This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators are saying about our releases this week, check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.
420-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-356-9
"In a week dominated by republished works and more recent books once again offered through Diamond, cartoonist Mark Kalesniko gets a prize for releasing a gaint book of brand new work. It's an extended meditation on changes in the way we live and work, structured around an excruciating commute." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
"There's a new Alex book by Mark Kalesniko (Why Did Pete Duel Kill Himself?, Mail Order Bride) who you haven't seen much of recently because he's spent the last ten years working on Freeway… While stuck in an endless L.A. traffic jam Alex re-examines his life and job as an animator with a legendary studio, and wonders what it would have been like had he been born several decades earlier." – The Gosh! Comics Blog
"The graphic novel I’m most interested in this week is Freeway, Mark Kalesniko’s traffic jam ruminations of animation as a career then and now. The description of the book has a lot of hooks to relate to: work frustration, realizing even a dream job has its pitfalls, and rush-hour traffic." – Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading
Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942
by Hal Foster
112-page full-color 10.25" x 14" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-407-8
"Hal Foster at full early Arthurian potency; Val was never more like young Lord Silverspoon than he was here. Bonus: a brief piece in the back of the book revealing a few 'suppressed Prince Valiant images from 1939-1940.'" – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"Let's face it, [this] nuke[s] just about every other comic you're going to buy at the store this year… I was greatly surprised by how entertaining the Prince Valiant was." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
"Prince Valiant HC Volume 3 1941 – 1942 is out, reprinting the chunk of Prince Valiant which critics unanimously reckon was the point at which Foster hit his drawing and storytelling stride. This volume also comes with a gallery of stuff at the back originally deemed too sexy or violent for print, oh yes." – The Gosh! Comics Blog
"…Chris had to go and use the words 'giant man-eating octopus,' [see below – Ed.] so Prince Valiant, Volume 3 goes into the shopping cart as well." – Michael May, Robot 6
On both:
"…[I]f you happen to have $30 this week I’d recommend getting your hands on either a copy of Mark Kalesniko’s Freeway or the third volume of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, both from Fantagraphics. The former is a new graphic novel from the author of Mail Order Bride, about a dog-faced animator named Alex who, while stuck in a bad traffic jam, ruminates over his life and career and how he ended up where he did. It’s a pretty great book, but if you need further inducement you can read my interview with Kalesniko. Valiant Vol. 3 meanwhile, features a great, lengthy sequence that involves Val trying to get his sword back, the highlight of which is easily him facing off against a giant man-eating octopus." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: Artist Mark Kalesniko returns to his dog-headed Alex character in the 420-page graphic novel Freeway ($28.99), while Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 ($29.99) collects 112 pages of restored Hal Foster and supplementary materials authored by one of the editors of this very column. Published by Fantagraphics Books: home for the website you are currently reading." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal