One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children’s illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage.Believing that they were trying to do their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son’s respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David’s cancer. Elizabeth, David’s mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statemen.

Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. It's a summer of secrets and sorrow and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.In This One Summer two stellar creators redefine the teen graphic novel. Cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, the team behind Skim, have collaborated on this gorgeous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful story about a girl on the cusp of her teen age—a story of renewal and revelation.

This is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0985302200WHO IS LOTTIE PERSON? Is she a gorgeous, fun-loving social media star with a perfect life or a gross, allergy-ridden mess? Enter a world of snot, blood, and tears in this new ongoing series from New York Times Best Seller BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY (Scott Pilgrim) and dazzling newcomer LESLIE HUNG!

2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Writer2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Painter/Multimedia Artist2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Continuing Series2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Publication for Teens2018 Eisner Award winner, Best Cover Artist2018 Harvey Award winner, Book of the Year2018 Hugo Award winner, Best Graphic Story2018 British Fantasy Award winner, Best Comic/Graphic Novel2018, 2016, 2015 Entertainment Weekly's The Best Comic Books of the Year2018, Newsweek's Best Comic Books of the Year2018, The Washington Post's 10 Best Graphic Novels of the Year2018, Barnes &amp; Noble's Best Books of the Year2018, YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens2018, Thrillist's Best Comics &amp; Graphic Novels of the Year2018, Powell's Best Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Graphic Novels of the YearThe richly imagined world of MONSTRESS is an alternate matriarchal 1900s Asia, with an art deco-infused steampunk aesthetic that's brimming with arcane dangers. Within it, a teenage girl struggles to overcome the trauma of war, a task that's made all the more difficult by her mysterious psychic link to an eldritch monster of tremendous power--a connection that will transform them both, and place them in the crosshairs of both human and otherworldly powers.Creator/writer Marjorie Liu (who made history as the first woman to win an Eisner Award for Best Writer) and creator/artist Sana Takeda present a deluxe, oversized hardcover edition of their beloved breakout comic in MONSTRESS BOOK ONE. Collecting the first 18 issues of the New York Times bestselling series, this massive edition features a striking new cover, as well as special extras, including never-before-seen sketches, script pages, and more for over 500 pages of award-winning content.

In 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA. The ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car approaches the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to be unraveling ever faster—as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.Simon Stålenhag is the internationally acclaimed author, concept designer, and artist behind Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. His highly imaginative images and stories depicting illusive sci-fi phenomena in mundane, hyper-realistic Scandinavian landscapes have made Stålenhag one of the most sought-after visual storytellers in the world. In The Electric State, Stålenhag turns his unique vision to America.

Art and story combine powerfully in this lyrical tale of a young man caught in the maelstrom of the civil rights movement and the entrenched homophobia of small-town America. Toland Polk, the son of an uneducated white carpenter, has grown up in the Southern town of Clayfield. It is the 1960s, a time of passionate beliefs and violent emotions, and Clayfield's citizens are divided in the fight over segregation. As Toland fights on the side of the civil rights activists, he slowly begins to realize that he also has a more personal battle - to accept that he is gay.With a subtle yet intricate plot, and distinctively evocative illustrations, "Stuck Rubber Baby" is an unflinching honest look at one man's world of fears, dreams, and prejudice.

From BRIAN K. VAUGHAN, New York Times bestselling writer of SAGA, and CLIFF CHIANG, legendary artist of Wonder Woman, this gorgeous oversized deluxe hardcover is the perfect way to experience the first two storylines of the smash-hit series that The Chicago Tribune named one of the "Best Books of the Year."In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this critically acclaimed story about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.Collects PAPER GIRLS #1-10, along with exclusive extras and a brand-new cover from CLIFF CHIANG!

Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir.Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom--Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

In this graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father.Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.

Raleigh doesn't have a soul. A cat stole it – at least that's what she tells people – at least that's what she would tell people if she told people anything. But that would mean talking to people, and the mere thought of social interaction is terrifying. How did such a shy teenage girl end up in a car with three of her hooligan classmates on a cross-country road trip? Being forced to interact with kids her own age is a new and alarming proposition for Raleigh, but maybe it's just what she needs – or maybe it can help her find what she needs – or maybe it can help her to realize that what she needs has been with her all along.

Combined for the first time here are Maus I: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II - the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. A contemporary classic of immeasurable significance.

