Search results for ""Uncivilized Books""

Cartoonist Studio Prize Shortlist Foreword Indies Awards Finalist In M.S. Harkness’ ((Tinderella)) second graphic novel, she weaves in and out of non-relationships, drug dealing, and sex work—all with the subtlety of a blunt ax! She constantly searches for security and fulfillment, but it is always just beyond her reach. Desperate Pleasures is a young woman's fearless autobiographical account of difficult relationships set against a backdrop of trauma and abuse. Uncomfortably close-up, filled with dark humor, Desperate Pleasures is an unrelenting read and M.S. Harkness’ best work to date. M.S. Harkness is a cartoonist based out of Columbus, OH. She’s the author of the acclaimed memoir Tinderella. She enjoys competitive weightlifting.

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WINNER: INDIE Book Award: Best Graphic Novel : SilverFour years after saving her brother, Anya continues to explore the endless, twisting streets of the mystical city, Noridun. With the help of her friend Toris—the demon librarian—she hunts for a cure to her brother’s amnesia. Meanwhile a pair of mysterious strangers arrive in Anya’s home village. They have a plan that could change everything…! Stonebreaker is the much anticipated sequel to Peter (Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance) Wartman's acclaimed first Graphic Novel, Over the Wall. With stunning fantasy vistas, immersive world building, and fluid, action packed art, Stonebreaker cements Wartman’s status as a break-out new talent to watch out for.

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Brian Evenson delves deeply into the pages of Chester Brown's (Louis Riel, Paying for It) seminal comic-book Yummy Fur, from its beginnings as a mini comic to its afterlife in the graphic novels it spawned. Brian's comics archaeology excavates the discarded fragments of Brown's masterpiece Ed The Happy Clown, examines the never re-printed adaptions of the Gospels, considers the juxtaposition of religion and absurdism, and meditates on the pleasures of reading serialized pamphlet comic books. The book also features a new interview with Chester Brown, shining a new spotlight on this important work. Brian Evenson is the author of eleven prize-winning books of fiction, including The Open Curtain, Last Days, Windeye, and Immobility. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island, where he teaches at Brown University.

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"One of 10 Best Comics and Graphic Novels of the year."--The Onion "Great Graphic Novel for Teens"--Young Adult Library Services Association A great wall separates a magnificent metropolis from the surrounding countryside. All humans are banned from ever entering the city. A young girl is determined to enter the forbidden city in search of her lost brother. When she crosses over, fantastic adventures ensue in narrow medieval streets, ancient temples, and abandoned bazars of the haunted city. To save her missing brother, she must grapple with mythical creatures, explore the mystery of the missing inhabitants, and cure the amnesia of an entire civilization. Over the Wall immerses the reader in a richly imagined world of coming of age rituals, lost worlds and the nature of memory. The beautiful two-color art vividly brings to life the fantastical architecture of mysterious metropolis and faintly evokes the crisp lines of Japanese anime. Over the Wall is a stunning debut from a young and talented cartoonist Peter Wartman. Peter Wartman is a designer by day and a cartoonist by night. He lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the Wall is his first graphic novel.

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A retiree dedicates his days to combing a dense, snow-covered forest in pursuit of the unknown, and his nights to reminiscing about his wife. Old Caves is a peek through a frost-covered window at isolation, obsession, and the slow erosion of relationships. The high contrast black and white art enhances the sense of absolute solitude. Old Caves is one of the best looking graphic novel debuts in recent memory.

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Mardou returns with the second volume of her critically acclaimed graphic novel, Sky in Stereo. In Volume 2, 17-year-old Iris’s LSD journey has ended behind the locked doors of a psychiatric ward. As she tries to make sense of hospital life and fellow patients, Iris is forced to confront her self while defiantly trying to find meaning and regain her freedom. With her usual visual flourish, Mardou takes the reader on a maze-like journey into the inner world of mental illness in this powerful and trippy coming-of-age story.

