Jim Flora (1914-1998) has been rediscovered this decade as an alchemist of bizarre and politely disturbing fine art. His two previous books reveal an artist steeped in colorful contradiction. His images are fun, while threatening; playful, yet dangerous; humorous, but deadly. The Sweetly Diabolic Art burnishes Flora's reputation as one of the great overlooked artists of the 20th Century. This book features paintings, drawings, and sketches from the 1940s through the 1990s, most never previously published or exhibited, as well as more artifacts from Flora's 1940s tenure in the Columbia Records art department and rare newspaper and magazine illustrations spanning several decades. However, Sweetly Diabolic breaks new ground with the first printing of an early, abandoned children's book concept, The X-Ray Eyes of Wallingford Hume, drafted in the mid-1940s. Equally fascinating, on the sweet side, are original, never-before-published roughs, color overlays, and rejected images from Flora's 1950s and '60s children's books. In the diabolic vein, a gallery of uncirculated pen and pencil sket

(W) Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevli (A) Lyn Chevli, Joyce Farmer (CA) Joyce Farmer The groundbreaking, women-edited comics anthology that served as an antidote and rebuke tomale-dominated underground comix is now collected in a single volume for the first time. In 1972, underground cartoonists Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli produced T*ts & Cl*ts - a funny, rowdy, raucous underground comix series about female sexuality that one reviewer described as 'the ultimate in vaginal politics' - and became the first American women ever credited with writing, drawing, and publishing their own comic books. T*ts & Cl*ts quickly became an anthology showcase for other women cartoonists, a feminist answer to Zap, and featured the work of Mary Fleener, Roberta Gregory, Krystine Kryttre, Lee Marrs, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Trina Robbins, Dori Seda, among others. Like other underground comix, T*ts & Cl*ts leaned into being lewd in order to satirize women's experiences with so-called sexual liberation. Featuring stories about birth control, abortion, menstruation, masturbation, and more, Tits & Clits featured intimat

Hot on the heels of his acclaimed Mark Twain's Autobiography: 1910-2010 comes Michael Kupperman's second all-comics collection of surreal slapstick and crazy non-sequitur goofiness, all from the pages of his beloved comic book series Tales Designed to Thrizzle with an additional 30-plus pages of brand new material!

(W/A/CA) Josh Pettinger Tedward is, in many ways, the quintessential ‘lovable loser’ — an almost literal blockhead and mangenue in the grand tradition of Pee-Wee Herman, Candide, and Flakey Foont, affording his creator the perfect vehicle to indulge his brilliantly absurdist storytelling instincts. Tedward’s susceptibility to temptation, exploitation (capitalistic or sexual), and misplaced trust continually lands him in ridiculous and hilarious situations, be they scatological, orgiastic, violent, or mundane. Through it all, his heart of gold never wavers. Tedward is the debut collection from British-born Philadelphia cartoonist Josh Pettinger. Featruing sex trousers, coital hygienists, warm televisions, hot rocks, and clown meat, as well as romance, crime, conflict, and cosmic wonders! A spiritual cousin to the humor of Simon Hanselmann and Daniel Clowes, Pettinger’s singularity of tone and style in these episodic comedies mark him as a master cartoonist just entering his prime.

THE SECOND BOOK FROM 2008 EISNER 'BEST NEW TALENT' CATHY MALKASIAN Do ideas of war and enemies hold a people together? Is a culture of conflict too seductive not to be irresistible? These are the questions Cathy Malkasian explores in her second graphic novel, Temperance. Malkasian creates, as she did in the critically acclaimed Percy Gloom, a fully realized, multi-layered world, inhabited by vividly realized characters. After a brutal injury in battle, Lester has no memory of his prior life. For the next thirty years his wife does everything to keep him from remembering -and re-constructing- a society, Blessedbowl, that elevates him as a hero. Blessedbowl is a cultural convergence of lies, memories, stories, and beliefs. Its people thrive on ideas of persecution, exceptionality, and enemies, convinced that war lurks just outside their walls. They have come to depend on Lester, their greatest war hero, to lead the charge once the Final Battle begins. What kind of enemy could topple such a people and its walls? Mere memory, it seems, as Lester gradually emerges from his amnesia. T