The triumphant return of one of comics’ greatest talents, with an engrossing story of one man’s search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait. Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about? As the story unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where he is. And isn’t. And we meet Hana: a sweet, smart, first-generation Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now she’s gone. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually.In the meantime, we are enthralled by Mazzucchelli’s extraordinarily imagined world of brilliantly conceived eccentrics, sharply observed social mores, and deftly depicted asides on everything from design theory to the nature of human perception.Asterios Polyp is David Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.

Suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the out-set that a strange plague has descended upon the area’s teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways — from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable) — but once you’ve got it, that’s it. There’s no turning back.As we inhabit the heads of several key characters — some kids who have it, some who don’t, some who are about to get it — what unfolds isn’t the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it , or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself — the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape.And then the murders start.As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it- back when it wasn’t exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird. To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin…

Craig Thompson, for all the lack of works in his bibliography, is one of the best creators working in comics today. Apart from Blankets, he has only released one other major work of fiction. (His third, \
  Habibi\
, will be released this Fall.) [The cutest of meet-cutes.]There are any number of reasons that Thompson's work should be lauded. His art is gorgeous and his brushline expressive. He treats personal topics with a sense of both whimsy and honesty. He writes true experiences, even when they're fictional. And as great as all those things are, there is one idea that stands out in his work that I've yet to see another creator tackle (let alone master) as Thompson has done.His sense of the sacred and his ability to convey it in ink is breathtaking. He offers his readers these holy moments, these frozen, fluid, organic treasures. These sacramentals. Whether he intends to lead the reader into a religious experience or not, his work really is very spiritual. As spiritual as an atheistic holy experience can actually be at any rate. There may be moments in Miyazaki that approach the wonder of the sanctuaries that Thompson builds in Blankets. It's for this reason (among others) that Thompson's second book remains one of my favourites, even years after having first encountered it.The sweetly disturbing sentimental journey that was seeded years earlier in Thompson's Goodbye Chunky Rice finds pregnant fruit in his nearly-600-page opus, Blankets. Semi-autobiographically chronicling (via chrono-thematic structuring) his early life—from his establishment in faith and his discovery of love to his abandonment of that love and his subsequent abandonment of faith—Thompson plays honestly at all times with his story elements, thereby lending his tale an uncanny credibility. And while flashbacks and tangents proliferate, the overarching chiastic structure verifies the reader's intuition that Thompson knows well where he is headed and is going to take you there whether you like it or not.[Kinda want to punch this lady right in the breadbox.]Thompson's illustrated avatar acts, at all times, with striking realism and the chaos of his thoughts is entirely believable—if not exactly illustrative of the average meditative development. The Thompson that frets and plays in Blankets—we'll call him Craig— is highly introspective and acts often in the heat of his youthful emotional turmoil, rather than from a simple, sensible motivation. And though one may often wish to chastise him for such sillinesses, his youthful passion and pendular over-reactions will more than likely endear Craig to readers as they recognize more than a little of themselves in him.This book is a masterpiece of form, symbol, and structure. Tokens bend and writhe and carry narrative significance throughout. Thompson's art here is fluid and is of that less-polished variety found also in Goodbye Chunky Rice and serves well to establish the variety of moods described in his several vignettes.From the perspective of one who grew up both in a faith-community that was friendlier to the arts and in a home whose high standards weren't as strictly enforced, I found his story particularly compelling and tragic. Surrounded by hypocrisy and a weak-kneed, moralistic fundamentalism, the source of his disillusionment is not difficult to see. Perhaps Blankets' greatest quality is the empathy it exerts from the reader. I pitied and cared for Craig. I felt the same for his brother, his parents. I mourned for Raina, Craig's love interest in the book. I grew despondent for her family. More than anything, I wanted to hug each of these characters and make it all right and sensible again. [Man, how brutal to be Thompson's parents, years later to read this panel and think: "Oh crap. I did that to a child? I wanted to surprise him and all he could think about was whether he had sinned? And not even whether he was in trouble but whether he had sinned?"]And the whole while, my anger kindled toward an institutionalization of faith whose expression was not compassion, not mercy, not love. That Craig lived in a locale whose cutural acumen was bent toward a fear and persecution of that which skewed from the status quo is a horror that can be understood (while still remaining a horror). That his subculture should behave identically, built on a foundation of fear when it ought to be built on joy, peace, and love is terrifying. Thompson's work engaged in me a fury for a people and place with which I have no experience. They may not even exist as he portrayed them, but at the least, it is a challenge for me to not hate these characters who actively tear down Craig's life even from a young age. And as someone who actively tries not to hate anyone, consider this a testament to the veracity with which Thompson draws out Craig's life and circumstance.Blankets is an evocative work that should not be missed by any who would appreciate a serious, heartfelt, and magical telling of the tragedy and wonder of what it means to come of age.[review courtesy of Good Ok Bad]

