We’re not too worried about the winter blah’s–we’ve got some amazing books coming out and we can hardly wait! Keep scrolling for a sneak peek, you can find the full catalog here!
Children of Palomar and Other Tales: A Love and Rockets Book by Gilbert Hernandez with Mario Hernandez
This comics compilation includes never-before-collected work by Gilbert Hernandez from the original run of Love and Rockets Vol. II (2001-2004), short stories from New Tales of Old Palomar (2006-2007), and surreal one off-shorts from Love and Rockets Vol. III: New Stories (2008-2013).
Children of Palomar and Other Tales (the fifteenth volume in our continuing series The Complete Love and Rockets Library and the eighth Gilbert volume) begins with “Me for the Unknown,” uncollected since its original 2001–2004 run in the Love and Rockets Vol. II comic books. Written by Mario Hernandez and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez, it traces the Rabelaisian journey of Tagg Lillard. A U.S. citizen with a seemingly perfect life working in Latin America, he escapes a boat rigged to explode — clutching a satchel filled with important papers. Presumed dead, he decides to assume a new identity. But he is pursued by an imperious CEO and his manservant through a land plagued by colonialist/corporate greed, which fomented political unrest. In the “New Tales of Old Palomar” short stories (2006–2007) — previously collected as The Children of Palomar — there are many mysterious visitors, an apparition that haunts childless women, and readers learn how Chelo lost her eye. Then, there are a selection of eclectic, one-off shorts, also previously uncollected, that ran in Love and Rockets Vol. III: New Stories from 2008–2013, such as “Papa,” “The New Adventures of Duke and Sammy,” and much more.
We’re All Just Fine by Ana Penyas
This heartfelt graphic biography is a tribute to the artist’s grandmothers and a generation of women who quietly soldiered through over forty years of Fascist rule in Spain.
Artist Ana Penyas’s grandmothers Maruja and Herminia live alone in their respective Spanish towns, largely neglected by their children and relatives, who never visit. But when Ana comes to see them, she realizes that these women, whose day-to-day existences now seem mundane, experienced firsthand an incredibly tumultuous and fascinating period of Spanish history.
In We’re All Just Fine, Penyas weaves the memories of her grandmothers to craft a narrative quilt that pieces together what it was like for women to assimilate to Spain’s dramatic political and cultural shifts in the late 1970s and ’80s. The sudden transition from the authoritarian, repressive Franco regime to lively and liberating democracy was at once incredibly freeing but also destabilizing for women used to their traditional roles as dutiful housewives. Through this intimate lens into her grandmothers’ daily struggle — of their silence, the small acts of rebellion, and great gestures of resilience — Penyas gives voice to an entire generation of “invisible” women whose stories have rarely been told. Combining collage and rough-hewn pencil drawings, and mixing past and present, Penyas offers a decidedly feminist tribute to the forgotten lives and legacies of her grandmothers.
NOW #12: The New Comics Anthology by Various Artists, edited by Eric Reynolds
The two-time 2021 Eisner Award-nominated comics anthology returns for its seventh year!
The first new NOW of 2023 features all-new work from several contributors familiar to NOW readers as well as new artists from around the globe. Newcomers to this issue include Cynthia Alfonso (Spain) and Bhanu Pratap (India), while past contributors Noah Van Sciver (U.S.), Cecelia Varhed (Sweden), and Kayla E. (U.S.) all return with new work. As a special feature of this issue, legendary cartoonist Peter Bagge (Hate) collaborates with Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer Matt Lawton on “The Cartoonist,” a satire of the now near-obsolete profession of newspaper gag cartooning.
NOW: The New Comics Anthology is still the best value in comics: every issue is a self-contained cross-section of the best short comics stories the globe has to offer and it has established itself as the preeminent anthology of first-rate international comics talent. With all-new, never-before-seen material from a mix of emerging and established talent, NOW is the perfect answer to the question, “Why Comics?”
Spa by Erik Svetoft, translated by Melissa Bowers
This nightmarish debut, a biting critique of consumer society and the “wellness” industry, recalls the films of David Lynch and Lars Von Trier and the horror manga of Junji Ito.
