This week's comic shop shipment included the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.
Black is the Color
by Julia Gfrörer
72-page black & white 6" x 9" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-717-8
"Beautiful. Gfrörer has a light touch in finding the yearning and humor amongst life's hard luck and even harder truths. A genuinely romantic and sensitive book." –Sammy Harkham
"Gfrörer's most moving comic to date, Black Is the Color eroticizes suffering not to glamorize it, but to endure it. We're adrift; what other choice do we have?" –Sean T. Collins, The Comics Journal
"This is Julia Gfrorer's fine-looking work, very idiosyncratically told in a way that makes you love cartoonists that take those opportunities and run with them." –Tom Spurgeon, Comics Reporter
176-page monochrome/color 6.25" x 9.25" hardcover • $26.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-676-8
"[A] family's evolution springs from the stories and the dialogue. Clever, moving and often hilarious." –Houston Chronicle
"…it's another work in a very strong year for Reklaw that included the short he did for Robyn Chapman. An autobiographical tale that gets increasingly unhinged, Reklaw's work also reminded me of some of the emotionally infused alt-manga I read this year: a really unique comics-reading experience." –Tom Spurgeon, Comics Reporter
There's a lot of energy hidden, pent up, in Reklaw's older normal "square" cartooning style, and it's starting to bust out and become unpredictable, more like he is in person." –Kevin Huizenga
The Comics Journal Library Vol. 8: The EC Artists
edited by Michael Dean
240-page black & white/color 10" x 12" softcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-608-9
A lot of those folks were very thoughtful artists, and this TCJ generated book can take you into what many of them were thinking." –Tom Spurgeon, Comics Reporter
Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips Vol. 4 (1941-1943)
by Roy Crane
144-page full-color 10.5" x 14.75" hardcover • $49.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-698-0
"It's easy to toss around the word 'genius,' especially when it comes to comics. We all have our favorites and we all like to think ours are the great ones. But one look at Roy Crane's work and anyone can see that he definitely was worthy of the 'genius' tag." – Tom Mason, Comix 411
"Crane's art is stunning, combining simple cartoony figures with richly detailed backgrounds in clever, colorful layouts. It isn't even necessary to read the dialogue or captions to follow the action; just scan Crane's dynamic lines, which make every panel look like a unique work of pop art. [Grade:] A-." –The A.V. Club