Skullkickers #1 Cover A.

My friend Jim Zubkavich is a good guy. He works primarily as the creative director at UDON here in Toronto, and he organizes all of their creative services and manages all of their artists and heads up all kinds of projects for them, most notably the very successful Street Fighter Tribute and Darkstalkers Tribute volumes, which saw him organize over a thousand submissions from professional and amateur artists into two very handsome artbooks.

I’m the Best Man at Jim’s upcoming wedding, so it’s pretty clear that it is difficult at best for me to be unbiased about his work, and tbh the work of Udon in general. Difficult but not impossible of course, when they get something wrong I will tell them and Jim is gracious enough to accept criticism well (he may occasionally argue, as is his right).

Jim’s got his own creative ambitions outside of working on licensed material at UDON, in fact he had been producing a webcomic called Makeshift Miracle well before he started at UDON, and after much prodding at my behest he finally got it together and released a book collection of Makeshift 3 or 4 years ago. It’s a nice looking book, we had a launch party for it, it was a great time.

Jim’s next major creative project was actually just solicited last month, and due to the insanity surrounding San Diego and Scott Pilgrim I never got a chance to mention it here on the blog. It’s called SKULLKICKERS, and it’s a full-colour 5-issue mini-series coming out from Image, with the first issue dropping September 22nd. Jim’s been a project manager and creative director for a while now, he’s got his act together and with this series and he’s put together an amazing creative team with artist Edwin Huang knocking the art out of the park on his first go. The first issue is totally complete. The second issue (in the Previews now) is totally complete. The third issue is underway. The series is gonna come out on time, in full colour, and it looks great. You can see a bunch of stuff at the SKULLKICKERS website, http://www.skullkickers.com/.

Skullkickers #1 Cover B

So SKULLKICKERS. It actually launched out of two short stories in Image’s POPGUN anthology over the past few years, and they were short, sharp, funny little pieces. The premise of the series is basically “What if Army of Darkness had two Ash’s, and it was set inside a Dungeons and Dragons game?”  I’ve read the first issue thanks to Jim providing me with a preview, and it’s just as good as the shorts, maybe better as the longer format allows for some longer set-up… and follow-through on the jokes, and the action has more room to breathe. It’s a really solid first issue, and I enjoyed it as a reader, and I’m proud of my friend for following up on his creative ambitions and making this book happen. I think it’s going to be one of those surprise hits that Image has been publishing lately.

As I mentioned, the first issue was in the last Previews. Issue #2 is in the current Previews.  The item codes are, if you are so inclined:

We ordered 50 copies of the first issue, to support the work and to entice Jim into doing a signing at the store, and because I feel like we can probably sell a bunch of copies of a very solid new indy book. Hell, it’s even $2.99, cheaper than most of Marvel’s and DC’s stuff, and with their deep pockets they could almost assuredly afford to lower their prices… Anyway.

So the reason I’m telling you all of this is because I’ve got this blog here, and for the last 13 years or so I’ve used my web presence to direct as much attention and energy and sales and good fortune as I’ve been able towards comics I like, and comics by my friends, and those are usually both the same things. I have spent a lot of time telling all y’all about how good things like Scott Pilgrim are, because I believe in Mr. Bryan Lee O’Malley and I believe in his work, and now this weekend a major motion picture based on the work of my friend is opening across North America. It is amazing. My friend is now a bestselling author, and has a measure of financial security not often afforded to people in the comic book industry, and while I don’t pretend to take credit for the incredibly hard work he’s put in over the last six years, I am quite happy to have done my part to get that work into as many peoples’ hands as possible.

That’s the reason I’m telling you about SKULLKICKERS. My friend Jim did a really fun book, and it’s coming out soon, and what do I have this small measure of internet fame for if not to sell some good comics and help my friends out? Well, that and to get on comp lists.

So in closing, if you are a reader who would like to take me at my word and check out this comic, I strongly recommend you talk to your local retailer and make sure they’ve ordered it. They may not have–there are a lot of books in every given PREVIEWS. If you are a comic book retailer, I would urge you to pick this book up as it is likely to be underordered, and likely to receive some very positive attention in stores. Retailers can increase their orders until the FOC date of September 2nd, and for every 10 you order, you get 1 free as an ordering incentive!

Congrats to my buddy Jim on the first issue of his new series. Best of luck on the next and the next.

- Christopher

But.

But this cover is already out to a wide lead for “ugliest comic book cover of 2010,” and… and I gotta say something. Maybe there’s still time.

The 5 Things Wrong With DC’s War Of The Superman #0 Cover:

“FUCK YOU, DAD!”

1. Superman should not look like a petulant teenager. He also might be cross-eyed here.

2. Supergirl is making a kissy-face on the cover. Seriously. All the dudes on the cover are angry or serious, the girl on the cover is giving her best come-hither. The teenage girl.

3. Are those seriously hairs on the art? Like the art that DC released today was scanned with hairs on the scanning bed?

4. Not Jones’ fault (I hope), but that logo is terrible. There are 3 different fonts in that logo. WAR has 5 different text effects on it, including a bevel. Bevel. Bonus problem not related to the design: I seriously cannot believe this is DC’s entry into Free Comic Book Day.