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Cartoonist Studio Prize Shortlist 2014 For an impoverished cartoonist, I do an awful lot of international traveling. Raw, bare-boned, scathingly funny dispatches from the renowned comic diarist Gabrielle Bell, with biting cultural commentary mixed with her signature introspective, self-deprecating humor, and surreal digressions (from car-driving bears, through Zombie Apocalypses, to cute babies, and ...more bears!) as she visits France, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Colombia, back to Brooklyn, and finally landing in upstate New York. In Truth is Fragmentary Gabrielle Bell proves she can be ...funny! Gabrielle Bell was born in England and raised in California. Her work has been selected for the 2007, 2009, and 2010 Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and she has contributed to McSweeneys, Bookforum, the Believer, and Vice. The title story of Bell's book, "Cecil and Jordan in New York," has been adapted for the film anthology Tokyo! by Michel Gondry. Her latest book, The Voyeurs, was selected as one of the top five graphic novels of 2012 by Publishers Weekly. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Iris, a young woman turning eighteen in early 1990s Manchester, England, is slowly losing her tenuous grip on her world of burger-flipping, drugs, and rock 'n roll. After quitting her job at a clothes shop, Iris takes a position at a burger bar at the train station, where her crush on fellow burger-flipper Glen takes her down a dark path. A Revival House Press production in association with Uncivilized Books.

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WINNER Association for Mormon Letters Awards | Best Graphic Novel EISNER AWARD NOMINEE Best Reality-Based Comic INDIES Awards | Finalist Noah Van Sciver is haunted by the house at 133 ____ Street, or as his brothers rechristened it “One Dirty Tree.” This sprawling dilapidated New Jersey house was his first home and the site of formative experiences. Growing up in a big, poor, Mormon family—surrounded by comic books, eight siblings, bathtubs full of dirty dishes—Noah’s childhood exerts a powerful force on his present-day relationship. Drawn in his inimitable style, written with wry wit and humor, One Dirty Tree is another reason why Noah Van Sciver is one of the best cartoonists of his generation. Noah Van Sciver first came to national attention with his critically acclaimed comic book series Blammo, which has earned him three Ignatz award nominations. His work has appeared in Mad magazine, Best American Comics 2011, and The Stranger, as well as countless graphic anthologies. Van Sciver is the author of four graphic novels: The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln, Youth Is Wasted, Saint Cole, and Fante Bukowski: Struggling Writer. Van Sciver currently resides in Columbus, OH.

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WINNER : Lambda Literary Awards : Best LGBTQ Graphic Novel Kelsey Wroten’s Cannonball fires the reader straight into the messy life of Caroline Bertram: aspiring writer, queer, art school graduate, near alcoholic, and self proclaimed tortured genius. Wroten tells the story of an artist struggling with the arrival of adulthood and the Sisyphean task of artistic fulfillment. Stunningly drawn in a classic style, with big truths and biting wit, Wroten’s debut graphic novel is Art School Confidential for the Tumblr generation.

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Musnet wants to be the best mouse painter that ever was. But, he's caught between two worlds. On one paw, Musnet loves the classical style of his old teacher, the squirrel Remi. On the other paw, Musnet can't help to be drawn to the fresh and new art of the human master, Monet. Which path will the Mus choose?

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For almost two decades, Julia Wertz has been documenting her life’s most intimate, absurd, and amusing moments through a whimsical and hilarious diary comic book called The Fart Party. Wertz retells childhood antics that end in scars and swears. She tracks, in real-time, her young adulthood as she forgot her college graduation, traveled cross country via train, and drank her way through a harsh break-up. After receiving much acclaim (and controversy), The Fart Party became a series of self-published mini-comics, eventually collected into two volumes, published by Atomic Books. Long out of print, Museum of Mistakes collects anything and everything that is The Fart Party. PLUS: numerous pages of Julia’s early comic work, unpublished and previously uncollected comics, short stories, illustrations, process pages, hate mail, sketchbook pages, tear stains, and more. This massive tome begs the question, “what is a Fart Party?” And the answer is... you’ll have to read to find out!

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Greek myth has inspired stories and art for millennia. And yet some stories and characters remain unfamiliar. First There Was Chaos explores the formless, primordial, and extraordinary forces that preceded the Olympian gods. These tales of Creation illustrate the creative process, giving cosmic form to the universal struggles of all creators. Framing the narrative is the story of a poet struggling with his act of Creation, hoping to transform nothingness into beauty. His struggles parallel the tales of primordial beings, from the ambitions of formless Chaos to the birth of the first Olympian, Aphrodite.Based on Hesiod's Theogony and other classic sources, First There Was Chaos synthesizes fragmentary myths into a compelling narrative accessible to a contemporary audience.