Somewhere in northern Europe, a five-star spa and conference hotel caters to anyone who can afford it. But, at every turn, where luxuriance should reign, things are amiss. A demanding VIP client disappears without a trace. A business seminar is cut short. A young official gets lost looking for his room. A socially outcast masseuse struggles to find acceptance. Two lovers struggle to escape the horror of everyday life — which includes horrific apparitions routinely haunting them. An egocentric manager doubts himself. Abused employees accept their sad fate. Curious inspectors come to settle their accounts.
Meanwhile, mysterious moisture damage is spreading. Amidst the extravagant decor, black and viscous liquid flows slowly in the labyrinthine alleys of the resort and trickles down the walls. Hot and humid, the dampness is suffocating. Mold sets in and with it skin diseases, hallucinations, ghosts, malevolent spirits, hybrid creatures, and other monsters both dead and alive. Spa is a horrific graphic novel debut marked by grotesque and whimsical humor.
Evita: The Life and Work of Eva Perón by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Alberto Breccia, and Enrique Breccia, translated by Erica Mena
In a sequel to their spellbinding, experimental biography of Che Guevara, Hector Germán Oesterheld and the Breccias chronicle the eventful life of Eva Perón.
Published in 1970, Evita: The Life and Work of Eva Perón was daringly intended to be the follow-up to the artists’ successful and controversial 1969 graphic biography Life of Che. Hector Germán Oesterheld plotted the book and the father and son team of Alberto and Enrique Breccia drew the comic — but the text was “sanitized” before its publication. In 2001, a restored version of Evita featuring Oesterheld’s original, uncensored script was finally published in Spanish; it is translated in English here for the first time. In just 72 boldly penned chiaroscuro pages, this graphic biography paints a complex portrait of a pivotal Argentine figure who was at once beloved and reviled by her people. Born in rural Argentina to extreme poverty, she moved to Buenos Aires where she met and married Colonel Perón, who would become president of Argentina. As First Lady, affectionately nicknamed Evita, she devoted herself to social welfare and worker’s rights, campaigned for women’s suffrage, and became known as “The Spiritual Leader of the Nation.” While she has been viewed as an international icon, inspiring celebratory works such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1976 Broadway show Evita, this biography by her countrymen takes a far more searing and critical approach, chronicling the noble causes she fought for as well as the militarism and oppression of the Perónist regime.
Ms. Davis: A Graphic Biography by Sybille Titeux de la Croix and Amazing Ameziane, translated by Jenna Allen
In this follow-up to their New York Times bestselling graphic biography of Muhammad Ali, the acclaimed French writer and artist duo tell the story of Black activist, professor, and prison abolitionist Angela Davis.
In Ms Davis, the acclaimed French cartooning duo tell a story of this seminal, revolutionary, 1960s icon through an accessible graphic novel narrative.
Born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, Angela Davis’ family fought in the civil rights movement against racial segregation enforced by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1968, she joined the Black Communist Party and traveled to Cuba, a journey which left its mark on her forever. In 1971, Davis was put on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List because several Black prisoners whose causes she had championed used weapons she owned in a Marin County courtroom gunfight. She went to prison despite her protestations of innocence. The Black People in Defense of Angela Davis formed, and soon the entire world would know her story and demand her freedom. In 1972, she was found not guilty by an all-white jury. Since then, she has dedicated her life to the fight for justice. The graphic biography also includes illustrated educational supplementary material that adds historical context about the various political organizations and programs referred to in the book, such as Cointelpro, an illegal FBI program dedicated to destroying U.S. political groups it deemed “subversive.”
Tits & Clits: 1972-1987 by Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevli, et al., edited by Samantha Meier
The groundbreaking, women-edited comics anthology that served as an antidote and rebuke to male-dominated underground comix is now collected in a single volume for the first time.
In 1972, underground cartoonists Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli produced Tits & Clits — a funny, rowdy, raucous underground comix series about female sexuality that one reviewer described as “the ultimate in vaginal politics” — and became the first American women ever credited with writing, drawing, and publishing their own comic books.
A feminist answer to Zap, Tits & Clits quickly became an anthology showcase for other women cartoonists, featuring the work of Mary Fleener, Roberta Gregory, Krystine Kryttre, Lee Marrs, Carel Moiseiwitsch, Trina Robbins, Dori Seda, among others. Like other underground comix, Tits & Clits leaned into being lewd in order to satirize women’s experiences with so-called sexual liberation. Featuring stories about birth control, abortion, menstruation, masturbation, and more, Tits & Clits featured intimate politics which occasionally clashed with contemporaneous feminist concepts about sex and sexuality. As Chevli put it: their work had something to offend everyone. (In 1973, conservative legal authorities in Orange County deemed their work pornographic and even threatened the two editors with arrest on obscenity charges.)