5. It’s just not a good cover. Washed out, oddly static, the figures aren’t moving in the same direction and don’t come from even roughly the same point, the expressions don’t match up, it’s poorly ‘blocked’ meaning it looks like the woman in the upper-right corner looks like she’s standing on Superman’s shoulder… The whole thing feels like it’s been art-directed to death, or not at all. I can’t tell which.

I have solicited comics before, for free comic book day. You gotta get the art in early to make a very early deadline for a May book. Maybe it’s just rushed, or otherwise not the final. Or maybe this really will be the ugliest book DC releases in the new year.

- Christopher

George Sprott
By Seth
Hardcover, 10 x 14 inches, 96 pages with gatefold, full color.
$ 24.95
ISBN: 978-1897299-51-7

The first major new graphic novel by Seth in 3 years.

Celebrated cartoonist and New Yorker cover artist Seth gives us the fictional life of George Sprott. On the surface George seems a charming, foolish, old man—but who is he? And who was he? Told as a patchwork tale, we come to know George, piece by piece, in a series of “interviews,” flashbacks, and personal reminiscences. George Sprott is a story about time, identity, loss, and the persistence of memory. Though, ultimately, this is the story of a man’s death, Seth leavens it with humor and restraint. Originally serialized in The New York Times Magazine, this greatly expanded and “re-mastered” version is George Sprott’s first publication as a complete work.

Note: An excellent companion to the Seth-edited and designed Collected Doug Wright.

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The Collected Doug Wright: Canada’s Master Cartoonist
By Doug Wright. Designed and Edited by Seth.
Hardcover, 9.5 x 14 inches, 240 pages, full color
$ 39.95
ISBN: 978-1-897299-52-4

A career-spanning retrospective of one of the masters of North American cartooning, featuring an introduction by Lynn Johnston

The first of a historic two-volume set, The Collected Doug Wright: Canada’s Master Cartoonist presents the first-ever comprehensive look at the life and career of one of the most-read and best-loved cartoonists of the 1960s. Compiled in cooperation with Doug Wright’s family, it draws from thousands of pieces of art, pictures, letters, and the artist’s own journals to provide a fully rounded view of Wright, both as a cartoonist and as an individual. Wright was a major figure in mid-20th century cartooning and his work was a major influence on the likes of Chester Brown, Dave Sim, Lynn Johnston, and Seth. From the 1950s to 1980, Wright’s weekly strip was read by over 2 million Canadians and was syndicated across the country. Designed by the acclaimed cartoonist and Peanuts designer Seth and featuring a biographical essay by journalist Brad Mackay, this lavish hardcover collection gives Wright’s career the recognition it has long been due. The introduction is by one of the most famous working cartoonists today, Lynn Johnston, of the syndicated heavyweight comic strip For Better or For Worse.

Note: An excellent companion to Seth’s new graphic novel, George Sprott.

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Offered Again This Month:

Berlin Volume 1: City of Stones (New 5th Printing), by Jason Lutes
Berlin Volume 2: City of Smoke (New 2nd Printing), by Jason Lutes
Wimbledon Green, by Seth
It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken, by Seth 

Product Information After The Cut.

Offered Again:

Berlin: City of Stones (Book One) —New Fifth Printing
By Jason Lutes
Trade paperback, 7 x 10 inches, 216 pages, b&w
$ 19.95
ISBN: 978-1896597-29-4

The new fifth printing of this graphic novel classic.

Berlin: City of Stones presents the first part of Jason Lutes’ captivating trilogy, set in the twilight years of Germany’s Weimar Republic. Kurt Severing, a journalist, and Marthe Muller, an art student, are the central figures in a broad cast of characters intertwined with the historical events unfolding around them. City of Stones covers eight months in Berlin, from September 1928 to May Day, 1929, meticulously documenting the hopes and struggles of its inhabitants as their future is darkened by a glowing shadow. An excellent companion to Berlin: City of Smoke (Book 2), offered here.

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Berlin: City of Smoke (Book Two) – New Second Printing
By Jason Lutes
Trade paperback, 7 x 10 inches, 216 pages, b&w
$ 19.95
ISBN: 978-1-897299-53-1

The long-awaited second installment of the epic historical trilogy, now available in a new second printing.

The second trade paperback volume of Jason Lutes’s historical epic finds the people of Weimar Berlin searching for answers after the lethal May Day demonstration of 1929. Tension builds along with the dividing wall between communists and nationalists, Jews and gentiles, as the dawn of the Second World War draws closer. The lives of the characters within Lutes’s epic weave together to create a seamless portrait of this transitory city. Marthe Muller follows lover Kurt Severing as he interviews participants in the May Day demonstration, but moonlights in the city’s lesbian nightlife. Severing acts as a window through which the political shifts within the city and its participants can be seen. As with Berlin Book One: City of Stones, Lutes creates a sense of anxiety and imminent doom. An excellent companion to the new fifth printing of Berlin: City of Stones (Book 1), offered here.

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Wimbledon Green (O/A)
By Seth
Hardcover, 6.5 x 8 inches, 128 pages, full color.
$ 19.95
ISBN: 978-1-896597-93-5

The world’s greatest comic book collector

Meet Wimbledon Green, the self-proclaimed world’s greatest comic-book collector who brokered the world’s best comic-book deal in the history of collecting. Comic-book retailers, auctioneers, and conventioneers from around North America, as well as Green’s collecting rivals, weigh in on the man and his vast collection of comic books. Are Green’s intentions honorable? Does he truly love comics or is he driven by the need to conquer? Lastly, is he really even Wimbledon Green? A charming and amusing caper where comic-book collecting is a world of intrigue and high finance. Part riotous chase, part whimsical character sketch, Wimbledon Green looks at the need to collect and the need to reinvent oneself. Note: An excellent companion to Seth’s new graphic novel, George Sprott.