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EISNER AWARD WINNER | Best Academic/Scholarly Work About Comics | 2019 One of the most influential women in independent comics, Julie Doucet, receives a full-length critical overview from a noted chronicler of independent media and critical gender theorist. Grounded in a discussion of mid-1990s media and the discussion of women’s rights that fostered it, this book addresses longstanding questions about Doucet’s role as a feminist figure, master of the comics form, and object of masculine desire. Doucet’s work is hilarious, charming, thoughtful, brilliant, and challenging, even three decades on. Anne Elizabeth Moore is an award-winning journalist, bestselling comics anthologist, and internationally lauded cultural critic. Her most recent book, Body Horror, is on the Nonfiction Shortlist for the 2017 Chicago Review of Books Nonfiction Award, was named a Best Book of 2017 by the Chicago Public Library, and was nominated for the 2018 Lammys. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the College for Creative Studies. She was born in Winner, SD, and resides in Detroit with her cat. Praise for Body Horror: “[Body Horror is] scary as fuck and liberating. . . . Moore connects the dots that you did not even think were on the same page.” —Viva la Feminista

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Hired to acquire the fabled Goblet of the Crimson Wizard, expert dungeoneering team, the Clandestinauts, enter the legendary Master Wizard’s formidable fortress with visions of unimaginable treasures in their futures. That is until, like most journeys through the dreary depths of blood-soaked sepulchers, things don’t go according to plan. Threats both external and existential stand ready to test the always frayed sinews that bind this team of bitter rivals together.

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2015 Doug Wright Spotlight Award Nomination Ignatz Award Nomination for Outstanding Graphic Novel An American artist witnesses the Quebec spring 2012 student strike on the streets of Montreal. The brutal police response and their violent tactics trigger an exploration of urban planning and its hidden connections to military strategies. Marshal Bugeaud's urban warfare tactics in Algeria, Haussmann's plan for Paris, planning and repression in the New World; theory and personal experience collide into an ambitious and poetic cartoon memoir. Sophie Yanow was born north of San Francisco in 1987. In 2011 she moved to Montreal, and with the Colosse collective published In Situ, her acclaimed autobiographical comics series. She was an invited artist- researcher for the Canadian Center for Architecture's "C for Condo" workshop, and her work has been exhibited throughout the US and Canada. She lives in Montreal.

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We love our pets, don’t we? A Book for Sad Pets is a beautifully illustrated encapsulation of just how fraught and emotional bond we have with our pets can get… but is it just about our pets? In just a few pages, with a few words, and a handful of illustrations, newcomer Kristen Tipping will take you on an emotional roller coaster and examines the promises of loyalty we make so casually. A perfect present for the pet owner in your life… or for your unrequited love.

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2 IGNATZ AWARD NOMINATIONS: Outstanding Collection + Outstanding Story Foreword Indies Finalist One of the Best Graphic Novels of the Year — Library Journal Gabrielle Bell returns with a brilliant new collection of hilarious short stories. From a revisionist Red Riding Hood, to uncomfortable role reversals, Gabrielle Bell revels in skewering modern mores with razor-sharp humor and wry observations. Culled from The New Yorker, Paris Review, and Medium, including several brand new previously unpublished gems, Inappropriate collects Bell’s best short comics form the last couple of years.

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Tinderella is an autobiographical comic about online dating, living poor and being a dumb 20-something. Intense work out sessions, a series of unsatisfying Tinder dates, and a bout of pink-eye; over confident and crude, Harkness's work is hilarious and emotionally agonizing. Tinderella is M.S. Harkness’ debut graphic novel.

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Tsu and the Outliers is a graphic novel about a non- verbal boy whose rural existence appears unbearable until rumors of a monstrous giant upend his mundane life. Tsu finds himself at the center of the mystery, as his strange metaphysical connection with the creature is revealed. As the dragnet closes in, Tsu is forced to choose between a dangerous path leading beyond the periphery of human perception or a life without his only friend.

