Books
-
Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir
What do you do when your mother can't remember who you are? You catch the first flight from your adopted home of London to your original hometown of Cedar Rapids, lowa, where she's hospitalized, injured, and struggling with the swirling disorientation of dementia. You take responsibility for finding her new (and, perhaps, final) home--although insurance is running out and you might have to finally patch up your bitter relationship with your sister. And you try not to think about death, lurking around every corner . . . or the coming polar vortex, growing closer and closer as snowflakes swirl ever faster outside.With cinematic illustrations and moving yet humorous prose, award-winning author and cartoonist Denise Dorrance shares the two most haywire months of her life: the phone call after her mother is discovered lying confused on the living room floor, the mingled shock and familiarity of a harsh Midwestern midwinter, the attempt to settle her homesick mother into a care facility, the limiting and limitless inanities of the US health care system, and the impossible decisions about what comes next. Incorporating vintage postcards, photographs, and letters, Dorrance brilliantly captures the sadness, frustration, and gallows humor of suddenly having to care for an aging parent and facing the moment of transition between life as you've long known it and life as it must become.
$24.95 $19.95
-
Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont Drawn by New England Cartoonists
This non-fiction comics anthology presents stories of survival and healing told by Latin American migrant farmworkers in Vermont, and drawn by New England cartoonists as part of the El Viaje Más Caro Project-a health care outreach effort of the Open Door Clinic and UVM Extension Bridges to Health aimed at addressing the overlooked mental health needs of these vulnerable immigrants. Originally distributed to farm workers as individual Spanish language comic books, this collected edition brings the lives and voices-as well as the challenges and hardships-of these workers to an English-language audience, granting insight into the experiences and lives of the people vital to producing the food we eat.Featuring a foreword by Julia Alvarez (Afterlife), introduction by Stephen R. Bissette (Swamp Thing) and preface by project founder, nurse Julia Doucet, these inspiring stories grapple with issues encountered by migrant workers everywhere-isolation, separation, depression, substance abuse-even as they celebrate resilience, family, community, and the ability of each storyteller to direct their own healing narrative. The Most Costly Journey is a gripping work that draws together non-fiction cartooning, graphic medicine and ethnography, channeling the skills of health care practitioners, artists and ethnographers into helping alleviate the pain of others.EDITED BY: Marek Bennett, Julia Grand Doucet, Andy Kolovos, & Teresa MaresFEATURED ARTISTS: Tillie Walden / Marek Bennett / Kevin Kite / Iona Fox / Kane Lynch / Teppi Zuppo / John Carvajal / Michael Tonn / Angela Boyle / Rick Veitch / Glynnis Fawkes / Greg Giordano / Ezra Veitch / Shashwat Mishra / Michelle SaylesFOREWORD: Julia AlvarezPREFACE: Julia Grand DoucetINTRODUCTION: Stephen R. BissetteAFTERWORD: Teresa Mares & Andy KolovosPAGES: 252 / DIMENSIONS: 5.5"x8.5"INTERIOR: B&W / COVER: ColorBINDING: Paperback / LANGUAGE: EnglishPRINT ISBN: 978-0-916718-00-8LCCN: 2021932606
$24.95 $19.95
-
Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC
The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes book treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants. THEY ARE THE TWO TITANS OF THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY--the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes--and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and the hearts of millions of fans. To many partisans, Marvel is now on top. But for much of the early 20th century, it was DC that was the undisputed leader, having launched the American superhero genre with the 1938 publication of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel's Superman strip. DC's titles sold millions of copies every year, and its iconic characters were familiar to nearly everyone in America. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman -- DC had them all. And then in 1961, an upstart company came out of nowhere to smack mighty DC in the chops. With the publication of Fantastic Four #1, Marvel changed the way superheroes stories were done. Writer-editor Stan Lee, artists Jack Kirby, and the talented Marvel bullpen subsequently unleashed a string of dazzling new creations, including the Avengers, Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Iron Man. Marvel's rise forever split fandom into two opposing tribes. Suddenly the most telling question you could ask a superhero lover became "Marvel or DC?" Slugfest, the first book to chronicle the history of this epic rivalry into a single, in-depth narrative, is the story of the greatest corporate rivalry never told. Complete with interviews with the major names in the industry, Slugfest reveals the arsenal of schemes the two companies have employed in their attempts to outmaneuver the competition, whether it be stealing ideas, poaching employees, planting spies, or launching price wars. The feud has never completely disappeared, and it simmers on a low boil to this day. With DC and Marvel characters becoming global icons worth billions, if anything, the stakes are higher now than ever before.
$37.00
-
My Perfectly Imperfect Body
From celebrated author and illustrator Debbie Tung comes My Perfectly Imperfect Body, a frank, honest, and deeply vulnerable graphic memoir that chronicles the author's journey of overcoming body-image struggles throughout her youth and young adult years. Debbie Tung has a simple and gentle message: your body is worthy of being treated with kindness and love at any size. Illustrated in her unique personal style, Tung shares the experiences of her teenage years and how growing into a mature body combined with teenage angst, vulnerability, and the pressure on girls to be thin and pretty spiraled her into disordered eating. She became obsessed with exercising and dieting, but no matter how much weight she lost, it was never enough. She spent the next few years trying to heal her eating habits, learning about self-love, and finally making peace with her body. My Perfectly Imperfect Body is her story and one she shares with many survivors of a thin-obsessed media. She hopes her gentle comics provide a safe space to rest on whichever healing journey you find yourself on as you read.