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It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken (O/A)
By Seth
Trade paperback, 6 x 9 inches, 176 pages, two-color.
$ 24.95
ISBN: 978-1-896597-70-6

One of the classic graphic novels of the late 20th century

In his first graphic novel, It’s a Good Life, if You Don’t Weaken—one of the best-selling D & Q titles ever–Seth pays homage to the wit and sophistication of the old-fashioned magazine cartoon. While trying to understand his dissatisfaction with the present, Seth discovers the life and work of Kalo, a forgotten New Yorker cartoonist from the 1940s. But his obsession blinds him to the needs of his lover and the quiet desperation of his family. Wry self-reflection and moody colors characterize Seth’s style in this tale about learning lessons from nostalgia. His playful and sophisticated experiment with memoir provoked a furious debate among cartoon historians and archivists about the existence of Kalo, and prompted a Details feature about Seth’s “hoax”.

Note: An excellent companion to Seth’s new graphic novel, George Sprott.

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More at http://www.drawnandquarterly.com 

- Chris

A Drifting Life
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi
$29.95, Trade paperback, 6.5 x 8.75 inches, 840 pages, b/w.
978-1-897299-74-6

The 840 page epic autobiography of a manga master, edited and designed by Adrian Tomine.

Over four decades ago, Yoshihiro Tatsumi expanded the horizons of comics storytelling by using the visual language of manga to tell gritty, literary stories about the private lives of everyday people. He has been called “the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics” and has influenced generations of cartoonists around the world. Now the visionary creator of The Push Man and Good–Bye has turned his incisive, unflinching gaze upon himself. Over ten years in the making, A Drifting Life is Tatsumi’s most ambitious, personal, and heart–felt work: an autobiographical bildungsroman in comics form, a massive 840 page book edited and designed by Adrian Tomine. Using his life–long obsession with comics as a framework, Tatsumi weaves a complex story that encompasses family dynamics, Japanese culture and history, first love, the intricacies of the manga industry, and most importantly, what it means to be an artist. Alternately humorous, enlightening, and haunting, this is the masterful summation of a fascinating life and an historic career.

[Chris' Note: This is so awesome.]

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Shortcomings: New Trade paperback edition
By Adrian Tomine
$ 14.95, Trade paperback, 6.5 x 9 inches, 104 pages, b/w
978-1-897299-75-3

The 2007 New York Times Book Review Notable Book, now in a new paperback.

Lauded for its provocative and insightful portrayal of interpersonal relationships, Adrian Tomine’s politically charged Shortcomings was one of the most acclaimed books of 2007. Among many interviews and reviews in outlets around the country, Tomine was interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air and also in The Believer, New York magazine, and Giant Robot. Shortcomings landed on countless “best of” lists, including those in Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times; was praised by Junot Díaz in Publishers Weekly; and was the subject of a solo review in The New York Times Book Review that drew comparison between Tomine and Philip Roth. The groundbreaking graphic novel now returns in paperback.

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32 Stories: Special Edition
By Adrian Tomine
$ 19.95, Box with 8 facsimile mini comics, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, varying page lengths for each mini comic.
978-1-897299-76-0

Adrian Tomine’s first book, now redesigned in a special box set edition.

Redesigned to coincide with the release of Shortcomings in paperback is a brand new edition of Adrian Tomine’s first book, 32 Stories, that collects his inaugural mini-comics in a special edition. This onetime printing includes facsimile reprints of the seven mini-comics packaged in a slipcase, as well as an additional pamphlet containing a new introduction and notes by Tomine. Between the ages of seventeen and twenty, Adrian Tomine self–published a series of “mini–comics”: small, hand–assembled booklets that he wrote, drew, and distributed himself. Entitled Optic Nerve, these comics were comprised of short vignettes and stories which displayed a youthful energy, an unabashed sense of experimentation, and the first hints of the distinctive, realist style that Tomine would go on to perfect. Over the course of those three years, word of mouth spread about these comics, and something that began as a teenage hobby was recognized as the arrival of a promising new talent. This special edition of 32 Stories presents those rare, early mini–comics for the first time in archival facsimile form: all seven issues in their entirety, faithfully reproduced and collected in one box.

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Backlist Offered Again

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Abandon The Old in Tokyo (New 2nd printing)
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi
$ 19.95, Hardcover, 6.5 x 8.75 inches, 224 pages, b/w.
978-1894937-87-0

New printing of one of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s key titles.

Abandon the Old in Tokyo is the second in a three-volume series that collects the short stories of Japanese cartooning legend Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Designed and edited by Adrian Tomine, the first volume, The Push Man and Other Stories, debuted to much critical acclaim and rightfully placed Tatsumi as a legendary precursor to the North American graphic-novel movement. Abandon the Old in Tokyo continues to delve into the urban underbelly of 1960s Tokyo, exposing not only the seedy dealings of the Japanese everyman but Tatsumi’s maturation as a story writer.

