INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS
(Company names beginning with F)
FANTAGRAPHICS
CORTO MALTESE FABLE OF VENICE AND OTHER ADVENTURES TP (MR)
Artist Hugo Pratt’s most famous creation, the indefatigable sailor Corto Maltese, sails back to American readers after a far too-long absence in Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Adventures. Corto, a modern Ulysses whose wanderings in the early decades of the 20th century take him to the most fascinating places on Earth, is a hard-luck, hard-driving iconoclastic anti-hero who values freedom and independence more than wealth and status. In “Fable of Venice,” a riddle from a deceased friend plunges Corto into a phantasmagorical mystery thriller that zigzags between the solidity of dreams and the fluidity of reality. A frantic chase in 1921 Venice ensues, up twisting stairs and down tangled alleys, as Corto vies against Freemasons, occultists, budding fascists, and his friend (suddenly back from the dead) in a mad scramble to secure a mystical emerald that will open the doors of forbidden magic and unravel time and space itself! In addition, this collection of quintessential seafaring adventures also presents the Corto Maltese classics “The Secret of Tristan Bantam,” “So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune,” and “The Seagull's Fault,” making this book an exciting introduction to Pratt’s work.
LOCAS THE MAGGIE AND HOPEY STORIES HC (MR)
Jaime Hernandez is one of the most humane, graceful, and imaginatively inexhaustible artists in American popular culture. Locas tells the story of Maggie Chascarrillo, a bisexual, Mexican-American woman attempting to define herself in a community rife with class, race, and gender issues. Maggie's story begins in the early-1980s Southern California rock scene, when it was shifting from the excesses of the 1970s to the gritty basics of punk and new wave. Hardcore punk rock came to the fore, and the teenage Maggie finds herself drawn to the anarchy, energy, and diversity of the scene, which in Jaime's hands becomes a very real, habitable place populated with authentic human beings rather than stereotypes. She quickly befriends Hopey Glass, a feisty anti-authoritarian punkette who quickly becomes Maggie's on-again, off-again lover and a constant presence in her life as they navigate a devastatingly naturalistic world. Created over 15 years from 1981-96 in the pages of the legendary comic book series Love and Rockets Vol. I #1–50, this new deluxe hardcover edition includes three stories that were not included in the previous edition.
MY GUN IS THE JURY AND OTHER STORIES HC (MR)
Jack Davis and Wallace Wood’s crazed cartooning in Mad changed the art form, and comedy itself, forever. But their gonzo parody work in Mad’s sister satire title, Panic, published at the same time, is less well-known. To invert that injustice, this volume of The Fantagraphics EC Artists’ Library presents all their zany, pun-packed Panic lampoonery, especially their pomposity-puncturing movie parodies, including Davis’s “My Gun Is the Jury!” “Come Back, Little Street Car!”, “A Star Is Corn” and Wood’s “African Scream!”, “Gone With The Widow,” and “20,000 Leaks Under The Sea.” These visual volleys are verbalized by Al Feldstein (editor of Panic, later editor of Mad) and Jack Mendelsohn (prolific cartoonist and writer whose non-comics credits include TV’s Laugh-In and The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine). But the laughs don’t languish. Also included is the never-before-reprinted “V-Vampires,” a riotous romp written by the legendary Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by Wood that vanished after its initial appearance more than 70 years ago!
PASS HC (MR)
In her early thirties, Claudia is fast becoming a sensation on the culinary scene. In the midst of putting her chic London restaurant, Alley, on the map, she decides to enter the upcoming Chef of the Year competition. All this, as she is also attempting to make a name for herself beyond the shadow of her famous chef father. As the day of the competition nears, tensions simmer as the pressures of ambition, business, family, and friendship threaten to throw her world awry. In The Pass, NYT-reviewed British comic artist Katriona Chapman brings to life the fast-paced, high-pressure atmosphere of restaurant life, with a lived-in cast of characters including chef Claudia, her best friend and sous chef Lisa, and barman Ben. Chapman delves into themes of identity, the pains of expectation and success, and the allure of running from the life you’ve built. A sensitive and affecting slice of life, rendered in soft digital coloring.
TIODORAS LETTERSAN HC ENSLAVED WOMANS FIGHT FOR FAMILY AND FREEDOM (MR)
In the mid-19th century, millions of Africans were enslaved and brought to Brazil. Among them was the real-life Teodora who, separated from her husband and her son, worked in the home of a priest in São Paulo. Wishing to reconstruct the family ties lost during the journey from Africa to Brazil and to achieve emancipation for herself and her family, she gave Claro, a Black man who could read and write, money to help her write letters: some addressed to her husband and her son, whereabouts unknown, in the hopes that the letters would find them and that they could achieve this quest together; and some addressed to enslavers, intended to either help locate her family or to persuade them to let her buy her freedom. Inspired by this correspondence, Tiodora’s Letters is a rigorously researched historical work, a compelling narrative based on her letters, and masterfully drawn by D’Salete, who graphically recreates her struggle. In the 1860s, Benê, a fictional Black young man who likes Tiodora because she was kind to him, takes it upon himself to seek Tiô’s family and deliver the letters. He embarks on a dangerous and world-building journey into the interior of Brazil and to the coffee plantations where they might be. There are many wordless passages of heartbreaking horror, character beats, breathtaking drawings of nature, and much more. In Tiodora’s Letters, D’Salete reconstructs a forgotten part of Brazil's dark history of slavery and pays tribute to the strength of a woman who fought for her rights single-handedly. Includes educational and contextual material.
FLOATING WORLD COMICS
HANNA AND THE HELLS VS THE BEATLES (MR)
When all-woman punk band Hanna and The Hells set out to perform the perfect gig, Satan himself couldn't stand in their way - even if the Hells ambitions include heisting a gently weeping guitar from... The Beatles! It's anarchy in the UK as Hanna, Razor, Trash, and Fetish come together to twist and shout the Fab Four into submission - with John, Paul, George and Ringo needing more than love to make it out alive! God save 'em! Writer Sam Ashurst is a cartoonist, screenwriter and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. Artist Tony M Clarke is a 70s punk rocker turned 80s psychotronic bootlegger based in London, England.
BOAT LIFE TP VOL 02
Boat Life returns in Volume 2, with novelist Tsuda Kenta continuing to meander between home life, the family jeans shop, and days of solitude on the river. Among this graphic novel's colorful cast of friends, we meet a former manga artist who dives for curiously-shaped stones and sells them from a riverside hut, and an eager producer intent on a film adaptation of one of Tsudas novels. Unfortunately, Tsudas health is deteriorating. He learns from the doctor that his liver was damaged by working at a blood bank when he was young. But Kenta continues his dream boat life, while obsessed by an enormous fish. Dont miss the raucous night of Tsuda and his buddies boozing at a local temple. You'll be hard-pressed to find a more honest account in comics of how Japanese felt about life during and after World War II. While fans of Trash Market and Slum Wolf will enjoy this late-career elaboration of aprs-guerre themes Tsuge has been exploring since his debut in the legendary alt-manga magazine Garo in the late 1960s, fans of his brother Tsuge Yoshiharu's The Man Without Talent will appreciate the more relaxed and optimistic take on middle-aged reclusion and the grind of work and family.