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"The Voyeurs is the work of a mature writer, if not one of the most sincere voices of her literary generation. It's a fun, honest read that spans continents, relationships and life decisions. I loved it."--Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library "As she watches other people living life, and watches herself watching them, Bell's pen becomes a kind of laser, first illuminating the surface distractions of the world, then scorching them away to reveal a deeper reality that is almost too painful and too beautiful to bear."-- Alison Bechdel, Fun Home "A master of the exquisite detail, Bell provides a welcome peephole into our lives."--Francoise Mouly, The New Yorker "I don't think I could tolerate her if she wasn't so talented."--Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The Voyeurs is a real-time memoir of a turbulent five years in the life of renowned cartoonist, diarist, and filmmaker Gabrielle Bell. It collects episodes from her award-winning series Lucky, in which she travels to Tokyo, Paris, the South of France, and all over the United States, but remains anchored by her beloved Brooklyn, where sidekick Tony provides ongoing insight, offbeat humor, and enduring friendship. Gabrielle Bell's work has been selected for the 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Houghton-Mifflin Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and has been featured in McSweeney's, The Believer, and Vice magazines. "Cecil and Jordan In New York," the title story of her most recent book, was adapted for the screen by Bell and director Michel Gondry in the film anthology Tokyo! She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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Dash Shaw is one of the most restless cartoonists of recent decades, constantly evolving in how he approaches the comics page. In the years since his breakthrough graphic novel Bottomless Belly Button, he has continued to create acclaimed, idiosyncratic comics, varying his uses of line and color as well as shifting from domestic realism to sci-fi farce to historical fiction. But some concerns in Shaw’s work remain constant. His characters live within their own personal realities, often failing to connect or even communicate. Comics as different as the dystopian spectacle BodyWorld and the geek-culture comedy Cosplayers become sites of clashes between incompatible mindsets—with Shaw adapting his cartooning to capture new varieties of confusion, alienation, and more. In New Realities, critic Greg Hunter (The Comics Journal) follows the through-line across this adventurous body of work.

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L.A. Times Book Prizes Finalist (Graphic Novel/Comics) 2016 A collection of two new stories from cartoonist and Adventure Time contributor Sam Alden. In "Household," a brother and sister deal with divergent memories of their father and grow closer than ever. In "Backyard," vegans and anarchists share a house, small dramas and bizarre transformations (featuring a new, never before published ending). Designed as a companion volume for the critically acclaimed It Never Happened Again, New Construction cements Sam Alden's reputation as one of the best cartoonists of his generation. Sam Alden Sam Alden is the author of It Never Happened Again, Wicked Chicken Queen, and Lydian, among others. He is a two-time Ignatz winner and four-time nominee, and works full-time as a writer and storyboarder on Cartoon Network's Adventure Time. Praise for Sam Alden's It Never Happened Again: "Alden's natural sense of framing and pace, his willingness to use silent panels to tell stories, and his beautiful (yes, beautiful) pencil images combined to open my eyes to a new idea of what a great comic can be. It helps that he's also an excellent writer--both stories sketch out lonely, lost characters efficiently, and put them each through very different quests for meaning."--Dan Kois, Slate "Two thematically divergent, but devastatingly human portraits from an emerging cartoonist displaying the sort of storytelling and artistic restraint that often only comes after years of toiling away at the drawing board. Alden is a talent to watch."--Publishers Weekly

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“Czap’s Magic Future Cleveland is hyper-diverse. People of color are the majority in this world. There’s every body type. Gender presentation is all over the map. The body hair situation is impressive. It’s a physical world, of flesh and blood. And unlike the kind of “happy” imagery that slides into kitsch, not everyone here is smiling all the time. Czap’s characters yell and sweat, they speak honestly and openly. They cry a lot, usually with joy, but real hot tears. Their joy isn’t easy, and that makes it familiar.”—Eleanor Davis, The Comics Journal What if the future began in a small, queer, punk music show in the basement of a Cleveland, Ohio, house? Romantic friendships, überchic culture, magical solutions, kid think-tanks, and more make up Kevin Czap’s vision of not-so-distant America. Fütchi Perf might not depict a perfect future, but its slice-of-life vignettes, drawn in a glorious, kaleidoscopic two-color palette, visualize a utopian dream that seems almost real, but perpetually out of reach. Kevin Czap (pronounced “chap”) was raised in Northern Virginia, studied art in Cleveland, OH, and is now based in Providence, RI. They run the micropress Czap Books, endearingly referred to as “Comics Mom.” In 2016, Czap received the second annual Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) Emerging Talent Award for their work and involvement in the comics community.