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Good-Bye & Other Stories (O/A)
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi
$ 19.95, Hardcover, 6.5 x 8.75 inches, 224 pages, b/w.
978-1897299-37-1

Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s recent book.

Good-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 within this volume, it is hardly the overriding theme. A philanthropic foot fetishist, a rash-ridden retiree, and a lonely public onanist are but a few of the characters etching out darkly nuanced lives in the midst of isolated despair and fleeting pleasure.

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The Push Man & Other Stories (O/A)
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi
$ 19.95, Hardcover, 6.5 x 8.75 inches, 224 pages, b/w.
978-1896597-85-0

Groundbreaking first book by Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

Designed and edited by one of today’s most popular cartoonists, Adrian Tomine, The Push Man and Other Stories is the debut volume in a groundbreaking new series that collects Tatsumi’s short stories about Japanese urban life.

Tatsumi’s stories are simultaneously haunting, disturbing, and darkly humorous, commenting on the interplay between an overwhelming, bustling, crowded modern society and the troubled emotional and sexual life of the individual.

*******

Scrapbook (O/A)
By Adrian Tomine
$ 24.95, Trade paperback, 8.5 x 12 inches, 204 pages, color
978-1896597-77-5

The ultimate collection by one of the most recognized talents in graphic novels.

This essential book includes over a decade of comics and illustrations Adrian Tomine, from Pulse to The New Yorker and Esquire, collected together for the first time in one sharply-designed book. Scrapbook is the first comprehensive Adrian Tomnie collection. here you’ll find the complete run of strips which was originally published in Tower Records’ Pulse Magazine which Adrian started when he was only 17, along with comics originally published in Details and a host of other magazines of the past decade. A large section of Scrapbook is dedicated to Tomine’s extensive illustration and design work, featuring his best material over the years from virtually every major publication in America including The New Yorker, Details, Esquire, and the late JFK Jr.-edited George. Tomine’s art has also graced popular album covers and posters for bands such as The Eels and Weezer and posters and it’s all included here in this beautifully packaged book.

*******

Sleepwalk & Other Stories (O/A)
By Adrian Tomine.
$ 17.95, Trade paperback, 7.5 x 10 inches, 102 pages, b/w
978-1896597-12-6

An early key title by Adrian Tomine.

Collecting the first four issues of Adrian Tomine’s acclaimed comic series Optic Nerve, this book offers sixteen concise, haunting tales of modern life. The characters here appear to be well-adjusted on the surface, but Tomine takes us deeper into their lives, subtly examining their struggle to connect with friends and lovers.

As to why I bother pointing out specifically Drawn + Quarterly’s release schedule when there are other wonderfully deserving publishers that could use as the attention as much? Quite simply, there are precious few Canadian comics publishers, and none that I can think of whose primary goal is to publish the absolute best work in the medium, in the exact format that the creator would like. Canadians gotta stick together, yo.
Shipping in February 2008

Paul Goes Fishing
By Michel Rabagliati
$19.95, 204 Pages, 7×10, Softcover
Long lazy days stretch out while Paul’s thoughts wander from the colorful characters at the fish and game camp to the lurking depths of childhood, a Holden Caulfield-esque adolescence. But the golden glow soon lifts off his vacation. It’s not just the realization that outfitters have decimated the lake’s indigenous species in favor of brook trout and are baiting wildlife for an easy fall hunt. According to Clément, Paul’s brother-in-law, good fishing is all about knowledge and intuition, not sophisticated gear. So is storytelling, in Rabagliati’s wistful and engaging account of everyday hopes and hardship. Beauty and meaning are even in the mundane in this compassionate story of expectation, disappointment and wonder.

[Chris' Comments: Every book by Rabagliati has been more accomplished than the last, and the Paul series are all wonderful stories that appeal to readers of all ages. This book had the additional honour of winning a Wright Award, I believe, upon its initial publication in French a few years back.]
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Crickets #2
By Sammy Harkham
$4.95, Comic Book

Crickets #2 features the highly anticipated second installment in Sammy Harkham’s new ongoing serial Black Death as well as a number of shorter strips that showcase the acclaimed young artist’s sharp wit and quirky sense of humour. Begun in the first issue, Black Death follows the adventures of a curiously indestructable man shot full of arrows and a mute Golem as they wander in the woods together, blundering through their encounters with its strange and isolated inhabitants. In the unrelated shorter strips, Harkham, publisher of the influential comics anthology Kramer’s Ergot, takes advantage of the opportunity to exercise his considerable imagination on a wide range of topics, from his autobiographical adventures on a signing tour to the frustrated comic aspirations of the emperor Napoleon.

[Chris' comments: In all the discussion surrounding the move to graphic novels and book-format comics, I hope we don't lose sight of the fact that there really are wonderful comic books being released to the market in the alt-comix/indy vein. More than just the lovely Ignatz books, anyway. Although it's been a bit of a wait between issues, the first Crickets was quite good, and I'm looking forward to this second issue.]
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Haunted HC
By Philippe Dupuy
$24.95, 208 Pages, 7×10 Hardcover

Ten years after finishing the original French edition of Maybe Later—the book in which the French superstar cartooning duo Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian worked separately for the first time—Dupuy set out on his own again with Haunted. Gone are the tightly constructed narratives and urbane, elegant graphics of his projects with Berberian. In their place, roughed-in drawings give an urgent, spontaneous feeling to a series of hallucinatory stories and dreamlike sequences that register the raw distress of solitude and self-doubt—the dark core of the material held in balance by Dupuy’s acid humor and lyrical sensibility. A jogging Dupuy runs around and sometimes through the stories of the misfit characters that haunt him: a self-amputating dog, a Left Bank artist in search of emptiness, an art-collecting duck, Lucha Libre wrestlers, and a group of single guys at the watering hole imagined as the anthropomorphic “Forest Friends.” Heart pumping, gaze turned inward, the ground occasionally giving way beneath his feet, this alter ego concludes that sometimes you need to cross the line to figure out where it is. The original French edition of Haunted was nominated for the 2006 award for Best Comic Book at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the most prestigious award in European comics.

An excellent companion to Maybe Later and Get A Life, both offered again this month.

[Chris' comments: Dupuy & Berberian's Get A Life and Maybe Later were, I feel, the overlooked gems of 2006. Beautiful cartooning, memoirs and fictional characters intertwine, it was all wonderful. This book looks to take the autobiographical work of Philippe Dupuy further-still, and the PDF preview available at the Drawn & Quarterly website is quite provocative. Hopefully this title catches on with readers.]

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Shipping In March 2008
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Berlin #15
By Jason Lutes
$3.95, 24 pages, Comic Book

The penultimate chapter to Berlin: City of Smoke, the second volume in Jason Lutes’ trilogy about the decline of the Weimar Republic, finds its broad cast of characters searching for solid footing in a chaotic cityscape. The relationship between Pavel the scavenger and the orphaned Silvia Braun comes to a painful end, while tensions rise between the Cocoa Kids and their German manager. Meanwhile, Kurt and Marthe struggle to come to peace with their failed romance and the different ways they view changing world.

[Chris' comments: As glad as I am to see this being released again, I feel like everyone is really just waiting for the trade. It's too bad, because the last few issues of this have been phenomenal... though it looks very much like Berlin Volume 2 is on track for a release at the end of this year, if the frequency of these serialised issues is anything to go by.]
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Against Pain
By Ron Regé, Jr.
$24.95

Against Pain is the first collection of multipage anthology pieces by Ron Regé, Jr. The storytelling side of his expressive work is featured in these comic strips gathered from McSweeney’s, The New York Times, Kramers Ergot, NON, Rosetta, Arthur, The Comics Journal, and Drawn & Quarterly’s anthology. Suicide bombers, art appreciation, a Lynda Barry “cover” and even a Tylenol-sponsored comic about pain are brought together under the theme of suffering and how people cope with it. Against Pain also includes the alt-comics zine classic Boys: a 22-page collaborative comic–considered by many to be Regé’s finest work–illustrating the “lust life” of a friend in explicitly honest and hilarious detail.

“Ron Regé is one of a handful of cartoonists not only to reinvent comics to suit his own idiosyncratic impulses and inspirations, but also to imbue them with his own peculiar, ever-changing emotional energy. To me, he is unquestionably one of ‘the greats.’” –Chris Ware

[Chris (Butcher's) comments: Ron Rege Jr. is a really nice guy, and I've enjoyed his comics and illustration, but I don't quite feel I've connected with them yet. I can quite-easily see what makes them great, I'm just not-quite there yet.]
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Shipping in April 2008

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Good-Bye HC
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi, designed by Adrian Tomine
$19.95, 208 Pages, Hardcover

Designed and edited by one of today’s most popular cartoonists, Adrian Tomine, Good-Bye is the third volume in a groundbreaking new series that collects Tatsumi’s short stories about Japanese urban life. 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 within this volume, it is hardly the overriding theme. A philanthropic foot fetishist, a rash-ridden retiree, and a lonely public onanist are but a few of the characters etching out darkly nuanced lives in the midst of isolated despair and fleeting pleasure.

An excellent companion to Tatsumi’s first 2 books, The Push Man and Other Stories and Abandon The Old In Tokyo, both offered again this month.

[Chris' comments: I never would have imagined that underground and outside manga would ever make it to store shelves here in North America, but I'm incredibly heartened to see this third collection of Tatsumi's short stories, and hope that this won't be the end. This is in the top 5 for 'best manga available in the English language.]
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Red Colored Elegy
By Seiichi Hayashi
24.95, 240 Pages, Hardcover

A true cornerstone of the Japanese underground scene of the 1960s.

Seiichi Hayashi produced Red Colored Elegy in the aftermath of a politically turbulent and culturally vibrant decade that promised but failed to deliver new possibilities. With a combination of sparse line work and visual codes borrowed from animation and film, the quiet melancholy lives of a young couple struggling to make ends meet are beautifully captured in this poetic masterpiece. Uninvolved with the political movements of the time, Ichiro and Sachiko hope for something better, but they’re no revolutionaries; their spare time is spent drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and sleeping—together and at times with others. While Ichiro attempts to make a living from his comics, Sachiko’s parents are eager to arrange a marriage for her, but Ichiro doesn’t seem interested. Both in their relationship and at work, Ichiro and Sachiko are unable to say the things they need to say, and like any couple, at times say things to each other that they do not mean, ultimately communicating as much with their body language and what remains unsaid as with words.