(W/A) Tenacious D There was the film; there was the album; there was the tour; and now, the final piece of Tenacious D's masterful Post-Apocalypto universe: the graphic novel, complete with accompanied audio. In the fall of 2018, the Greatest Band in the World - Tenacious D (comprised of Jack Black and Kyle Gass) - added arguably its most crucial work to an already scintillating catalogue of rock greatness: Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto the movie (available on YouTube) and Post-Apocalypto the album. And now - with great excitement - Tenacious D will add the final piece to the Post-Apocalypto universe: the graphic novel, which Jack Black drew and Kyle Gass wrote, complete with accompanied audio. Post-Apocalypto finds Tenacious D thrust into a world of complete and utter destruction following the drop of an atomic bomb. Surviving the attack in classic cinematic fashion (a good old imperishable 1950s refrigerator), the duo quickly learn that new forms of evil have spawned from the blast. One thing becomes apparent - for humanity to prevail, Tenacious D must save the world. With unim

(W/A/CA) Beth Hetland Carolanne wanted a perfect wedding, a perfect husband, a perfect family. She carefully performs her own roles (gal pal, bestie, girlfriend, wife, and expectant mother) and manipulates those around her to try and get the results she wants. Her desire to control the uncontrollable ultimately becomes her undoing. When things don't go her way, she exerts dominance over the one thing she does have total control over: her body; until that betrays her. After suffering a horrible loss, Carolanne spirals into a literal, all-consuming delusion causing her body to produce symptoms of a hysterical pregnancy ? as a result of her slicing off bits of her own flesh and eating them.Chicago cartoonist and educator Beth Hetland?s graphic novel debut is a brilliant psychological thriller that tears down the wall of a genre ? body horror ? so often identified with male creators. Heady and visceral, Tender uses horrific tropes to confront women?s societal expectations of self-sacrifice despite those traditional roles often coming at the expense of female sexuality and empowerment.

(W/A) Anders Nilsen Assembled from work done in Anders Nilsen's sketchbooks over the course of the year following the death of his fianc?e, Cheryl Weaver, in 2005, The End is a collection of short strips about loss, paralysis, waiting, and transformation - a physical manifestation of grief. The End is a concept album in different styles, a meditation on paying attention, an abstracted autobiography and a metaphysical travelogue, reflecting the progress of his struggle to reconcile the great upheaval of a death, and to find a new life on the other side. The book blends Nilsen's disparate styles, from iconic simplicity to collaged art to finely rendered pieces. This new edition of The End is substantially expanded and revised - it is almost twice as long as the original edition - incorporating new work from the past 15 years that adds greater perspective to an already intimate window into the way we grieve, a process that can span decades. The new material includes added content from the original sketchbooks, over a dozen pages of new comics, a new afterword by the author, additional

(W/A/CA) John Kenn Mortensen Freestyle wrestler The Sledgehammer has never met defeat, not at the hands of Painkiller, Handsome Jens, Fezzik the Giant or the Angel of Death. But over the course of 80 pages, Danish illustrator John Kenn Mortensen’s surreal black and white graphic novel will take Sledgehammer to the limits of reality, to show that he’s motivated by far more than hubris—it’s also love.Mortensen’s first English-language graphic novel delivers on the promise that his delightfully macabre books of illustration had previously made to readers around the world. With his spidery black-ink style, reminiscent of Edward Gorey’s gothic line, we’re taken to a world in which heavy metal mixes with the WWE by way of The Seventh Seal and Faust.

(W/A/CA) E. C. Segar More than a decade before he created the world?s most famous cartoon sailor, Elzie Crisler Segar began his comics career in the movies. He drew cartoons for silent movie theater slides, the Charlie Chaplin comic strip, and a daily strip about Chicago?s movies and entertainment. Then, in 1919, he penned his own ?small screen? creation for the newspapers, Thimble Theatre, where Popeye was to be born a decade later.This comprehensive volume features examples of all of E.C. Segar?s early comics and illustrations, with over 100 pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre Sunday pages including the complete run of the famed Western desert saga, a series that rivals his later work in superb art, storytelling, and humor.Newly revised and expanded, this new printing contains ten additional pages plus a 1920s-style Sunday comics section insert paying tribute to Segar and his comic creations featuring Charlie Chaplin?s Comic Capers and Popeye?s ?The Jeep.?Text and illustrations offer an in-depth history and commentary on the life and work of E. C. Segar by historians Paul C. Tumey and Jeet

