This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Four of our biggest releases of the summer all dropping at once! 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.
(Diamond's PREVIEWSworld website also spotlights some of our books that are now back in print and available again.)
282-page full-color 7" x 9.25" hardcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-440-5
"It's been a while since we've heard from Dave McKean in comics, and his new book is a not-very-plot-heavy thing involving a lot of large images and a lot of very stylized nudity and sex. Not Cages II, in other words." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"And for my splurging this week, I’ll… go… with… Celluloid, the new erotic book from Dave McKean." – J.K. Parkin, Robot 6
"…I do admire McKean’s work, and am therefore pretty interested in seeing what this looks like." – James Fulton, Inside Pulse
"I wish I could tell you if this $35 book was good. I don't know, because I don't have it. But I have good reason to [suggest] it…. Cages was great, I can attest to that. And anyone who ever admired a cover to Gaiman's Sandman was admiring McKean's art." – Stephen Totilo, Kotaku
"I’m especially looking forward to Dave McKean’s Celluloid." – Brian Hibbs, Savage Critics
"Dave McKean… gives us his first solo graphic novel since that aforementioned weighty tome. It’s called Celluloid and it’s got rude bits in." – Gosh! Comics
"comic elves unpacking week's new goodies, spotted @DaveMcKean's Celluloid from @fantagraphics… it will be mine, oh yes" – Forbidden Planet International
"Celluloid is beautiful. Gripping and genuinely arousing, with some of @DaveMcKean's best art. Well done to everyone involved." – Ace Comics
Congress of the Animals
by Jim Woodring
104-page black & white 7.25" x 9.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-437-5
"Jim Woodring's extraordinary new Frank book (this time concentrating on Frank himself again, rather than Manhog as in last year's Weathercraft): whimsy on top, fabulism in the middle, collective-unconscious terror extending from the bottom layer straight through to the center of the universe. Even if there were anyone else doing anything like his comics, he'd still be the best at it." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"New Jim Woodring! This… is Woodring’s second graphic novel, and the first to star his Frank character." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama
"Jim Woodring’s follow-up to last year’s Weathercraft has landed. In Congress of the Animals Frank’s left home and is dealing with all manner of horrific realties, though I don’t see him crying over his tax returns… it’s a funny and absurd story…" – Gosh! Comics
"After what seemed like a lengthy drought, Jim Woodring seems to have jumped back into comics full steam, releasing the second graphic novel, Congress of the Animals… in two years…. Woodring fans will be more than pleased at this latest tale involving the ever unperturbed Frank and his adventures in the Unifactor, which, I should note, take an interesting left turn 2/3 of the way through." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"The master of psychedelic cartoon storytelling is back with another fantastic collection. It is impossible to look at a page of this book and not immediately be drawn in to each panel by Woodring's line work, where the world fades away from around you and suddenly you feel like a character in the Unifactor." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
Isle of 100,000 Graves
by Jason and Fabien Vehlmann
56-page full-color 7.25" x 10.25" softcover • $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-442-9
"The awesome Norwegian cartoonist Jason works with a separate writer for the first time I can remember: Fabien Vehlmann, who gives him a deadpan story about pirates and buried treasure that's right up his alley." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"…I’m hopeful that I’ll finally get to read this pirate story and forget my disappointment about On Stranger Tides." – Michael May, Robot 6
"And for my splurging this week, I’ll… go… with Isle of 100,000 Graves, the new Jason/Fabien Vehlmann collaboration…" – J.K. Parkin, Robot 6
"New Jason! This… trade is unique among Jason’s other works in that he’s working, for the first time, with a co-writer, Fabien Vehlmann." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama
"There's no better feeling than holding a copy of a brand new Jason book in your hand. Eeee!" – Secret Headquarters
"Jason… has enlisted a writer for the first time in Fabien Vehlmann, a well known name in France but the Sean Phillips illustrated Seven Psychopaths is his only translated work so far, except for this new one of course…. It’s about pirates, obviously." – Gosh! Comics
"If you haven’t already got a copy yet…, allow me to point you towards Isle of 100,000 Graves, the latest comic from the Norwegian artist Jason, this time working with writer Fabien Vehlmann. Rest assured this new collaboration sees no drop in quality and is a worthy addition to his catalog." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"Comics master Jason tells a dark comedy of pirates and a secret school of executioners." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley
by Floyd Gottfredson
288-page black & white/color 10.5" x 8.75" hardcover • $29.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-441-2
"In which Fantagraphics begins its complete reprint of Floyd Gottfredson's classic run on the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip (actually beginning a few months earlier, with the initial strips, in whose creation Disney himself participated). Nicely designed? But of course." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"Of course, there’s also Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Volume 1: Race to Death Valley featuring early stories of Mickey as a two-fisted adventurer. That sounds impossible to pass up…" – Michael May, Robot 6
"That Mickey Mouse book is probably the book of the week — although you can never, ever look past Jim Woodring — as it's practically a billion-dollar casino of gut-level, inky thrills." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
"Another one from Fantagraphics is Disney’s Mickey Mouse Volume 1: Race to Death Valley, a hardcover collecting old strips all fully remastered and shot directly from the proof sheets of Disney and private collections. They’re by Floyd Gottfredson, who was employed at Disney as an apprentice animator and in-betweener in the early ‘30s. He was temporarily put on the Mickey Mouse strip and somehow ended up drawing it for the next 45 years." – Gosh! Comics
"…Fantagraphics’ Mickey Mouse vol. 1, Race to Death Valley… promises to show us a different side of the familiar rodent. I have read about Mickey having a personality, which he really doesn’t now, so I’m curious about what he was like in the early days." – Brigid Alverson, Robot 6
"The new Mickey Mouse collection is the obvious pick of the week for me. Floyd Gottfredson has far too long ignored by comics and Disney fans and it’s nice to see Fantagraphics give the work the attention it deserves. They did a fantastic job too; this is easily one of the best designed reprint projects I’ve seen in awhile, and chock full of great extra essays and extra features. I really hope this goes a long way towards establishing Gottfredson in the comics canon (whatever that may be)." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
And on the batch:
"Top 4 picks of the week are all from @fantagraphics: Congress o/t Animals, Celluloid, Isle of 100000 Graves, and Mickey Mouse! Bravo, chaps!" – Danger Room Comics
"Congress o/t Animals & Isle of 100000 Graves are @meltdowncomics Picks of the Week!" – Meltdown Comics
And at TCJ.com it's Joe McCulloch's "CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: Ok, we all know who’s publishing this column, BUT – I think there’s some pretty strong stuff this week. Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Vol. 1: Race to Death Valley introduces the awesome daily strip exploits of Floyd Gottfredson, as well as a bevy of collaborators and predecessors, including Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks themselves, with a whole lot of supplements… Congress of the Animals sees Jim Woodring send his Frank character into an odd new world… And Isle of 100,000 Graves marks Jason’s first collaboration with another writer, Fabien Vehlmann, for a tale of piracy…"