Red Colored Elegy is informed as much by underground Japanese comics of the time as it is by the French Nouvelle Vague, and its cultural referents range from James Dean to Ken Takakura. Its influence in Japan was so large that Morio Agata, a prominent Japanese folk musician and singer songwriter, debuted with a love song written and named after it. An excellent companion to the three Tatsumi books offered here.
[Chris' comments: I'd been hearing about how good this book by underground Manga-ka Seiichi Hayashi is for years, and like the Tatsumi releases, I almost don't believe that this is real. To say that I am anticipating reading this is a huge understatement. This is the early contender for 'most important manga release of 2008' and really, its only competition is Vertical's new editions of Tezuka's Black Jack.]
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For more information on all of these books, visit the Drawn + Quarterly website at http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/.
- Christopher

Shortcomings

Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his long–term relationship is awash in turmoil. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, suspects that Ben has a wandering eye, and more to the point, it’s wandering in the direction of white women. This accusation (and its various implications) becomes the subject of heated, spiralling debate, setting in motion a story that pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth.

By confusing their personal problems with political ones, Ben and Miko are strangely alone together and oddly alike, even as they fly apart. Being human, all too human, they fail to see that what unites them is their shared hypocrisies, their double standards. This gray zone between the personal and the political is a minefield that acclaimed cartoonist Adrian Tomine navigates boldly and nimbly. The charged, volatile dialogues that result are unlike anything in Tomine’s previous work or, for that matter, comics in general.

But Shortcomings is no mere polemic. Any issues that are raised stand on equal footing with expertly-crafted plot turns, subtle characterization, and irreverent humor, all drawn in Tomine’s heart-breakingly evocative style. What Tomine ultimately offers is more provocation than pronouncement—a brutal, funny, and insightful reflection of human shortcomings.

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White Rapids
Trade paperback/ 156 pages/ 2 colors/ 7 x 8.75 inches.
$19.95
978-1-897299-24-1
Pascal Blanchet

Winner of the Best Book prize for the Quebec comic industry awards, Pascal Blanchet’s graphic novel is a compelling account of the rise and fall of the small northern town of White Rapids. In the first English translation of his work, Blanchet seamlessly blends fact and fiction as he weaves together the official history of the town and snapshots of the quotidian life of its residents. Founded in 1928 in an isolated region of Quebec forest, the town was conceived and constructed by the Shawinigan Water & Power Company to function as a fully-equipped, self-contained living community for workers at the nearby dam and their families. Intended as an incentive to lure workers to the remote and inaccessible region, White Rapids provided its residents with all the luxuries of middle-class modern life in a pastoral setting—until the town was abruptly shut down in 1971, when the company changed hands. Blanchet’s unique, streamlined, retro-inspired aesthetic draws on Art Deco and fifties Modernist design to vividly conjure up idyllic scenes of lazy summer days and crisp winter nights in White Rapids, transporting the reader back to a more innocent time.

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Look for Offered Again items and full-size Shortcomings cover behind the cut:
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32 Stories (O/A)
by Adrian Tomine
Trade Paperback.
$12.95
978-1896597-00-3

In 1991, Adrian Tomine self-published the first issue of Optic Nerve. Consisting of three xeroxed sheets of paper, and with a print run of twenty-five, it was a less-than-auspicious, largely unnoticed debut. In the following three years, though, Optic Nerve developed at a startlingly rapid pace: the artwork and writing evolved with each story, production quality improved, page counts increased, and by issue seven, sales had reached 6,000. In 1994, Drawn & Quarterly took over the publishing duties of Optic Nerve, and the original seven issues sold out and were left out of print. 32 stories presents these rare, early editions, collected for the first time in a single volume. Offered here is Tomine’s new book, Shortcomings, an excellent companion to this title.

********Sleepwalk and Other Stories {New 4th printing}
By Adrian Tomine
Trade Paperback, 104 pages, b/w, 7.5 x 10 inches.
$15.95
978-1896597-12-6

Collecting the first four issues of Adrian Tomine’s acclaimed comic series Optic Nerve, this book offers sixteen concise, haunting tales of modern life. The characters here appear to be well-adjusted on the surface, but Tomine takes us deeper into their lives, subtly examining their struggle to connect with friends and lovers. Offered here is Tomine’s new book, Shortcomings, an excellent companion to this title.

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Summer Blonde (O/A)
By Adrian Tomine
Trade Paperback, 152 pages, b/w, 6.25 x 9 inches.
$16.95
978-1896597-57-7

With a deft and romantic touch, Tomine portrays the emotional ambivalence of drifting, urban twenty-somethings in stunning black and white. His stories are appealingly naturalistic, stylishly cinematic, and emotionally rich. His fans accuse him of eavesdropping on their most intimate moments, exhibiting their insecurities with both forensic detachment and surprising compassion. Offered here is Tomine’s new book, Shortcomings, an excellent companion to this title.