(W) Axel Brechensbauer A visual guide to fascinating historical facts and philosophical musings on why and how the objects we buy, own, use, see and interact with - from tanks to iPhones - come into existence. We all live in a world of objects, yet we rarely stop to think about how and why they came to exist, why they look and feel the way they do, or what shapes our preferences and why we own and use the ones we do. In Things We Create, renowned concept designer, cartoonist, and sculptor Axel Brechensbauer pulls back the curtain and provides a visual guide to civilization's endless quest for the perfect human-made object. Told in eight chapters covering topics such as 'The Need of Objects,' 'Recreating Nature, 'Objects as Communication,' and 'Objects as Power,' Brechensbauer takes the reader on a rollicking tour through the history and creation of objects that comprise our world. He digs into the basics of design, discusses why certain some objects please us while others repel us, considers how the design of one object influences another, reveals how human curiosity keeps in step w

BE CAREFUL! WARNING! CAUTION! WARNING! THIS IS A PROSE NOVEL! THIS IS NOT A COMIC BOOK OR GRAPHIC NOVEL! Written for his father, the late cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz, Monte Schulz's PROSE NOVEL opens in the spring of 1929, as the 19 year old consumptive farm boy Alvin Pendergast attends an ill-fated dance marathon he's too sickly to participate in. After a year of his life has been stolen by a sanitarium, an invitation for a late-night slice of pie is too seductive to pass up and before he knows it, Alvin finds himself up to his eyeballs in horror, beauty, strangeness and death. THIS SIDE OF JORDAN weds the phantasmagoric with the Southern Gothic literary tradition all in search of the common as well as the cosmic satori of our experience. Cover by Al Columbia!

(W) Emille Harel (A) Heidi Jacquemoud Open this book to embark on an extraordinary tour of Manhattan, from the paradise of Central Park to the dazzle of Coney Island, and every place in between. This accordion-style book unfolds into a stunning 30-foot-long panoramic travelogue! Featuring iconic NYC landmarks, familiar pop culture characters, and whimsical touches of the surreal, Through the Very heart of It captures the mythical, larger-than-life spirit of the City That Never Sleeps.

(W/A) Mikael Ross There's a real village in Germany called Neuerkerode that is operated by people with mental disabilities - the local restaurant, the local bar, the local supermarket. The author spent two years living 3 or 4 days a week there, researching and getting to know its townsfolk, and the result is an empathetic depiction. This graphic novel is told entirely from a developmentally impaired boy's perspective. Noel had always lived with his mother in Berlin, until one day tragedy strikes and he finds himself alone for the first time. A man with a beard tells him he can't stay in the apartment anymore and takes him to a place with so many strangers - Who can he trust? Who does he like? Who loves him? Mikael Ross was born in 1984 in Munich.

(W/A/CA) Leslie Stein In Leslie Stein's first original graphic novel, our protagonist Larrybear meets her new nemesis, visits her anthropomorphic guitar, and ponders her future when a hurricane arrives and the bar she manages is packed. Stein is a cartoonist whose work is characterized by a unique visual style inc fantastic elements and grounded by a cast of characters who capture the truth of young, struggling, middle class lives.

(W) M.S. Harkness Time Under Tension is a smart, funny, no bullshit work of autobiography, a story of searching for dignity in a world that rarely affords it and taking agency of adulthood in the face of so many easy excuses not to. M.S. Harkness is graduating from art school in Minneapolis and facing a crossroads in life. She has a strained relationship with her mother, a sexually abusive father on parole, and is in love with an aspiring MMA fighter who mostly hangs out with her to get high and already has a girlfriend and career prospects with a fight promoter. An art career feels untenable - as one professor tells her, 'Don't expect to get by on this fucked-up broke girl shit.' She decides to get a personal trainer's certificate - it seems like a feasible and sensible career option - but continues to dabble as a sex worker and weed dealer because the money is too irresistible. With idle hands due to no classes or full-time work, M.S. has ample time to aimlessly fuck around - or, to get her shit together. 'I want to be better; I want to be stable and solid. I don't want to keep ai

(W/A/CA) Ulli Lust A long, dense, sensitive, and minutely observed autobiographical masterpiece recalling the summer of 1984, when the artist, a rebellious, punked-out 17-year-old, hitchhiked her way across Italy. 2011 Angoulême prize winner.