‘A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories’ written and illustrated by Will Eisner, one of the giants in the sequential arts arena, is a perfectly executed graphic novel, which provides the reader a peek at the American experience during the early 1930s. Through four interconnected graphic stories, Eisner provide insights into the human condition while drawing on the memories of his growing up in New York during that time period.A brief look at Will Eisner as a master graphic artistBorn in 1917, Will Eisner was heavily influential in the comic art form and stands tall in the pantheon of all-time sequential artists with such luminaries like Milton Arthur Paul Caniff and Jack Kirby. He started with his contributions in this medium through “The Spirit”, a weekly newspaper insert comic book, in the early 1940s. He utilized “The Spirit” as a launching platform for experimenting his ideas and expressing stories in his mind through comic art form.At that time the sequential art form and comic books were not considered seriously and was often ridiculed by expert artists. “The Spirit”, with its crime, adventure and drama stories featuring a masked vigilante published every week got popular and it had an influence on the noir genre movies produced during the 1940s. Jules Feiffer, whose career began with Eisner and who wrote “Comics are ‘junk’, but that junk is good, even necessary” in a 1965 essay on comic book history, made these observations on the the graphic arts created by Eisner:“… the world was redefined by his camera eye. More than anyone else, Eisner was able to squeeze more human interest and more dimension and take heroes and use them—as he used the Spirit—as side characters to telling another story…”After finishing with “The Spirit” series in 1952, Eisner left the sequential arts arena for other pragmatic ventures. After 25 years he returned to the comic book scenario with a series of ‘graphic novels’ – a preexisting term, which was popularized by Will Eisner – of which “A Contract with God”, released in 1978 cementing his reputation as a master in the comics arena.‘A Contract with God’ and the return of a master artistIn the preface to ‘A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories’ Will Eisner narrates about his return to the comic art scene with this new book:“Twenty five years later, given the time &amp; opportunities, I embarked on the effort, which you hold in your hands; a harvest at last from the seedlings I had carried around with me all those years.”This book is based on the memories that Will Eisner has about his own and his contemporaries’ experiences while growing up in New York. The book presents a selection of four stories, which are interconnected and based on a fictional tenement situated in 55 Dropsie Avenue, the Bronx, New York and narrates the personal and intimate memories that the author have about a bunch of characters from his past. The tenement was built around 1920 when the flow of immigrants after World War I to New York was like a flood. By the 30s low paid city employees, laborers and their families thrived in these tenements, which became home to a whole first generation of Americans born to their foreign parents. There was no privacy within these apartment buildings and these stories that Will Eisner narrate in the graphic medium is based on the life as it was in these tenements during “the dirty 30s”. You can detect the dynamics of relationships, the culture, the depression and state of economy and everything that prevailed in the 30s within these frames.In the first story titled “A Contract with God” we witness the story of Frimme Hersh - an immigrant who fled the terrible anti-semitic pogroms of 1882 after the assassination of Alexander II of Russia as a child and who became a prominent religious and social figure in the Hassidic community in the New York City - giving up his religious faith after the death of his young adopted daughter. This is based on Eisner’s own loss of his 16-year-old daughter and reflects some of his inner feelings towards god and faith he felt during those times.In “The Street Singer”, we meet an alcoholic street singer - and one with some serious domestic violence issues - who is seduced by a retired diva. She tries to mentor him by giving him an opportunity to train under her and have a career in the show business. In “The Super” we come to know about the dark tale of ‘Mr. Scuggs’, who was the superintendent of the tenement. Both these stories are ironically tragic and are dark in their soul with “The Super” having overt signs of pedophilia. In the final story in this book, “Cookalein” we meet Eisner himself as a fifteen year old and is an intertwining tale of a lot of characters in which the author describes his own “honest account of coming of age”.We can meet characters who are ambitious, who are lonely, who have dreams and anxieties about future, who fight against despair &amp; poverty in these depictions of the plain true-life brimming with sights of desires, frustrations and cynicism happening among the tenements which the author fishes out of his memory. Will Eisner blend past and present to create an artwork based on realism in which he fuses together words and illustrations to give them a similarity to the world of dreams or memories. Since these memories about the people and his views about the surroundings are from way past, they have a certain amount of dullness in his mind, which he recaptures in the illustrations through caricature like figures and a monochrome tone which mimic the world of dreams perfectly on the paper.The Sequential Art in ‘A Contract with God’Will Eisner follows a rule of realism while producing the artworks in “A Contract with God” and he uses exaggerations on the depictions of his characters – especially their facial features – to allow for the limitations of actuality. Since these are memories from decades back, he resorts to caricature to illustrate the characters as his memory regarding their exact features are hazy.The way in which he utilized the space and format that he used in this comic book medium to meet this realism is expressed by his following words:“Accordingly each story was written without regard to space, and each was allowed to develop its format from itself, that is to evolve from the narration. The normal frames (or panels) associated with sequential art are allowed to take on their integrity. For example, in many cases an entire page is set out as a panel. The text and the balloon are interlocked with the art.”The picture and copy are so interdependent and are inseparable even for a moment, so he fuses them together in such a manner to create a smooth flowing narrative. In many pages the traditional box frames are not used; instead the full page is utilized in a manner to maximize the visual impact on the reader.These four social dramas, which are interconnected with their common setting, presented within this graphic novel are at times heart warming and at times heart breaking. They are told with so much candidness so that we can witness almost everything related to life with in these comic panels. “A Contract with God” was always a special book for Will Eisner and he held it close to his heart through out his life, which can be recognized from his words:“After many subsequent works, I can still look back at this maiden effort without embarrassment and I retain for it the special affection one has for his first child.”Totally worth reading for the sheer candidness of the narrative and the clever use of illustrations to convey the spirit of a story, but be warned that there are strong depictions of sex and nudity within these frames even if they are not portrayed in a perverted manner.