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Jacob Bladders: illustrator, braggart, and victim of assault by thugs sent by the mysterious Charlie. Part satire of commercial art, part noirish detective story, part puzzle to be solved or left in pieces. Roman Muradov's latest is an ink-smeared Blakean vision of 1940s New York where Twitter exists as a network of pneumatic tubes, but artwork is still delivered by hand.Roman Muradov was born in Moscow, Russia. He now resides in San Francisco, California. As an illustrator he has worked for Vogue, Random House, the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Penguin. In 2013, Muradov received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. His first book, (In a Sense) Lost and Found, was published last year by Nobrow Press.

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"Van Gieson thinks like cinema. Big. Epic. For the reader, the question is simple: do you wanna ride along? VROOM!"--Comics Bulletin Eel Mansions, Derek Van Gieson's first full-length graphic novel, is a supernatural soap opera noir. Set in Mill City: a grimy place inhabited by new wave satanists, secret agents, booze-hounds, record-store clerks, conspiracy theorists, murderers, and cartoonists. Derek Van Gieson skillfully unweaves a knotted sweater of intrigue, suspense, and dark humor. Derek Van Gieson is a Minneapolis-based artist, writer, and musician. His work appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Stranger.

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Pascin, a biography of the noted Jewish modernist painter (Julius Mordecai Pincas, known as Pascin, March 31, 1885--June 5, 1930), is Joann Sfar's most personal and important work. Pascin is portrayed by Sfar both as a kindred spirit and an aesthetic revolutionary struggling to redefine an art form. Sfar revels in the artist's celebration of all things corporeal in the world of art. Though the story is drenched in sex, it is never eroticized. Created in a direct and immediate drawing style, Sfar focuses more on the artist's personal and sexual life than on his art, and brings Pascin to life as the ultimate bohemian. Joann Sfar is considered one of the most important artists of the new wave of European comics. He is the author and artist on a great number of acclaimed graphic novels including The Rabbi's Cat, Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East, Vampire Loves, and Dungeon. He wrote and directed Gainsbourg: Une Vie Heroique, the biopic of the illustrious French songwriter and singer. The film was released in 2010 to international acclaim.

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Twit Leaf the Elf's day job is picking berries in the Magic Forest, deep within a busy national state park. He'd rather be a mighty warrior elf like his grandpa was. One day he wanders into the strange and mysterious "picnic area" finding a magic glowing box that the evil humans left behind (it's just a kid's Nintendo). Suddenly he's tasked with the heroic quest he always wanted! He is to return the magic talisman to the shadowy "lost and found" chamber which is located in the visitor center by the water fountain.

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Hannah, a successful tech entrepreneur, decides to drop out of society and create a new social app, “Know Me.” She’s invited to test the app on a small religious community, the Church of Love and Devotion. The results go way beyond any intended consequences as lines separating the self, technology, and belief become blurred and lead to religious cult indoctrination. Loosely inspired by the life of the notorious Jim Jones and updated for the social media age, Holy Hannah explores family and the ways in which people’s lives become intertwined in unexpected and toxic ways.

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"Bell's pen becomes a kind of laser, first illuminating the surface distractions of the world, then scorching them away to reveal a deeper reality that is almost too painful and too beautiful to bear."-- Alison Bechdel, Fun Home, Are You My Mother In Gabrielle Bell's much anticipated graphic memoir, she returns from New York to her childhood town in rural Northern California after her mother's home is destroyed by a fire. Acknowledging her issues with anxiety, financial hardships, memories of a semi-feral childhood, and a tenuous relationship with her mother, Bell helps her mother put together a new home on top of the ashes. A powerful, sometimes uncomfortable, examination of a mother-daughter relationship and one's connection to place and sense of self. Spanning a single year, Everything is Flammable unfolds with humor and brutal honesty. Bell's sharp, digressive style is inimitable. Gabrielle Bell's work has been selected for Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and has been featured in McSweeney's, the Believer, Bookforum, and Vice among numerous other publications. Her story, "Cecil and Jordan In New York," was adapted into film by Michel Gondry. Bell's previous graphic novel, The Voyeurs, was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and the Atlantic. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Gabrielle Bell’s acclaimed collection explores a spectrum of human experience that ranges from the quotidian to the fantastical while always maintaining reliability. The characters of these stories, represented with a spare line, are deeply compelling, even in the finest minutiae of their struggles and triumphs. Culled from numerous anthologies, Cecil & Jordan in New York collects the best of Bell’s short stories and solidifies her place among today’s top cartoonists. This new softcover edition includes additional hard-to-find material not previously included in the original edition. Gabrielle Bell’s work has been selected several times for Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and has been featured in McSweeney’s, The Believer, Bookworm, and Vice magazines. Her story, “Cecil and Jordan In New York,” was turned into a film by Michel Gondry. The Voyeurs was named one of the best Graphic Novels of the year by Publishers Weekly. Bell’s most recent book, Everything is Flammable, was on multiple best of 2017 lists, including Kirkus Reviews, Entertainment Weekly, and Publishers Weekly’s Critics Poll. Gabrielle Bell currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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What prevents you from finishing your life's work?Josh Bayer finds a manuscript of an unfinished play inside his deceased father's desk. The play tells the story of Josh's mother's early death (age 37) and his father's struggle with single parenthood. When he attempts to adapt the play into comics, it triggers a series of personal crises. Bayer's limitations and futile ambitions are brought into sharp relief as he grapples with an estranged, unknowable parent and the play's frustrating lack of resolution.Humans worship lore, myth, and fables, but many people's creative dreams become abandoned. Why?Bayer's inky line, tangled textures, and kaleidoscopic color boldly fuse on the page into comic book semiotics, flights of grandeur, and tangents inside tangents. Josh Bayer stitches scattered memories into surrealistic episodes permeated with dream logic. Unended is a Promethean quest to excavate the creative fire hidden inside us.