(W) Charles Biro From their inception in 1935, comic books - starring Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel - had been primarily written for and aimed at adolescents. There were always the occasional outlier artists who pushed back against the commercial constraints of comic books and envisioned the next evolutionary artistic leap in the artform: Charles Biro was one of those artists. In 1949, the ambitious Biro - who had previously co-created the realistically brutal comic Crime Does Not Pay- edited and wrote an oversized comic aimed at adults, called Tops. Like several other radical adult comics projects that would follow, it proved to be a commercial failure and lasted only two Life magazine-sized issues. The original comics have since become a legendary holy grail among comics fans and historians, fetching as much as $6,000 on the collector's market: written about but rarely seen and never reprinted. Until now. Fantagraphics' Tops collects both issues of these oversized experimental comics in their entirety. Some of the best craftsmen working in comics at that time drew these pulpy,

(W/A/CA) Laura Perez Blurring the lines between the real and the spiritual, Spanish cartoonist Laura P?rez leads the reader through a dreamy journey from the Arizona desert to the land of the dead. Two young women road trip through the Arizona desert in search of a spiritual awakening. Crowds gather to see the village wise woman commune with the dead. Strange bright lights flash across the night sky, provoking all manner of interpretations. A mosaic of experiences, Totem offers tantalizing glimpses of characters on their own journeys connected by some ethereal thread. The narrative slips through time and space, delicately drifting from reality to different states of consciousness. Like a vivid dream, this story is rendered through eerie settings and potent symbols, a spiritual puzzle inviting the reader to piece together.

(W/A/CA) Miriam Libicki In her first collection of graphic essays, Miriam Libicki investigates what it means globally and culturally to be Jewish, dating from her time in the Israeli military to her tenure as an art professor. Toward a Hot Jew is a new high watermark in autobiographical comics and shows Miriam Libicki as a powerful witness to history in the tradition of Martjane Satrapi and Joe Sacco.

(W/A/CA) Tim Lane Tim Lane rummages through 20th century Americana, mixing attitudes and cultural touchstones of the past from jazz clubs, pool halls, ballparks and graveyards to casinos, coffeehouses, back alleys and bus stops, capturing the seedy charm of American culture. Toybox Americana is a uniquely designed collection of images and prose and, like the culture it explores, is at once meditative and brimming with life.

Dressed in an embarrassing pink bunny costume, the young hero of this story while attending a Halloween party stumbles upon a hidden doorway which leads him to a secret society of damaged, forgotten, and angry toys - including the terrifying Am?lie: a towering sentient assemblage of broken toy parts out for revenge! Imagine Toy Story by David Lynch and Charles Burns and you'll have a good idea of what this story is like. And yes, it is for kids! Written and illustrated by St?phane Blanquet (Dungeon: Monstres).

(W) Paco Roca, Guillermo Corral Based on real events, this thrilling graphic novel chronicles the intense legal and political battles sparked by the discovery of a priceless shipwreck. May 2007. When an American treasure-hunting company uncovers a shipwreck containing the greatest underwater trove ever found, the world is captivated by their discovery. But over in Spain, a group of lowlevel government officials surmises that the sunken ship is in fact an ancient Spanish vessel. Thus begins a legal and political thriller, pitting a group of idealistic diplomats against a rich and powerfully connected treasure hunter, in which vital cultural artifacts and hundreds of millions of dollars hang in the balance. Cartoonist Paco Roca and writer Guillermo Corral bring a cinematic flair to this graphic novel, combining threads of Tintin-inspired seafaring adventure, political intrigue, tense courtroom drama, and, in the midst of it all, a budding romance. A gripping dramatization of a little-known, unbelievable true story of money, political power, and cultural heritage. paco roca (Valencia,

Inspired by the unexpected hit, NEWAVE! The Underground Mini-Comix of the 1980s, The Treasury of Mini Comics charts the evolution of mini comics over four decades. This first volume will collect some of the best work by some of the most creative DIY creators in the world. From bodily-function humor to 'EMO' style poetry, mini comics creators have been uninhibited in their efforts to strive for something fresh, raw, and vital.

Treasury of Mini Comics Volume Two gathers more than 800 pages of underground and alternative self-published comics in this compact but hefty hardcover. Previously only seen in limited run pamphlets, these comics are startling, visionary, hilarious, profane, and profound. Editor Michael Dowers provides a historical survey of several decades' worth of work from some of the medium's most talented creators, including: Johnny Ryan, Trina Robbins, R.K. Sloane, Jeffery Brown, Jim Rugg, Tom Neely, Ellen Forney, Esther Pearl Watson, Ren?e French, Lisa Hanawalt, J.R. Williams, Pat Moriarity, Souther Salazar, Theo Ellsworth, Nick Bertozzi, Dan Zettwoch, Marc Bell, and many others.

