions combined with bold characters are signature qualities of Tsurita's work. Tsurita s early stories Nonsense and Anti provide a unique, intimate perspective on the bohemian culture and political heat of late 1960s and early 70s Tokyo. Her work gradually became darker and more surreal under the influence of modern French literature and her own prematurely failing health. As in works like The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud and Max, the gender of many of Tsurita's strong and sensual protagonists is ambiguous, marking an early exploration of gender fluidity. Late stories like Arctic Cold and Flight show the artist experimenting with more conventional narrative modes, though with dystopian themes that extend the philosophical interests of her early work. An exciting and essential gekiga collection, The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud is translated by comics scholar Ryan Holmberg and includes an afterword cowritten by Holmberg and the manga editor Mitsuhiro Asakawa delineating Tsurita's importance and historical relevance.

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R. Sikoryak is the master of the pop culture pastiche. In Masterpiece Comics, he interpreted classic literature with defining twentieth-century comics. With Terms and Conditions, he made the unreadable contract that everyone signs, and no one reads, readable. He employs his magic yet again to investigate the very framework of the country with Constitution Illustrated. By visually interpreting the complete text of the supreme law of the land with more than a century of American pop culture icons, Sikoryak distills the very essence of the government legalese from the abstract to the tangible, the historical to the contemporary. Among Sikoryak s spot-on unions of government articles and amendments with famous comic-book characters: the Eighteenth Amendment that instituted prohibition is articulated with Homer Simpson running from Chief Wiggum; the Fourteenth Amendment that solidifies citizenship to all people born and naturalized in the United States is personified by Ms. Marvel; and, of course, the Nineteenth Amendment offering women the right to vote is a glorious depiction of Wonder Woman breaking free from her chains. American artists from George Herriman (Krazy Kat) and Charles Schulz (Peanuts) to Raina Telgemeier (Sisters) and Alison Bechdel (Dykes to Watch Out For) are homaged, with their characters reimagined in historical costumes and situations. We the People has never been more apt.

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In The River at Night, Kevin Huizenga delves deep into consciousness. What begins as a simple, distracted conversation between husband and wife, Glenn and Wendy Ganges him reading a library book and her working on her computer becomes an exploration of being and the passage of time. As they head to bed, Wendy exhausted by a fussy editor and Glenn energized by his reading and no small amount of caffeine, the story begins to fracture. The River at Night flashes back, first to satirize the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and then to examine the camaraderie of playing first-person shooter video games with work colleagues. Huizenga shifts focus to suggest ways to fall asleep as Glenn ponders what the passage of time feels like to geologists or productivity gurus. The story explores the simple pleasures of a marriage, like lying awake in bed next to a slumbering lover, along with the less cherished moments of disappointment or inadvertent betrayal of trust. Huizenga uses the cartoon medium like a symphony, establishing rhythms and introducing themes that he returns to, adding and subtracting events and thoughts, stretching and compressing time. A walk to the library becomes a meditation on how we understand time, as Huizenga shows the breadth of the comics medium in surprising ways. The River at Night is a modern formalist masterpiece as empathetic, inventive, and funny as anything ever written.

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From a child s-eye view, Travis Dandro recounts growing up with a drug-addicted birth father, alcoholic step-dad, and overwhelmed mother. As a kid, Dandro would temper the tension of his every day with flights of fancy, finding refuge in toys and animals and insects rather than the unpredictable adults around him. Dandro perceptively details the effects of poverty and addiction on a family while maintaining a child s innocence for as long as he can. King of King Court spans from Travis s early childhood through his teen years, focusing not only on the obviously abusive actions, but also on the daily slights and snubs that further strain relations between him and his parents. Alongside Dandro s birth father committing crimes and shooting up, King of King Court lingers on scenes of him criticizing Travis and his siblings. Dandro gives equal heft to these anecdotes, emphasizing how damaging even relatively slight traumas can be to a child s worldview. As Travis matures into young adulthood and begins to understand the forces shaping his father s toxic behaviours, the story becomes even more nuanced. Travis is empathetic to his father s own tragic history, but unable to escape the cycle of misconduct and reprisals they are caught in. King of King Court is a revelatory autobiography that examines trauma, addiction, and familial relations in a unique and sensitive way.

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How could this happen? The question of 2016 becomes deeply personal in James Sturm s riveting graphic novel Off Season, which charts one couple s divisive separation during Bernie Sanders s loss to Hillary Clinton, Clinton s loss to Donald Trump, and the disorienting months that followed. We see a father navigating life as a single parent and coping with the disintegration of a life-defining relationship. Amid the upheaval lie tender moments with his kids a sleeping child being carried in from the car, Christmas-morning anticipation, a late-night cookie after a temper tantrum and fallible humans drenched in palpable feelings of grief, rage, loss, and overwhelming love. Using anthropomorphized characters as a tactic for tempering an otherwise emotionally fraught situation, Off Season is unaffected and raw, steeped in the specificity of its time while speaking to a larger cultural moment. A truly human experience, Off Season displays Sturm s masterful pacing and storytelling combined with conscious and confident growth as the celebrated cartoonist and educator moves away from historical fiction to deliver this long-form narrative set in contemporary times. Originally serialized on Slate, this expanded edition turns timely vignettes into a timeless, deeply affecting account of one family and their off season.

