Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 231 pages in color. Before focusing on tales of justice via superheroes under the Marvel banner, the publisher covered ground-level crime across a range of comics titles and true-crime magazines. Under the Timely imprint from 1947, and Atlas from 1951, up to eleven graphic series including Justice Comics, Official True Crime Cases, All-True Crime, Crime Cases, Crime Can't Win, Crime Must Lose, and Crime Exposed all muscled each other and competitors for space on the newsstands. For the first crime-themed volume in Fantagraphics' ongoing project to restore and resurrect pre-Marvel pulp classics, the Atlas Library has selected a book that debuted as the genre peaked, just before a Senate hearing and the institution of the Comics Code banned the use of the word "Crime" from even appearing in a comic's title. Escaping that fate, Police Action had a seven-issue run of violent and noir-ish morality plays, pitting the officers of the law against the forces of urban malevolence, and was produced by the cream of the Atlas freelance roster, including Joe Maneely, Robert Q. Sale, Gene Colan, Art Peddy, Mort Lawrence, Werner Roth and Bob Powell. Rounding the volume off, also presented is a post-Code one-shot, Police Badge #479, a snapshot of the industry's attempts to adapt to new strictures on the genre: here we view "our boys in blue" in the fight against rank corruption, highlighting the work of Don Heck and Joe Maneely. Clean, like new.
Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics , 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 287 pages illustrated in color. Pulp horror classics from the 1950s! Revenge, ghosts, locked rooms and killer ants, taken from early Marvel Comics series Men's Adventures and Amazing Detective Cases. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 397 pages illustrated in color. This new volume in Fantagraphics' and Marvel's collaborative Atlas Library presents Girl Comics #1-12, a long unseen subversion of romance comics beautifully designed for a new generation of readers!In 1950, Timely/Atlas/Marvel took a typical romance title called Girl Comics and turned it into a sister companion to its successful men's-adventure comics: an empowering girls'-adventure comic! Mystery, adventure and suspense was promised and delivered! At the hands of a stellar artistic line-up, including John Buscema, Mike Sekowsky, Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, Russ Heath, and Bernard Krigstein, Girl Comics evolved from heart-stricken love stories to hair-raising girl-power thrill rides like "The Death Plunge!," "The House of Shadows!," "I was a Murderer's Daughter!," "They Called me a Spy!," "The Dead Hands at the Controls," and "The Dark Hallway."This volume also features the story behind the stories, with editor Dr. Michael J. Vassallo's essays on Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's enthusiastic relationship with romance comics and magazines at a time when the art form was cementing itself into American youth culture! Clean copy. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Softcover. Harrisburg PA, Cameron House, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 16 X 11", Contains 23 vintage beer posters, suitable for framing. There is also included a nice historical writeup of each brewery represented in the book.
Hardcover. NY, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 341 pages. Celebrating the best in graphic storytelling and literary comics, a cutting-edge collection, guest edited by the award-winning author of Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, features excerpts from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web, from R. and Aline Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Seth, Lynda Barry, Kim Deitch, Gilbert Hernandez, and others.
Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 324 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. This newest edition to the Best American Series--"A genuine salute to comics" (Houston Chronicle)--returns with a set of both established and up-and-coming contributors. Editor Lynda Barry and and brand new series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden--acclaimed cartoonists in their own right-- have sought out the best stories culled from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web to create this cutting-edge collection "perfect for newbies as well as fans"--The San Diego Union Tribune. This newest volume features luminaries like Chris Ware, Seth, and Alison Bechdel alongside Paul Pope's "Batman" and beloved daily cartoonists like Matt Groening.
Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 324 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. This newest edition to the Best American Series--"A genuine salute to comics" (Houston Chronicle)--returns with a set of both established and up-and-coming contributors. Editor Lynda Barry and and brand new series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden--acclaimed cartoonists in their own right-- have sought out the best stories culled from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web to create this cutting-edge collection "perfect for newbies as well as fans"--The San Diego Union Tribune. This newest volume features luminaries like Chris Ware, Seth, and Alison Bechdel alongside Paul Pope's "Batman" and beloved daily cartoonists like Matt Groening.
Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 2nd pr., 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 126 pages. Crumb's white-bearded sage-cum-charlatan lives again in this comprehensive collection which ranges from the charming early '70s stories to the controversial '90s stories from Hup!, co-starring Devil-Girl. Clean, bright copy.
Softcover. NY, Crown Publishers, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 96 pages, color illustrations throughout. A follow-up to the authors first book, "The Cat Made Me Buy It!". 113 color photographs of advertising posters, magazine ads and covers, sheet music, signage, etc., all featuring felines.
Hardcover. Prion, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 230 pages. In terms of both words and images the world had never seen the like of the American comic book. They were bizarre, morbid, lurid, risque and bursting with subconscious desires of burgeoning youth culture. By the time 1954 arrived their were 500 different comics being published by 35 different companies, selling over 60 million copies a month between them. This is the history of the era and the art it produced. The book looks at the pioneers of the comic book and the comic's founding links with sleazy pulp magazines; the campaign for censorship; the fraught relationship between the comic book artists and their publishers; how what they did was rarely recognized as art at the time - and of course the comics themselves.
Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 144 pages, b&w drawings throughout. The Compleat Cannon reprints the entirety of cartoonist Wally Wood's classic sex and violence strip from the 1960s. Super-spy John Cannon is the American's answer to James Bond, fighting the Cold War with a license to kill.Wally Wood is of course the legendary cartoonist known for his contributions to the original Mad magazine. Always regarded as one of comics' great craftsmen, Cannon is simply one of the most beautiful strips ever produced. Featuring outrageous parodies of pop culture icons of the time, the Cold War, and the secret agent genre, Cannon is Wood at his most gregarious and incisive, working on one of the few projects in his career where he had no editorial constraints.Like Fantagraphics' The Compleat Sally Forth, also by Wood, this oversized collection includes a section of never-before-seen Cannon ephemera in the form of sketches, notes and annotated information about the strip.
Hardcover. Seattle, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, mostly b&w, some color, 472 pages. These erotic comics stories span 1968-1986. "The Man from Harlem" is Crepax's ode to boxer Joe Louis and jazz. In other tales, Valentina attempts to balance new relationships with lovers Bruno and Effi alongside the domestic life she shares with Phil. Bonnie and Clyde, Louise Brooks, and the globetrotting photographer Valentina (a movie and TV star herself!) take center stage in this collection of erotic comics stories.
Hardcover. Seattle, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, mostly b&w, some color, 472 pages. The Venus in Furs, Casanova, and Milanese photographer Valentina embark on erotic adventures in this collection of classic Italian comics which spans 1977-1989. The character Valentina, a music, art, and fashion-loving Milanese photographer, ages in "real time." First, she saves Effi, a German heiress, from kidnappers, and they become lovers. Valentina also has an affair with Bruno, a young cellist. Dangerous Liaisons follows our heroine into middle-aged home life with her longtime partner, Phil, with whom she has a grown son, Mattia. Two of Crepax's lauded graphic adaptations: "Venus in Furs" and "The Memoirs of Casanova" are featured in this volume. Black & white illustrations. Due to size and weight, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Hardcover. Seattle, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, mostly b&w, some color, 424 pages. Collecting the work of an international icon in the fields of comics, advertising, and erotica. Most of the comics in this volume, spanning 1965 to 1985, have never before been published in English. Crepax's first foray into comics magazines - "The Curve of Lesmo"-introduces our proto-feminist heroine, Valentina, the globe-trotting Milanese photographer. In other stories, she becomes a mother, outwits a gang of jewel thieves, flashes back to her childhood and adolescence, encounters a mysterious cello, and much more. Due to size and weight, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 2nd pr., 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 126 pages .Continues the multi-volume series comprising the complete works of the legendary cartoonist, one of America's most original, trenchant, and uncompromising satirists. This volume features work from 1976 and 1977. Some color, mostly b&w. Clean, bright copy
Hardcover. San Diego, Clover Press, Revised Ed., 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, oblong format. 254 pages, some color, mostly black and white. Introduction by Max Allan Collins. Reformatted and re-scanned, revised from the 2007 printing. Includes over 500 comic strips from January 1935 to July 1936. A special section on the Dick Tracy Big Little Books in color. Clean copy.
Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in a slipcase, This dynamic concluding volume in a series introduces a curious creature from the fourth dimension - Eugene the Jeep! The minute this mysterious marvel with the power of teleportation arrives on the scene, the strip is infused with an oddball, otherworldly quality. Elsewhere, Wimpy continues his befuddling antics; the wily orphan Swee'Pea and the patriarch Poopdeck Pappy cause domestic hijinks; and Popeye does battle with the big bad Man from Mars! Plus, contemporary artist Kayla E. pens a comic homage to the topsy-turvy character headlining this volume.An irresistible alchemy of screwball comedy, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar's newspaper comic strip, starring Popeye the sailor man, captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond.
Hardcover. Canton Street Press, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth, 136 pages in color. From the pages of Air Fighters Comics and Airboy Comics comes The Complete Golden Age Airboy & Valkyrie HC. Inspired by Milton Caniff s Terry & the Pirates, Airboy and Valkyrie had a love/hate relationship that brought tension and drama to their stories. The Fred Kida stories collected in this volume inspired comic greats such as Alex Toth. For the first time, their complete adventures are digitally restored and reprinted in one volume. Collects Air Fighters Comics V1 #12, V2 #2, V2 #7, Airboy Comics V2 #12, V3 #6, 12, V4 #10, V9 #2. Introduction by Timothy Truman. Clean, like new.
Hardcover. San Diego, Idea & Design Works/IDW, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Celebrating the centennial of cartoonist Milton Caniff's birth, IDW Publishing published a six-book series, collecting the entirety of Caniff's groundbreaking newspaper adventure strip Terry and the Pirates. The Sunday pages are reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips. Volume One contains more than 800 consecutive strips, from the series' beginning in October 1934 through the end of 1936.
Hardcover. San Diego, Idea & Design Works/IDW, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 352 pages, color and b&w illustrations. April Kane has come to China and Terry Lee's life will never be the same! Milton Caniff's newspaper classic shifts into high gear with stories featuring the villainous Sanjak, the outrageous Singh-Singh and the mysterious Hu Shee. This volume also features the first appearance of the pivotal character Raven Sherman. Containing more than 100 lovingly-restored color Sunday pages and over 700 total comic strips.
Hardcover. San Diego, Idea & Design Works/IDW, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, illustrated in color and b&w. Master storyteller Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates brings 1943-44's battles in the Pacific to life as Flight Officer Terry Lee earns his wings in a Sunday page so powerful, it was entered into the Congressional Record! In this fifth volume of The Complete Terry and the Pirates, old friends and foes cross paths with such major new characters as Terry's comrades-in-arms, Snake Tumblin and the inimitable Hotshot Charlie. There are new romantic interests Willow Belinda, Jane Allen, and Jane McGillicudy -- and neither Madame Shoo-Shoo nor Captain Midi are exactly who they seem . . .
Hardcover. West Plains MO, Russ Cochran, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Hardcover Very Good+ Two volume set in a slipcase. Volumes entitled: Weird Science-Fantasy No. 23-29 and Incredible Science Fiction No. 30-33. Black and white reproductions of the comics with color reproductions of the covers. Featuring tales by Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, and Joe Orlando.
Hardcover. Montreal, Drawn and Quarterly, reprint, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 48 pages in color by Clowes. Teen outcast Andy is an orphaned nobody with only one friend, the obnoxious-but loyal-Louie. They roam school halls and city streets, invisible to everyone but bullies and tormentors, until the glorious day when Andy takes his first puff on a cigarette. That night he wakes, heart pounding, soaked in sweat, and finds himself suddenly overcome with the peculiar notion that he can do anything. Indeed, he can, and as he learns the extent of his new powers, he discovers a terrible and seductive gadget-a hideous compliment to his seething rage-that forever changes everything. The Death-Ray utilizes the classic staples of the superhero genre-origin, costume, ray gun, sidekick, fight scene-and reconfigures them in a story that is anything but morally simplistic. With subtle comedy, deft mastery, and an obvious affection for the bold pop-art exuberance of comic book design, Daniel Clowes delivers a contemporary meditation on the darkness of the human psyche. Originally published as a paperback in Eightball #23 in 2004, here beautifully reproduced on heavy stock with new end paper illustrations and a new cover.