********Scrapbook (O/A)
By Adrian Tomine
Trade paperback, 204 pages, full-color, 8.5 x 12 inches.
$24.95
978-1896597-77-5

The ultimate collection by one of the most recognized talents in graphic novels: includes over a decade of comics and illustrations by the still-under-30 Adrian Tomine, from Pulse to The New Yorker and Esquire, collected together for the first time in one sharply-designed book. Scrapbook is the first comprehensive Adrian Tomnie collection. Here you’ll find the complete run of strips which was originally published in Tower Records’ Pulse Magazine which Adrian started when he was only 17, along with comics originally published in Details and a host of other magazines of the past decade. A large section of Scrapbook is dedicated to Tomine’s extensive illustration and design work, featuring his best material over the years from virtually every major publication in America including The New Yorker, Details, Esquire, and the late JFK Jr.-edited George. Tomines’ art has also graced popular album covers and posters for bands such as The Eels and Weezer and posters and it’s all included here in this beautifully packaged book. Offered here is Tomine’s new book, Shortcomings, an excellent companion to this title.

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- Christopher

Joseph
By Nicolas Robel
64 pages, 5.5 x 7.5 inches, Partial Color
$9.95
978-1-897299-31-9

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Walt & Skeezix 1925-1926
Frank King. Design by Chris Ware.
400 pages, 9.5 x 7 inches/partial color/ Hardcover book.
$29.95
978-1-897299-09-8

In this third volume of the much-praised Walt & Skeezix reprint series,the domestic side of Gasoline Alley receives full play. An old flame comes to visit Walt, with an eye towards marriage. Meanwhile, Walt pines for Mrs. Blossom, the neighbourhood widow. Out of these entanglements, a long engagement and wedding ensue.  As with earlier volumes, this book will have a 80-page introduction featuring many private photographs of the cartoonist Frank King and his family. The introduction delves into the marketing of Gasoline Alley in the 1920s and 1930s, with many dolls and toys taken from the personal collection of Chris Ware, the series designer and award-winning cartoonist.

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Look for Offered Again Items behind the cut.

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Fallen Angel  (O/A)
Nicolas Robel
64 pages, 5.5 x 7.5 inches/full color/ Trade paperback book
$9.95
1-897299-03-6

A little boy is haunted by terrible dreams until he meets a man with strange powers. Nicolas Robel (D+Q Showcase One) tells an allegorical tale with broad strokes and big-eyed wonder. An excellent companion to Robel’s new book offered this month, Joseph.

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Walt & Skeezix 1921-1922 (O/A)
Frank King. Design by Chris Ware.
400 pages, 9.5 x 7 inches/partial color/ Hardcover book.
$29.95
1-896597-99-8
 
Chris Ware has often cited Gasoline Alley as one of his favorite comics strips, and he has lovingly edited and designed Walt & Skeezix: Book One, the first ever collection and multi-volume series of this classic newspaper strip by one of the pioneering giants of American comics strips, Frank King. Not only does this volume reprint the first two years of the strip in which Frank King’s friendly and nostalgic imagination took shape, but each book in the series features an 80-page color introduction by Jeet Heer of Canada’s National Post. As  well, each book will feature never-before-seen archival photos and ephemera from the personal collection of King’s granddaughter. Walt & Skeezix is not just reprinting the classic American newspaper strip, it is the story of a great American cartoonist.  An excellent companion to the new volume of Walt & Skeezix offered here.

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Walt & Skeezix 1923-1924 (O/A)
Frank King. Design by Chris Ware.
400 pages, 9.5 x 7 inches/partial color/ Hardcover book.
$29.95
1-896597-99-8
 
Walt & Skeezix: Book Two collects the Gasoline Alley strips by the great American cartoonist Frank King from 1923 – 1924.  King was the first cartoonist to have his characters age in real time and have modern storylines.  In Book Two, Baby Skeezix is kidnapped, Walt’s courtship with Phyllis heats up and cools down, and Walt makes a bet with his friend Avery to see who can cross the North American continent first.  There is a new eighty-page introduction by journalist Jeet Heer exploring the strip’s Chicago background and the attraction that King and other cartoonists felt for the Grand Canyon. An excellent companion to the new volume of Walt & Skeezix offered here.

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- Christopher

Spent
By Joe Matt
Hardcover book, 6.5 x 9.25 inches, 132 two-color pages.
$19.95
978-1-897299-11-1 

Meet the original antihero Joe Matt: a master of a domain that includes over twenty-three self-edited eight-hour-long videotapes of bootlegged pornography; a penny-pincher who never fails to make a dime off his friends; a chronic masturbator who doesn’t understand why he never has a girlfriend; an obsessive collector frantically searching for the toys of his childhood; a callous son who throws out every gift his adoring mother gives him; a man so lazy that he urinates in a bottle rather than walk to the bathroom. SPENT is Joe Matt’s first new trade hardcover in years, and it collects in a re-edited and re-colored form his best storyline from the past 4 issues of Peepshow. Also offered here are other Joe Matt classics, Fair Weather and The Poor Bastard.

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Look for “Offered Again” Titles Behind the cut.

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The Poor Bastard (O/A)
By Joe Matt
Trade paperback, 6.5 x 9.25 inches, 176 pages, b/w. 
$ 16.95 USD
978-1896597-44-7

This aptly-titled book collects for the first time Joe Matt’s compelling and often hilarious storyline chronicling the crucial moments in his miserable life, beginning with his secret lust for his lover’s best friend, and its ensuing devastating consequences. Ongoing troubles with women, an insatiable obsession with pornography…this poor bastard has serious problems, yet unlike the rest of us, he works them out in full public view, allowing us to get closer to him…maybe a little too close! An excellent companion to SPENT, Joe Matt’s new book offered here.

