This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include 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.
The Armed Garden and Other Stories
by David B.
112-page two-color 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-462-7
"The French artist David B. is one of my favorite living cartoonists–he bridges the visual realms of the real and the unreal like nobody else–and the two of these fabulistic stories that appeared in MOME were both extraordinary. Can't wait to see the whole thing." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
"Collected several short pieces from David B., author of Epileptic and Babel. Excellent!" – Chris Butcher, The Beguiling
"I’m torn between two books from Fantagraphics. On the one hand there’s The Armed Garden by David B. ($19.99) which collects all the short stories that previously ran in early issues of the Mome anthology. I have all of those issues, however, so… [to be continued]" – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"From the creator of the acclaimed Epileptic comes a collection of historical-based stories — it's history, legend, magic, and gods. Oh yeah, and battles! Epic battles." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
"Two beautiful and challenging books from Fantagraphics. The first features David B. retelling difficult fables in a way that every single panel is a stop and stare event. The second [see below — Ed.] features Olivier Schrauwen and a suite of stories where deriving even basic meaning doesn't come easy. I'm enamored of both, and have read each one more than once since they arrived." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
The Art of Joe Kubert
edited by Bill Schelly
232-page full-color 9.25" x 12.25" hardcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-487-0
"Great read…a fine example of the Kubert's work and contributions to the art of sequential story telling. Plus, a great customer of mine, Steve, contributed a bunch of scans of covers and original artwork for this book!" – Joey Belden, Atomik Pop
The Man Who Grew His Beard
by Olivier Schrauwen
112-page full-color 8.5" x 10.25" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-446-7
"Also in this week's department of Fantagraphics-published, MOME-alumni, ordinarily Francophone artists releasing English-language books: Belgian artist Olivier Schrauwen's The Man Who Grew His Beard, about which I know nothing except that his stuff is beautiful and often plays with variations on the look and pacing of very early 20th-century comic strips." – Douglas Wolk, Comics Alliance
[Continued from above] "…I’ll likely instead go with The Man Who Grew His Beard ($19.99), a collection of short stories by Olivier Schrauwen, most of which also appeared in Mome. Schrauwen’s work has appeared in English before, but in some ways this is his big American debut. His stuff is really sharp and witty and daring and deserves to be seen by a wider audience." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"A week with new books by Johnny Ryan, David B, …Michael Kupperman… but [The Man Who Grew His Beard] is the one" – Floating World Comics
"This collection of stories marks famed Belgian cartoonist Schrauwen's first American graphic novel. Surreal, absurd, he's been justifiably called a post-modern genius. Men on safari encounter an obnoxious hunter, how hair can help us classify personality and more." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010
by Michael Kupperman
160-page two-color 6" x 8.25" hardcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-491-7
"Book of the week! @MKupperman http://twitpic.com/6kft5p" – Comic Book Jones
"New Michael Kupperman!!!!" – Chris Butcher, The Beguiling
"Now Kupperman is publishing Mark Twain’s autobiography, covering the years from 1910 – 2010. Of course, Twain’s been dead for a hundred years, but that news may well have been exaggerated. I look forward to seeing how one of our age’s talented satirists handles one of the masters of the form." – James Fulton, Inside Pulse
"Wake up – it's here – Mark Twain's Autobiography, 1910-2010, by @MKupperman from @fantagraphics get the belly sutures ready." – Lucky's Books & Comics
"We'll have this modern masterpiece for sale tomorrow: Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010 by @MKupperman!" – Chapel Hill Comics
"Come on down! Mark Twain autobiography by @MKupperman #comeondown!! http://twitpic.com/6nz8si" – Meltdown Comics
"There's also cartoonist (and occasional TV Funhouse contributor) Michael Kupperman's Mark Twain's Autobiography: 1910-2010, which sees the famous author embracing wizard-bestowed immortality and fighting yetis." – Cyriaque Lamar, io9
"Did you know that Mark Twain hunted the yeti? Met the Bionic Man? Was involved with in the x-rated film industry? Using Twain's surprise hit autobiography as inspiration, Kupperman's wit goes to town on on America's beloved humorist." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
"This Michael Kupperman book is mostly prose rather than comics, but it's funny enough not even the biggest comics purist will care. I'd read an entire book of Kupperman listing stupid names of people that Mark Twain ran with in 1970s discos." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter
Prison Pit Book 3
by Johnny Ryan
120-page black & white 6.5" x 8.5" softcover • $12.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-497-9
"…Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit Book 3 brutally meanders into stores. In this third volume of scifi horror, taciturn mutants — whose dialogue is mostly swearing — beat the living snot out of each other in a desolate hell dimension. It's violence and excretion and demonic mutation as unadulterated Dadaism." – Cyriaque Lamar, io9
"Although Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit Book 3 has seen small scale releases here and there since SDCC, it should finally be popping up in your local comic shop today. The Prison Pit books have been some of the most insane/gross/badass/hilarious reading materials that I have ever had the pleasure of consuming, and, from the look of the above previews, Book 3 will not disappoint." – Ben Spencer, Nerd City
"Ryan dumps professional wrestling, video games, grindhouse movies, Gary Panter, and Kentaro Miura into a fetid lava flow and pulls out another disturbingly funny book." – Benn Ray (Atomic Books), Largehearted Boy
Couldn't break these up:
"Splurge: I’d probably pick up some of the other Fantagraphics books out this week, including the Mark Twain Autobiography by Michael Kupperman (note: it’s not really Mark Twain’s autobiography), Prison Pit Vol. 3 and the coffee-table-sized Art of Joe Kubert." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"CONFLICT OF INTEREST RESERVOIR: Jesus, look at this. Okay. The Man Who Grew His Beard is the first-ever North American release by the awesome, awesome Olivier Schrauwen (a Dutch-language release was published by Bries in 2010), collecting seven wildly funny and disarmingly melancholic stories, some seen in MOME; $19.99. The Armed Garden and Other Stories collects three other MOME stories, excellent allegorical religio-political adventure fantasies by L’Association co-founder David B.; $19.99. Prison Pit Book 3 sees Johnny Ryan’s decadent action series introduce new personalities and some fine new stylistics; $12.99. Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010 is a new 160-page comics/prose/illustration mix by Michael Kupperman, starring one of his fondest favorites; $19.99. And The Art of Joe Kubert is a 232-page illustrated overview of the works of the man of the title, edited by biographer Bill Schelly; $39.99. Now I have even less hair. Fuck you, Archie." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal