"Youll wonder how anything can be so sad and so funny at the same time." Lev Grossman, Time Inspired by a sixteenth-century Zen monks painting of a hundred demons chasing each other across a long scroll, acclaimed cartoonist Lynda Barry confronts various demons from her life in seventeen full-color vignettes. In Barrys hand, demons are the life moments that haunt you, form you, and stay with you: your worst boyfriend; kickball games on a warm summer night; watching your baby brother dance; the smell of various houses in the neighborhood you grew up in; or the day you realize your childhood is long behind you and you are officially a teenager. As a cartoonist, Lynda Barry has the innate ability to zero in on the essence of truth, a magical quality that has made her book One! Hundred! Demons! an enduring classic of the early twenty-first century. In the books intro, however, Barry throws the idea of truth out of the window by asking the reader to decide if fiction can have truth and if autobiography can have a fiction, a hybrid that Barry coins " autobiofictionalography. " As readers get to know Barrys demons, they realize that the actual truth no longer matters because the universality of Barrys comics, true or untrue, reigns supreme.

Now available for the first time in paperback, Wilfred Santiago's instant classic 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente is a human drama of courage, faith, and dignity, inspired by the life of the acclaimed Pittsburgh Pirates baseball star who died too young. 21 chronicles Clemente's life from his early days growing up, through the highlights of his career, capturing the grit of his rise from an impoverished Puerto Rican childhood to the majesty of his performance on the field, and to his fundamental decency off of it. Santiago's inviting style combines realistic attention to detail and expressive cartooning to great effect.

Stars burn hot, bright, and then go out forever. But their legacy remains. Like the smoky haze of a rock-n-roll arena show, a cloud of mystery and intrigue surrounds music's infamous "27 Club." Some of the club's more famous members include Jim Morrison (The Doors), Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), and Amy Winehouse, among many others. These fallen stars revolutionized music in their youth, only for all of them to die at the age of 27. Is it a conspiracy, or merely a coincidence? A rocking crew of fifty-four comics creators were challenged to use their favorite song or member of the 27 Club as inspiration for new and original comic stories and vignettes. 27, A Comic Anthology is a free-form, funky collection of over 200 pages of rock-n-roll comics, featuring over twenty-seven new grooves inspired by, and in tribute to, the myth and magic of this club of lost stars and their shining, tragic legacy. Edited by Enrica Jang (Red Stylo Media), with introduction by Dr. Dianna Kenny (Sydney University, and author of “Stairway to Hell: life and death in the pop music industry”) Original comic stories, illustrated essays and art inspired by the music of: Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Jim Morrison (The Doors), Janis Joplin, Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones), Alexander Levy (composer), Robert Johnson, Rudy Lewis (The Drifters), Dave Alexander (The Stooges), Richey Edwards (Manic Street Preachers), Kristen Pfaff (Hole), Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeremy Michael Ward (Mars Volta), Helmut Kollen (Triumvirat), Mia Zapata (The Gits), Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (Canned Heat), and more!

Japan's enduring national legend comes to comics! The tale of the 47 Ronin and their epic mission to avenge their wronged master epitomizes the samurai code of honor, and creators Mike Richardson and Stan Sakai have done justice to their story! Meticulously researched and beautifully illustrated, this collection of the acclaimed miniseries recounts this sweeping saga of honor and violence in all its grandeur. Opening with the tragic incident that sealed the fate of Lord Asano, 47 Ronin follows a dedicated group of Asano's vassals on their years-long path of vengeance! * From Mike Richardson (Star Wars: Crimson Empire) and Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo)! * Tons of bonus art and behind-the-scenes extras! "If you're a fan of the samurai genre then this is a no-brainer... if you've never given it a chance then this is the perfect gateway book to the genre." —Comic Bastards "Stan Sakai makes Japan all the more exciting with this comic, and Richardson's narrative builds an epic tale reminiscent of Kurosawa's greatest films." —Graphic Policy

Winner of the prestigious Grand Prize of the 2010 Angoulême Comics Festival, 5,000 Kilometers Per Second tells-or almost tells-the love story between Piero and Lucia, which begins with a casual glance exchanged by teenagers across the street through a window and ends with a last, desperate hook-up between two older, sadder one-time lovers. Executed in stunning watercolors and broken down into five chapters (set in Italy, Norway, Egypt, and Italy again), 5,000 Kilometers Per Second manages to refer to Piero and Lucia's actual love story only obliquely, focusing instead on its first stirrings and then episodes in their life during which they are separated-a narrative twist that makes it even more poignant and heart-wrenching. 5,000 Kilometers Per Second is another delicate graphic-novel masterpiece from Europe.

The Fifth Beatle is the untold true story of Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who discovered and guided The Beatles-from their gigs in a tiny cellar in Liverpool to unprecedented international stardom. Yet more than merely the story of "The Man Who Made The Beatles," The Fifth Beatle is an uplifting, tragic, and ultimately inspirational human story about the struggle to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Brian himself died painfully lonely at the young age of thirty-two, having helped The Beatles prove through "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" that pop music could be an inspirational art form. He was homosexual when it was a felony to be so in the United Kingdom, Jewish at a time of anti-Semitism, and from Liverpool when it was considered just a dingy port town.