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In hell, everyone can hear you scream, but only one person listens.Hell can get you down. It’s big, hot, often painful, and a hard place to get creative projects done. But something else is bothering inmate PKRx354—something beyond the unrelenting and often absurd torture routines, the demons, or the tormenting trio of his mother, father, and girlfriend also consigned to the Underworld. Luckily there’s help: Fred Greenberg—Hell’s only psychotherapist. With Fred’s stoic and perceptive guidance, the “talking cure” proves productive. That is until a dastardly terrorist act by a mysterious faction threatens the very nature of the Underworld. Will our self-deprecating hero get to the cause of his nagging “ennui?” Will Fred find his own redemption? And will our hero ever find peace, or at least a vacation?Combining Dante, Douglas Adams, and Freud, Damnation Diaries is equal parts horror comedy and character-driven drama, uniquely converging the look of bronze-age comics with sharp literary satire. The book’s imaginative and surreal landscape serves as a perfect backdrop for caustic social commentary fit for our equally surreal times. The setting may be imaginary, but the urgent issues addressed are not: growing economic inequality, student debt, political crisis, terrorism, and the attempt to find peace under the most hostile of circumstances.

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A god and a fool walk into a bar... In Holy Fools and Funny Gods, philosopher and cartoonist Izar Lunacek explores the surprising intersections between religion and comedy. Many view religion as a monument to eternal truth. Comedy, on the other hand, is the eternal iconoclast. This conflict between jokers and the faithful frequently marks our present-day culture. But in pre-Christian times, pagan pantheons included holy clowns precariously positioned at the right side of the main deity. Among many tributes paid to gods, at least one ritual was reserved for the trickster who destroyed the world order only to rebuild it refreshed and new.What if the priest and the jester are enemies only because they are siblings? What if they are two sides of the same social taboos? When we put gods on pedestals, we also expose them to communal mockery. When we laugh at clowns, we worship their disregard for social convention. Lunacek's Holy Fools and Funny Gods skillfully blends philosophy with the irreverence of the comics medium into a treatise that is both hilarious and profound.

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Selected for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016 Borb by Jason Little (Shutterbug Follies, Motel Art Improvement Service) is the story of Borb, a severely alcoholic homeless man. Borb is a downtrodden urban Candide whose misfortunes pile up at an alarming rate. The narrative is presented as a series of daily newspaper strips as the author draws on the long and complex tradition of the comic strip slapstick vagabond archetype. At once hilarious, horrifying, and full or heart, Borb depicts the real horrors specific to present-day urban homelessness. Borb is Little's most complex and challenging work. Jason Little studied photography at Oberlin College, and now resides in Brooklyn with writer Myla Goldberg and their daughter Zelie Goldberg-Little. He has been drawing cartoons since he was a child. In addition to acclaimed Shutterbug Follies and Motel Art Improvement Service, he also created the Xeric Award--winning Jack's Luck Runs Out, as well as a number of short works for various cartoon anthologies.