Now, for the first time in half a century, a new generation of readers will be shocked, entertained, enlightened, and scandalized by the bold satirical cartoonists that comprised the band of sisters in Tits & Clits. In addition to reprinting the seven-issue run of the Tits & Clits series, this collection also includes in their entirety two classic solo comics from 1972 written and drawn by Farmer and Chevli — Abortion Eve and Pandora’s Box. Also included is an introductory essay providing context to Tits & Clits’ place in the history of women’s cartooning by the book’s editor, Samantha Meier.
The Heavy Bright by Cathy Malkasian
In this allegorical, fantastical graphic novel, a queer young woman aims to dispel the greed and cruel masculine energy that has consumed the world.
Once, the world lived in harmony. People trusted and aided each other, dreamed freely, and communed with their ancestors. And then one day the eggs appeared. One thousand black eggs, heavy as pure lead, which by some mystical property, provoked greed and violence in all who came in contact with them. A family of brutish men managed to hoard the eggs and build a misogynistic dynasty that held all of the land in an iron grip. Years later, Arna, an orphaned young woman immune to the beguiling power of the eggs, is charged with a monumental mission: hunt down these formidable men, pilfer their eggs, and release the bright from the heavy. Along the way, she falls for the enchanting Sela, who shows her how beautiful the world can be.
In The Heavy Bright, masterful cartoonist and animator Cathy Malkasian propels the reader into a lushly watercolor, Ghibli-esque fantasy world tinged with equal parts whimsy and menace. Her characters are vulnerable and relatable, made real through deep, psychological underpinnings. Perhaps Malkasian’s most ambitious and impactful work to date, The Heavy Bright is an allegorical graphic novel that grapples with the themes of greed, corruption, ignorance and bigotry, toxic masculinity, female empowerment, gender and queerness, love, death, and the urgent necessity for all to come together to heal our ailing world.
A Book To Make Friends With by Lukas Verstraete, translated by Laura Watkinson
A dizzying, psychedelic and psychological journey of a man in search of himself, rendered in hyper-energetic, eye-popping colored pencils.
Tick, tick, boom. Open the cover of this graphic novel to unleash a bombastic bomb blast of frenetic line work, a cacophony of vibrant color, and an action-packed narrative that whirls and swirls in all directions like the furious, roaring winds of a mushroom cloud. Enter the blast radius of this conflagration of imagination and experience how brilliantly its creative fires burn.
A Book to Make Friends With marks the explosive English language debut of Flemish cartoonist Lukas Verstraete. What begins as a Pulp Fiction-inspired heist, in which two masked gangsters rob a passerby of his mysterious briefcase, soon snowballs into a psychedelic journey full of chase scenes, shapeshifting, soul possession, spiritual hallucinations, and unrequited romance. It all culminates in an epic, breathtakingly rendered battle between good and evil. At turns playful, philosophical, and kinetically riotous, you’ve never seen a graphic novel quite like this. Printed as an oversized hardcover edition encased in a luxurious slipcase, this book is as much a gorgeous aesthetic object as an engrossing work of fiction.
Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies 1932-1935: Starring Bucky Bug and Donald Duck by Various
The wild adventures of the first Disney star created just for comics—and Donald Duck’s hilarious funny-page debut!
1932 saw the launch of Disney’s second-ever original comic strip, the full-color weekly Silly Symphonies, and with it came the debut of Bucky Bug, a daring, rhyming, mischievous squirt whose escapades took him from brutal birds of prey to the terrifying trenches of the Great Flyburg War! With his brave lady friend June and bumpkin pal Bo, Bucky even travels to a mixed-up Mother Goose Land… where a not-so-merry Old King Cole has mayhem on his mind!
Now in this latest stand alone Disney reprint collection, readers can follow all of Bucky’s adventures and the Symphonies Sunday sagas that followed, which also includes Donald Duck’s debut as the barnyard’s spoilt brat in “The Wise Little Hen”… and further tales of golden age Silly Symphony cartoon stars: egotistical Max Hare, slow-but-sure Toby Tortoise, and that awful bandit Dirty Bill (who “never took a bath, and he never will!”).