Bill Paxton and Arcana Comics presents 7 Holes for Air. Bob Rourke is the kind of man they don't make anymore. He's a tough son of a bitch: A fifty-year-old steelworker who smokes, drinks, and never complains, even when he's in pain. After a persistent headache sends him to a doctor for the first time in his life, Bob learns he's facing the end. With disease ravaging his body, Bob soldiers on at home, at work, and in an alternate Spaghetti Western reality in which his real-life antagonists become actual villains. Now Bob will stare down death the only way he knows how - with grit and determination - as he struggles against the ghosts of his past and the desire to leave something behind for his wife and daughter. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

A literary graphic novel unlike anything else on the racks,750 Years tells the story of our time, focusing on one single building in France as it sees its way through the upheavals of history. Beginning in the thirteenth century and making its way towards today, this historically accurate story is the eagerly anticipated debut from Vincent Mahe. Vincent Mahe is fast being established as one of the most exciting illustrators to come out of France. As well as his contribution toNobrow 8: Hysteria he has been widely commissioned across the world to illustrate for publications such as theNew York Times andXXI Magazine.

Verloc Nim has traveled with his brother Conrad to the desert planet Ona(ji) to recover the mysterious biorobotic experiment aama. The planet is home to an abandoned group of scientists who have been left to their fate, and in this second volume of Frederik Peeters's critically acclaimed science-fiction series, Conrad sets up an expedition to find the professor who has taken aama to another part of the planet. With the assistance of their robot-ape Churchill, Verloc and Conrad embark on a journey that brings spectacular discoveries and unsettling encounters.

For the first time, the history of typography is told in comic strip form   Typography confronts us everywhere: in books and newspapers, on road signs, in product packaging, and on political leaflets. It is ubiquitous to the point of mundanity. But while the typeface might be secondary to the message, it remains crucial to the way we respond. Fonts spark emotions; they evoke eras and ideologies. Some, like Edward Johnson’s for the London Underground, have become iconic. Others, like Comic Sans, are loathed. Each one has its own place in history.   The ABC of Typography traces 3,500 years of type from Sumerian pictographs through Roman calligraphy to Gutenberg, the Bauhaus, and beyond. Brimming with insight and anecdote, this witty and well-informed graphic guide explores the historical, technological, and cultural shifts that have defined the look of the words we read.  

George Evans was a master of the aviation war story. This collection includes all of his highly-acclaimed stories for Aces High, EC's famous air war title. As a bonus, we present a rarity: Evans' never-before-reprinted 3-D story of World War I ace Frank Luke (in regular, easy-on-the-eyes 2-D). This volume also includes numerous Evans crime and shock stories, including "As Ye Sow.," ".My Brother's Keeper," and "Cadillac Fever." Other war stories, many done in collaboration with Harvey Kurtzman, include "Napoleon!" and "Flaming Coffins" (which Evans wrote, about the inherent perils of WW I aircraft). Like all books in the Fantagraphics EC line, Aces High features essays and notes by EC experts on these superbly crafted, classic comic book masterpieces.

The life of Agatha Christie was as mysterious and eventful as her fiction. This beautifully illustrated graphic novel traces the life of the Queen of Whodunnit from her childhood in Torquay, England, through a career filled with success, mischief, and adventure, to her later years as Dame Agatha. Revealing a side to Christie that will surprise and delight many readers, Agatha introduces us to a free-spirited and thoroughly modern woman who, among other things, enjoyed flying, travel, and surfing. Centering around an episode in 1926 when Christie staged her own disappearance, Agatha is an intriguing, entertaining, and funny exploration of the 20th century’s best-loved crime novelist.

Acclaimed cartoonist Lucy Knisley got an opportunity that most only dream of: a travel-expenses-paid trip Europe/Scandinavia, thanks to a book tour. An Age of License is Knisley's comics travel memoir recounting her charming (and romantic!) adventures. It's punctuated by whimsical visual devices (such as a "new experiences" funnel); peppered with the cute cats she meets along the way; and, of course, features her hallmark - drawings and descriptions of food that will make your mouth water. But it's not all kittens and raclette crepes: Knisley's experiences are colored by anxieties, introspective self-inquiries, and quotidian revelations - about traveling alone in unfamiliar countries, and about her life and career - that many young adults will relate to. An Age of License - which takes its name from a French saying - is an Eat, Pray, Love for the alternative comics fan.

As Ultron's onslaught continues across the planet, Black Widow pays a high price in San Francisco and Captain Marvel joins Captain Britain in a fight to save London! The Fantastic Four return from a jaunt across time and space in a futile bid to save their homeworld! Otto Octavius, the Superior Spider-Man, believes it will be simple to vanquish an A.I. threat...but his vanity will prove his undoing! And in Los Angeles, Ultron's "son," the android Runaway Victor Mancha, battles to prove he is nothing like his "father." Ultron's attack batters the Fearless Defenders, Uncanny Avengers, Wolverine and more...and in the aftermath, witness a dramatic change for founding Avenger Hank Pym! COLLECTING: Avengers Assemble 14AU -15AU , Fantastic Four 5AU , Fearless Defenders 4AU, Superior Spider-Man 6AU , Ultron 1AU , Uncanny Avengers 8AU , Wolverine & the X-Men 27AU , Age of Ultron 10AI