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L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist (Graphic Novel/Comics) 2014 Cartoonist Studio Prize Shortlist 2014 Can a children's cartoon cause riots? One of Mana Neyestani's cartoons sparked riots, shuttered the newspaper he worked for, and landed the cartoonist and his editor in solitary confinement inside of Iran's notorious prison system. But that's not the whole story. Neyestani exposes the complex interplay between art, law, politics, ethnic sensitivities, and authoritarian elements inside of Iran's Islamic Republic. In his journey to escape imprisonment, the artist travels from Iran to Dubai, Turkey, Malaysia, all the way to China. Along the way he shines a light on the dangerous and convoluted measures taken by refugees in their attempts to find safety and freedom. Mana Neystani's story is at once unique, universal, and truly Kafkaesque. "There is always that risk, that possibility, that the authorities will find a political dimension to your drawings."--Mana Neyestani for Le Monde.

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Ignatz award Nomination for Outstanding Collection Leon Beyond--part John Hodgman, part out-of-date school textbook--is the know-it-all, relentless-fact-baking brain child of cartoonists Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch. Leon's knowledge was catalogued weekly in the St. Louis Riverfront Times. Amazing Facts and Beyond collects the comic-strip's best and most outrageous moments. Discover the world of optilusors, Robert Skur, dance notation and grooved disc jellyfish. Learn new words and concepts: winkaton or optogenerian. Mark your extreme calendar before you travel to the pancake and eggs nebula. Meticulously un-researched and full of dubious knowledge, Amazing Facts and Beyond is the modern successor to Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Featuring guest contributions by Ted May, and others. Dan Zettwoch is a cartoonist, illustrator, and designer. Dan's work has been published in countless anthologies. His acclaimed first book Birdseye Bristoe was published last year by Drawn and Quarterly. He lives with his wife in St. Louis, Missouri. Kevin Huizenga is cartoonist whose work has been published by Drawn & Quarterly, Marvel, Fantagraphics, Time, Slate.com and many others. His latest book Gloriana was published last year by Drawn & Quarterly. Kevin lives with his wife in St. Louis, Missouri.

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Pill Hill, Nicholas Breutzman's darkly funny and utterly heartbreaking memoir, plunges the reader into a world of horrifying Tinder dates, flea markets, lizard people, child protective services, black holes, time travel, and stress-induced psychosis.Nic and Henry—father and son—stumble on an old forgotten park and make a bizarre discovery. Someone marked all the trees with wads of chewed gum! Who is the gum bandit?Reeling from recent family upheaval, Nic navigates the brave new world of single parenthood. Meanwhile, his ex-wife descends into addiction, abuse, and homelessness. Amid the turmoil, he becomes increasingly and desperately obsessed with exposing the gum vandal. Can Nic rise to the occasion and come to terms with his new reality? Or will he let the past drag him back into despair and denial, threatening the thing he holds most dear: his relationship with Henry, his son?

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Ex Libris revolves around a character trapped in a room with nothing but a futon and a bookcase full of comics. As they peruse covers, read stories and fragments of stories, they begin to suspect that the comics contain hidden messages and… a threat. Fiction and reality blur; sanity and madness become increasingly intertwined as the reader becomes convinced the key to their predicament is to be found between the panels of the strange books. With a dizzying array of inventive visual and narrative styles, Ex Libris continues the line of exploration and play that Madden initiated with 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style. Ex Libris is a tribute to the meta-fictional tradition of writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Vladimir Nabokov, and Italo Calvino (whose novel, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, was the inspiration). MATT MADDEN (NYC 1968) is a cartoonist, teacher, and translator. His best-known book is 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, a comics adaptation of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. His recent work includes the comic books Drawn Onward and Bridge. He has been living in Philadelphia since 2016.