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Fair Weather (O/A)
By Joe Matt
Trade Paperback, 128 pages, 6 x 9 inches,  b/w.
$ 14.95 USD
1-896597-74-2

Synopsis:
In Fair Weather Joe examines his 1970s suburban childhood. Young Joe Matt is a selfish child who steals from stores, takes advantage of his friends, threatens to burn his mother’s house down, teases those weaker than himself, and reveals himself to be a fairly normal child. Completely unsentimental and strangely kind of endearing, Fair Weather continues the American tradition of hilarious self-exhibitionism. An excellent companion to SPENT, Joe Matt’s new book offered here.

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It’s A Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken (O/A)
By Seth
Trade Paperback, 176 pages, 6 x 9 inches,  two colors.
$ 19.95 USD
978-1896597-70-6

Voted by The Comics Journal as one of the top 100 comics of the 20th century. In his first graphic novel Seth pays homage to the wit and sophistication of New Yorker cartoons. While trying to understand his dissatisfaction with the present, Seth discovers the life and work of Kalo, a forgotten gag cartoonist from the 1940s. But his obsession blinds him to the needs of his lover and the quiet desperation of his family. Wry self-reflection and moody colours characterize Seth’s style in this tale about learning lessons from nostalgia. His playful and sophisticated experiment with memoir provoked a furious debate among cartoon historians and archivists about the existence of Kalo, and prompted a Details feature about Seth’s “hoax.”

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I Never Liked You (O/A)
By Chester Brown
Trade Paperback, 200 pages, 6 x 9 inches, b/w.
$ 15.95 USD
978-1896597-14-0

Synopsis:
One of the classics of modern graphic novels, back in a new printing. Chester Brown tells the story of his alienated youth in an almost detached, understated manner, giving the book an eerie, dream-like quality. For the new definitive softcover edition Brown has designed new layouts for the entire book, using “white” panel backgrounds instead of the black pages of the first edition.

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As always, you can click on images to view a larger version. 

- Christopher

Exit Wounds
By Rutu Modan
Mature Readers
Hardcover book, 6.5 x 9 inches, 176 FULL COLOR pages.
$19.95
978-1-897299-06-7

In modern-day Tel Aviv, a young man, Koby Franco, receives an urgent phone call from a female soldier. Learning that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing in Hadera, Koby reluctantly joins the soldier in searching for clues. His father’s death would certainly explain the empty apartment and disconnected phone line. As Koby tries to unravel the mystery of his father’s death, he finds himself not only piecing together the last few months of his father’s life, but his entire identity. With thin, precise lines and luscious watercolors, Modan creates a portrait of modern Israel, a place where sudden death mingles with the slow dissolution of family ties. Exit Wounds is the North American graphic novel debut from one of Israel’s best-known cartoonists, Rutu Modan. She has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (four times) and the Young Artist of the Year by the Israel Ministry of Culture. She is a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.

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James Sturm’s America
By James Sturm
Mature readers
Hardcover book, 7.5 x 10 inches, 192 pages, partial color.
$ 24.95 USD
978-1-897299-05-0

Focusing on less sensational times in U.S. history (non-war and pre-Depression) James Sturm’s America draws a portrait of the people and their dreams that make up this country. Comprised of three chapters—“The Revival,” “Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight,” and “The Golem’s Mighty Swing”—the story grows as the country grows; from pioneers searching for a place to call home, to ghost towns gutted by greed and racism, to the distractions and fantasies of popular entertainment. James Sturm is one of the most important figures to have emerged in comics in recent years, both as a cartoonist and as the founder and director of the Center For Cartoon Studies. The work collected in this book has been praised by numerous cultural luminaries, from novelists Jonathan Lethem and Russell Banks to Doonesbury’s Gary Trudeau. Sturm won an Eisner Award for his Fantastic Four graphic novel, Unstable Molecules.

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Look for Offered Again titles behind the cut.

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Celebrate MANGA MONTH
As part of Previews’ Manga Month, D+Q is pleased to offer two books by seminal Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

The Push Man and Other Stories (O/A)
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Edited by Adrian Tomine.
HARDCOVER book, 208 pages, b/w, 6.125 x 8.25 inches.
$ 19.95 USD
1-896597-85-8

Designed and edited by one of today’s most popular cartoonists, Adrian Tomine, The Push Man and Other Stories is the debut volume in a groundbreaking new series that collects Tatsumi’s short stories about Japanese urban life. Tatsumi’s stories are simultaneously haunting, disturbing, and darkly humorous, commenting on the interplay between an overwhelming, bustling, crowded, modern society and the troubled emotional and sexual life of the individual.

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Abandon The Old In Tokyo (O/A)
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Edited by Adrian Tomine.
HARDCOVER book, 208 pages, b/w, 6.125 x 8.25 inches.
$ 19.95 USD
1-894937-87-2

Abandon The Old In Tokyo is the second in a multi-volume series that collects the short stories of Japanese cartooning legend Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Designed and edited by Adrian Tomine, the first volume, The Push Man and Other Stories, debuted to much critical acclaim and rightfully placed Tatsumi as a legendary precursor to the North American graphic novel movement. Abandon The Old In Tokyo continues to delve into the urban underbelly of 1960s Tokyo, exposing not only the seedy dealings of the Japanese everyman but Tatsumi’s maturation as a storywriter.

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You can click on the images to view a larger version.

- Christopher