Monday, September 21, 2009

New book highlights 9/21/2009

Zot! : the complete black and white collection, 1987-1991

Scott McCloud
HarperCollins, 2008







Long before manga took the American comics market by storm, Scott McCloud(Understanding Comics, Making Comics) combined the best ideas from manga, alternative comics, and superheroes into Zot!—a frenetic and innovative exploration of comics' potential that helped set the stage for McCloud's later groundbreaking theoretical work.

Zachary T. Paleozogt lives in "the far-flung future of 1965," a utopian Earth of world peace, robot butlers, and flying cars. Jenny Weaver lives in an imperfect world of disappointment and broken promises—the Earth we live in. Stepping across the portals to each other's worlds, Zot and Jenny's lives will never be the same again.

Now, for the first time since its original publication more than twenty years ago, every one of McCloud's pages from the black and white series has been collected in this must-have commemorative edition for aficionados to treasure and new fans to discover.

Includes never-before-seen artwork and extensive commentary by Scott McCloud


Jack Kirby's Fourth world omnibus v.1-4

Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta
DC Comics, 2007




After co-creating comic book heroes including The Fantastic Four and The Hulk, legendary writer/artist Jack Kirby came to DC Comics in 1970 to write and illustrate four interlocking series known collectively as "The Fourth World." Now, for the first time, DC collects these four series -- The New Gods, The Forever People, Mister Miracle and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen -- in chronological order as they originally appeared. These comics spanned galaxies, from the streets of Metropolis to the far-flung worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips, as cosmic-powered heroes and villains struggled for supremacy. Volume 1 features the debuts of Orion of the New Gods, the evil Darkseid, super-escape artist Mister Miracle and many others. It also features numerous appearances by Superman.


Deitch's pictorama
Kim, Seth & Simon Deitch
Fantagraphics Books, 2008









Presenting a new type of graphic fiction from a legendary family in American cartooning. Underground cartoonist Kim Deitch has recruited his entire cast of siblings to produce a unique, all-new "picto-fiction" pocket book. Deitch's Pictorama leads off with Kim's comic "The Sunshine Girl." Then it's time for Seth's prose short story "Children of Aruf," about a man and his dog... in a world where dogs talk. Third up is "Unlikely Hours," a paranoid picto-story about a conspiracy of sentient rats written by Seth and illustrated by Kim. Next comes "The Golem," once again written by Seth and decorated with a series of superb pencil illustrations by Simon, a prose novella about the mythical Jewish monster/protector. Kim wraps with "The Cop on the Beat, the Man in the Moon and Me," one last comic - this one autobiographical. The book features an introduction by the Academy Award-winning animator, cartoonist and illustrator Gene (Tom and Jerry) Deitch, who happens to be the proud father of the trio.

**Kim Deitch will be speaking at the Museum School as a visiting artist on Thursday, September 24th, from 6pm-8pm in room A202**