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“Lovingly written and painted, this strange and silly book will delight everyone who reads it. The grown-up people who read it may find it confusing. But young people, I think, will understand that in its strangeness and silliness it mirrors our own strange and silly world." —Eleanor Davis, author of Stinky and How to Be Happy Thomas is a friend to all plants. He even has a cactus collection! One morning, he discovers his mother has been replaced by a ferna monstrous fern! What happened? Is this the start of a plant revolt? Did the fern eat her? Where did this fern come from, anyway? Will it eat his father too? And then Thomas? That Night, A Monster . . . is a beautifully painted all-ages graphic novel exploring imagination: its power and its dark side. Marzena “Marzi” Sowa is a Polish graphic novelist living in France. She was born in 1979 in the small industrial city Stalowa Wola. She left her country in 2001 and settled in Bordeaux. Marzi, her graphic memoir about childhood in communist Poland, was published by Vertigo in 2011. The book has been translated in several languages. Marzi loves dictionaries, is afraid of spiders, and is crazy about skateboarding and cheesecake. Berenika Kołomycka is a cartoonist, sculptor, and illustrator. In 2011, she received the Grand Prix at the Łodz International Comics Festival. She lives in Poland.

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“Jesse McManus [can], draw in a beautifully cartoony way with great lines and fun sense and sensibilities.” —Vice Magazine Imagine comics created from the DNA of John Kricfalusi, Charles Burns with a dash of Jim Woodring. You’d end up with animated, visionary comics by Jesse McManus. His fluid, hyper-kinetic, and lush brush strokes delineate a surreal visionary world of feral children, rubber y animals, and constantly-mutating monsters. The Whistling Factory is an audacious debut from the sui generis frenetic imagination of Jesse McManus. Jesse McManus has been drawing comics for a long time. He was the youngest contributor to the now legendary oversize Kramer’s Ergot #7. His comics were featured in many different publications including Vice Magazine. Jesse lives and works in Portland, OR.

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A collection of Alan Moore's (Watchmen, From Hell) difficult-to-find comics short stories. From bold experiments, through early takes on his favorite subjects, to self-critiques of his older work, this wide-ranging collection is an essential look at Moore's illuminating short stories. Each story is drawn by some of the best artists in comics from mainstream mavericks like Steven (Swamp Thing, Tyrant) Bissette, Rick (Swamp Thing, Bratpack) Veitch & John Totleben (Miracelman) to underground iconoclasts like Mark Beyer (RAW) and Peter Bagge(Hate, Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story). Comic book critic Marc Sobel provides insightful commentary and context for each of the stories. Marc Sobel is the co-editor of The Love and Rockets Companion published by Fantagraphics Books. He is also the author of the forthcoming Love and Rockets Reader, also from Fantagraphics. He is also a freelance journalist and scholar in the field of comic book studies. Alan Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell (and many others). Frequently described as the best graphic novel writer in history, and he has been called "one of the most important British writers of the last fifty years."

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A young woman undertakes a Dantean journey into the center of her psyche. Every door she encounters opens labyrinthine viewing galleries, macabre installations, and occult rituals where nothing is as it seems. Answers lead to more questions. She must abandon her false self--through despair and selfsurrender--on the way to an encounter with the inner void. Houses of the Holy is a nightmarish vision of the timeless psychic struggle that makes us human. Caitlin Skaalrud is a cartoonist, organizer, teacher, aspiring astrologist, and publisher behind comics micro-press Talk Weird Press in Minneapolis, where she lives with her partner and a cat named Howl. She is a recipient of a 2012 Xeric Self-Publishing Grant for Sea Change: A Choose-Your-Own-Way Story. Her first word was Batman

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In The Deaths of Henry King, the hapless Henry King, as advertised, dies. Not just once or even twice, but seven dozen times, each death making way for a new demise, moving from the comic to the grim to the absurd to the transcendent and back again. With text by Jesse Ball and Brian Evenson complimented by Lilli Carré’s macabre, gravestone-rubbing-style art, Henry King’s ends are brought to a vividly absurd life. Brian Evenson is the author of a dozen books of fiction, most recently the story collection Windeye and the novel Immobility (both finalists for a Shirley Jackson Award). His novel Last Days won the ALA’s RUSA award for Best Horror Novel of 2009. His novel The Open Curtain was a finalist for an Edgar Award and an International Horror Guild Award. He lives in Providence, RI, where he teaches in Brown University’s literary arts department. Jesse Ball is the author of five novels, including the forthcoming A Cure for Suicide (Pantheon, 2015), Silence Once Begun, and several others. He has received numerous awards, including a 2014 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship and the 2008 The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize. He gives classes on lucid dreaming and lying in the SAIC’s MFA Writing program. Lilli Carré is an artist living in Chicago. She has created several books of comics, including Heads or Tails (Fantagraphics), and her first children’s book, Tippy and the Night Parade (Toon Books). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Best American Comics.

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