(W) Matt Furie & Various This psychedelic, heavy metal monster mix-and match art book from a trio of graphic masters is the perfect gift for the weirdo in your life. Once you flip through this mix-and-match menagerie of busts - depicting monsters, aliens, creatures, organisms and more - you won't be able to stop. By flipping through the wirebound pages, cut into thirds, readers can create hundreds of iterations of 90 mythical beasts depicted by legendary artists Matt Furie, Skinner, and Will Sweeney. This interactive board book is a perfect gift book for anyone who appreciates monster movies, psychedelia, lowbrow art, underground comix, and unique and fun books with high production values. Artists Furie, Skinner, and Sweeney have pooled their imaginations to create a visual feast that demands returning to time and again.

(W/A/CA) Ann Telnaes The election of Donald Trump has inspired Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes to create Trump's A B C, a children's board book for adults that chronicles Donald Trump's first six months in office. Each page is a miniature critique and expose of Donald Trump, illustrating his public policies, his personal defects, his ethical dysfunction, and the consequences of his Presidency on the lives of Americans.

(W/A/CA) Paco Roca Eisner-award winner Paco Roca (Wrinkles) reconstructs World War II through the memories of Miguel Ruiz, a member of 'La Nueve,' a company of men that went from fighting against the Franco regime in the Spanish Civil War to battles across Europe and Africa, spurred on by their patriotism and hate for brutal dictatorships. Ruiz's stories are filled with horror and humor but Twists of Fate is much more than a forgotten hero's personal story. It's a timely look into what we remember and why we forget, a reminder that everyone has a tale to tell, and an ode to a generation that stood up to, and beat back, violent fascism.

(W/A/CA) Conor Stechschulte In this graphic novel, which has been adapted into a feature film starring Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men), Glen and Cyndi become unwitting test subjects in a mind-control experiment after a strange sexual encounter. They search for answers as their own memories become tools for manipulation. Driving home from a wedding late one night during a heavy storm, out of cell range, Glen blows out his tires. He knocks on the door of the only house he sees and is greeted by an uncomfortably friendly middle-aged man, Arthur, and his attractive younger wife, Cyndi. The strange couple pours him a drink, and then more drinks, followed by odd confessions and an unexpected offer that Glen can't refuse. Where Ultrasound zigs and zags from there is into a dizzying plot involving mind control, government secrets, gaslighting, and political intrigue that is always one step ahead of the reader. Stechschulte's brilliant use of color and mastery of comics storytelling yields a breathtaking puzzlebox of a sci fi thriller - the moment you finish, you will want to go back and reread

(W/A/CA) Giovan Carpi In the tradition of Mickey's Christmas Carol and Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, master Disney comics writer/artists tackle wild retellings of great literature! It's Victor Hugo? duckified! When French gendarme Javert thinks that poor Jean McJean (Scrooge McDuck) stole two candlesticks, he swears to run him down-even years later, when McJean has become town mayor and guardian of Daisette (Daisy Duck). Are the candlesticks the key to a fabulous treasure lost in Paris? And do the fr?res Beagle and Peg Leg Th?nardier want it? (Silly question!) Then, in our version of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Count Donald Dukzukov of ancient Russia loves Ducktasha Roastov (Daisy)-but Prince Scrooge McDukzukov wants to force him into an arranged marriage? or punish him in the McDukzukov Metalworks, where cannon balls are so pricey that you have to return them after the battle!

(W) Steve Brodner (A) Tomi Ungerer Originally published in 1964, children's book illustrator Tomi Ungerer's Underground Sketchbook lets loose a blast of social commentary, dadaesque observations, and existential angst, raging against avarice, unfettered consumerism, alienation, the mechanization of human experience, and the acquiescence to the worst instincts that fuel a modern economy - as timely now as it was then. This is as powerful a dose of visual ingenuity, moral outrage, and bemused disgust at the human comedy that you are ever likely to experience.