"I shall tell you where we are. We're in the most extreme and utter region of the human mind. A dim, subconscious underworld. A radiant abyss where men meet themselves. Hell, Netley. We're in Hell." Having proved himself peerless in the arena of reinterpreting superheroes, Alan Moore turned his ever-incisive eye to the squalid, enigmatic world of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel murders of 1888. Weighing in at 576 pages, From Hell is certainly the most epic of Moore's works and remarkably and is possibly his finest effort yet in a career punctuated by such glorious highlights as Watchmen and V for Vendetta . Going beyond the myriad existing theories, which range from the sublime to the ridiculous, Moore presents an ingenious take on the slaughter. His Ripper's brutal activities are the epicentre of a conspiracy involving the very heart of the British Establishment, including the Freemasons and The Royal Family. A popular claim, which is transformed through Moore's exquisite and thoroughly gripping vision, of the Ripper crimes being the womb from which the 20th century, so enmeshed in the celebrity culture of violence, received its shocking, visceral birth. Bolstered by meticulous research that encompasses a wide spectrum of Ripper studies and myths and coupled with his ability to evoke sympathies in such monstrous characters, Moore has created perhaps the finest examination of the Ripper legacy, observing far beyond society's obsessive need to expose Evil's visage. Ultimately, as Moore observes, Jack's identity and his actions are inconsequential to the manner in which society embraced the Fear: "It's about us. It's about our minds and how they dance. Jack mirrors our hysterias. Faceless, he is the receptacle for each new social panic." Eddie Campbell's stunning black and white artwork, replete with a scratchy, dirty sheen, is perfectly matched to the often-unshakeable intensity of Moore's writing. Between them, each murder is rendered in horrifying detail, providing the book's most unnerving scenes, made more so in uncomfortable, yet lyrical moments as when the villain embraces an eviscerated corpse, craving understanding; pleading that they "are wed in legend, inextricable within eternity". Though technically a comic, the term hardly begins to describe From Hell's inimitable grandeur and finesse, as it takes the medium to fresh heights of ingenuity and craftsmanship. Moore and Campbell's autopsy on the emaciated corpse of the Ripper myth has divulged a deeply disturbing yet undeniably captivating masterpiece. - Danny Graydon

Nice Graphic Novels

book

Quince Jelly

Dying Earth is a subgenre of science fantasy or science fiction which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth or the end of time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources (such as soil nutrients), and the hope of renewal dominate. Not to be confused with post apocalyptic!

Nice Graphic Novels

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