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Peter Bagge returns with a biography of another fascinating twentieth-century trailblazer the writer, feminist, war correspondent, and libertarian Rose Wilder Lane. Following the popularity and critical acclaim of Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story and Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story, Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story is a fast-paced, charming, informative look at the brilliant Lane. Highly accomplished, she was a founder of the American libertarian movement and a champion of her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in bringing the classic Little House on the Prairie series to the American public. Like Sanger and Hurston, Lane was an advocate for women s rights who led by example, challenging norms in her personal and professional life. Anti-government and anti-marriage, Lane didn t think that gender should hold anyone back from experiencing all the world had to offer. Though less well-known today, in her lifetime she was one of the highest-paid female writers in America and a political and literary luminary, friends with Herbert Hoover, Dorothy Thompson, Sinclair Lewis, and Ayn Rand, to name a few. Bagge s portrait of Lane is heartfelt and affectionate, probing into the personal roots of her rugged individualism. Credo is a deeply researched dive into a historical figure whose contributions to American society are all around us, from the books we read to the politics we debate.

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John Porcellino makes his love of home and of nature the anchors in an increasingly turbulent world. He slows down and visits the forests, fields, streams, and overgrown abandoned lots that surround every city. He studies the flora and fauna around us. He looks at the overlooked. Porcellino also digs deep into a quintessential American endeavour the road trip. Uprooting his comfortable life several times in From Lone Mountain, John drives through the country weaving from small town to small town, experiencing America in slow motion, avoiding the sameness of airports and overwhelming hustle of major cities. From Lone Mountain collects stories from Porcellino s influential zine King-Cat John enters a new phase of his life, as he remarries and decides to leave his beloved second home Colorado for San Francisco. Grand themes of King-Cat are visited and stated more eloquently than ever before: serendipity, memory, and the quest for meaning in the everyday. Over the past three decades, Porcellino's beloved King-Cat thas offered solace to his readers: his gentle observational stories take the pulse of everyday life and reveal beauty in the struggle to keep going.

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Before penning his acclaimed graphic novel Market Day and founding the Center for Cartoon Studies, James Sturm proved his worth as a master cartoonist with the eloquent graphic novel, The Golem s Mighty Swing, one of the first breakout graphic novel hits of the 21st century. Sturm s fascination with the invisible America has been the crux of his comics work, exploring the rarely-told or oft-forgotten bits of history that define a country. By reuniting America s greatest pastime with its hidden history, the graphic novel tells the story of the Stars of David, a barnstorming Jewish baseball team of the depression era. Led by its manager and third baseman, the nomadic team travels from small town to small town providing the thrill of the sport while playing up their religious exoticism as a curio for people to gawk at, heckle, and taunt. When the team s fortunes fall, the players are presented a plan to get people in the stands. But by placing their fortunes in the hands of a promoter, the Stars of David find themselves fanning the flames of ethnic tensions. Sturm s nuanced composition is on full display as he deftly builds the climax of the game against the rising anti-Semitic fervour of the crowd. Baseball, small towns, racial tensions, and the desperate grasp for the American Dream: The Golem s Mighty Swing is a classic American novel.

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Sticks Angelica is, in her own words, 49 years old. Former: Olympian, poet, scholar, sculptor, minister, activist, Governor General, entrepreneur, line cook, head- mistress, Mountie, columnist, libertarian, cellist. After a high-profile family scandal, Sticks escapes to the woods to live in what would be relative isolation were it not for the many animals that surround and inevitably annoy her. Sticks is an arrogant self-obsessed force who wills herself on the flora and fauna. There is a rabbit named Oatmeal who harbours an unrequited love for her, a pair of kissing geese, a cross- dressing moose absurdly named Lisa Hanawalt. When a reporter named, ahem, Michael DeForge shows up to interview Sticks for his biography on her, she quickly slugs him and buries him up to his neck, immobilizing him. Instead, Sticks narrates her way through the forest, recalling formative incidents from her storied past in what becomes a strange sort of autobiography. Deforge s witty dialogue and deadpan narration create a bizarre yet eerily familiar world. Sticks Angelica plays with autobiography, biography, and hagiography to look at how we build our own sense of self and how others carry on the roles we create for them in our own personal dramas.

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Inspired by Yeon-sik Hong s attempt to Uncomfortably, Happily is the story of a young couple finding their way. Burdened by unmet comics deadlines and high rent, our narrator and his wife know they must make a change. Convinced the absence of traffic noise will ease his writer s block, our pair welcomes the idea of building a life from scratch. Deciding on a home atop an uninhabited mountain, they excitedly embrace the charms of their new rural existence. From tending to the land and attempting grocery runs through snow, to the complexities of fighting depression in seclusion, the move does not immediately prove to be the golden ticket they d hoped for, and the silence of the mountain poses as much of an obstacle to output as the sirens of the city. Through it all, though, we see simple pleasures seep in and gain prominence over these commercial, and, often, comparatively trivial worries: the smell of the forest, the calming weight of enveloping snow, and the gratification of a stripped down life making art begin to muffle other concerns. Originally published in Korean to great acclaim and winning the Manhwa Today award, Uncomfortably, Happily uniquely explores our narrator s inner world. Hong propels the comic with gorgeously detailed yet simple art, sharing the story of two lives unfolding slowly, sometimes uncomfortably, yet ultimately, happily.

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