(W/A) Miranda Tacchia As seen on her popular Instagram account (@mrmtacchia), Southern Californian cartoonist and animator Miranda Tacchia's first book collects more than two hundred hilarious one-liners (and even funnier drawings) tackling modern friendship, romance, urban living, and self-image. Have you ever schemed with a friend? Stared at your phone screen well after you should have gone to sleep? Braced for heartbreak? Been told to smile more? Then Unimpressed will undoubtedly speak to you. In a book that bridges comics and memes, Tacchia uses her biting sense of humor and background in animation to create brilliant character portraits of women with only markers, Post-it notes, and tape. A master of expression, figure, and subtle (and other times not-so-subtle) comedy, Tacchia's protagonists are usually 'unimpressed women' - who all share the fact that 'they don't give a shit about you,' as Tacchia puts it. What makes Unimpressed so impressive and entertaining is how Tacchia taps into instantly relatable feelings and situations while simultaneously creating art that exudes con

THE SEQUEL TO 2009'S CRITICAL SMASH. Loosely based on a teenager's diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. This second and concluding volume picks up where the first volume left off (winter break) and finishes Tammy's tragicomic sophomore year of high school in 1985. Tammy has built a devoted following over the last several years in the pages of Bust magazine, where Unlovable continues to be serialized on the magazine's back page, and this beautifully produced, dayglo-orange and sparkly pink hardcover presents over 400 pages of her sometimes ordinary, sometimes humiliating, often poignant and always hilarious exploits. Her hopes, dreams, agonies and defeats are brought to vivid, comedic life by Watson's lovingly grotesque drawings, filled with all the '80s essentials - too much mascara, leg warmers with heels and huge hair, etc. - as well as timeless teen concerns like acne, dandruff, and the opposite sex (or same sex, in some cases). Unlovable is

A SOON-TO-BE TEEN CLASSIC Loosely based on a teenager's diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. This remarkably touching and funny graphic novel tells the first-person account of Tammy's sophomore year in 1985, from the first day of school to winter break. Though building a devoted following over the last several years in the pages of Bust magazine, where Unlovable continues to be serialized, this is the first-ever collection of Unlovable and Watson has created over 100 new pages for the book, which details the sometimes ordinary, sometimes humiliating, often poignant and frequently hilarious exploits of underdog Tammy Pierce. Her hopes, dreams, agonies and defeats are brought to vivid, comedic life by Watson's lovingly grotesque drawings, filled with all the eighties essentials - too much mascara, leg warmers with heels and huge hair - as well as timeless teen concerns like acne, dandruff, and the opposite sex (or same sex, in some cases).Unlovable

(W/A/CA) Stan Sakai The novel-length title story relates the heretofore untold story of the mercenary swordsrhino Gennosuke. This volume also introduces a new romantic interest for Usagi, tells the final fate of the Blind Swordspig, and more!

(W/A/CA) Stan Sakai This volume features Usagi's origins as a wandering rabbit warrior in feudal Japan, and introduces many members of the cast of characters. Brimming with drama and humor, this is some of Stan Sakai's finest work.

(W/A/CA) Stan Sakai Perhaps the best samurai rabbit story ever told. With "The Tower" (introducing Spot the Wonder Lizard), "Return of the Blind Swordspig," the hilarious Groo tribute "The Tea Cup," and a crossover with the Ninja Turtles! Usagi Yojimbo Book 3 collects full-length Usagi stories from issues #7 through #12 of the original Fantagraphics series, including "The Tower" (which introduces Usagi's traveling companion Spot the Wonder Lizard), "Return of the Blind Swordspig," "A Mother's Love," "Blade of the Gods," "The Shogun's Gift," and the hilarious Groo tribute "The Tea Cup," co-starring the amoral mercenary rhino Gen. ("Gen does what Gen does best!") Plus, the little-seen Usagi team-up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, "Turtle Soup and Rabbit Stew," written and drawn by Sakai. A must-have for adventure lovers of all ages! Black-and-white comic throughout (STL215041) (C: 0-1-2)

(W/A/CA) Eric Haven While experiencing a succession of bewildering parallel universes, a solitary figure has telepathic encounters with a demonic aviatrix, a wandering crystalline being, a flaming sword-wielding warrior, and a mysterious sorceress, all within the confines of his own apartment. Having contributed short comic stories for years to publications such as The Believer and Kramers Ergot, Vague Tales is the debut graphic novel from Eisner Award nominated cartoonist Eric Haven (UR). Haven's work is dark, absurdist, and deadpan, reflecting the apocalyptic undercurrent of modern times.