$18.99
-
Lucas Wars
Rebellious child who cheated death. Indomitable visionary. And mastermind behind one of the world's most enduring fandoms: Star Wars."An epic tale of creative struggles and triumph." --Jeffrey Brown, bestselling author of Darth Vader and Son In a tale befitting the saga he created, Lucas Wars follows George Lucas's journey from aimless dreamer to filmmaking trailblazer and prodigy of the New Hollywood movement. While his fellow rising stars--directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese--craft The Godfather, Jaws, and Taxi Driver, Lucas follows his childhood dreams and begins work on an epic fantasy . . . which, he soon discovers, is not without its epic challenges. Writer Laurent Hopman and artist Renaud Roche dive deep into the creative process behind Star Wars: A New Hope, from the hell of casting to the nightmare of filming. Lucas is forced to juggle actor quarrels, a secret love affair, costume and set mishaps, and constant pushback from film execs. But despite it all, a landmark movie emerges--one that changes the medium of film forever. Lucas Wars is an exhilarating underdog story and a unique glimpse into the world of cinema. But most of all, it's an ode to the magic of childhood and the value of perseverance.
$29.99
-
Last Time We Spoke: A Story of Loss
Starred Review from Publishers Weekly, "Such reflections will ring painfully familiar to anyone who has stumbled around in the darkness of grief. This vulnerable graphic memoir cuts deep."An emotional and heartbreaking memoir of the author's lifelong struggle with his mother's death from cancer.Grief never goes away.When he was a teenager, Jesse Mechanic's mother passed away after a long struggle with cancer. In this memoir, he looks back on that time, and on the ways that experience followed him throughout his life. Struggling with school while dealing with attentional problems and the overwhelming tsunami of grief, this book tells the story of Mechanic's slow work to figure out a life for himself. It's about obsessive-compulsive disorder, intrusive thoughts, and depression--straight-A's turning to straight F's, and smiles to blank stares. It's about what loss can teach us, and how trauma can be both debilitating and beautiful. It's about standing in dark rooms for long enough for your eyes to adjust.And graffiti. It's about that too.With powerful visuals and thoughtful, poignant text, this graphic memoir challenges readers to keep going in the face of the hardest times.
$20.99
-
Mrballen Presents: Where Nightmares Live: The Graphic Stories
From the New York Times bestselling author and creator of the hit MrBallen Podcast and YouTube channel, a vividly illustrated graphic novel featuring nine spine-chilling stories--based on real events--of the horror that lurks within the unknown In MrBallen Presents: Where Nightmares Live, John Allen, known popularly as "MrBallen," is back with another heart-stopping collection of strange and mysterious stories exploring terrors that lie just beyond our comprehension. From skin-melting encounters in Brazil to a ghost that stalks the English countryside to a bell ringing deep in the Arizona wilderness, MrBallen's spine-chilling tales--four of which are exclusive to this graphic novel--span multiple centuries and expose bizarre, terrifying, and utterly unforgettable experiences of the unnatural world. Compellingly creepy, deeply researched, and based on unsettling real events, MrBallen Presents: Where Nightmares Live proves that sometimes our deepest fears are about the things we cannot see. In collaboration with New York Times bestselling graphic novelist Robert Venditti and acclaimed comic book artist Andrea Mutti, this is Allen's most frightening collection yet. Welcome. Your nightmares are waiting.
$25.99
-
Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio
From Derf Backderf, the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer, comes the Eisner and ALA/YALSA Alex Award-winning tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings, told in graphic novel form. Named a Best Book of the Year by New York Times, Forbes, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and NPR, Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio is a moving and troubling story about the bitter price of dissent--as relevant today as it was in 1970. On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, four students were killed and nine shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children--a shocking event burned into our national memory. The fatal shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. More than four million students participated in organized walkouts at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools, the largest student strike in the history of the United States at that time. It was a day that shocked the nation and helped turn the tide of public opinion against America's war in Vietnam. A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike. Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart. In this award-winning and powerful graphic novel, Derf Backderf takes us back to the age of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, Woodstock, and the Cold War and explores, in words and images, a scene of tragedy: the campus of Kent State University, where National Guard Troops attacked unarmed protestors and killed four students (Allison Beth Krause, age 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20, Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20, and William Knox Schroeder, age 19).
$19.99
-
Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying on
A graphic novel history of the cocktail--from prehistoric wassail to our current boozy renaissance--featuring 20 recipes by drinks historian, Daily Beast columnist, and award-winning author David Wondrich. There's no better writer to tell the colorful history of cocktails than David Wondrich, widely considered to be one of the world's foremost authorities on cocktails and a driving force behind the early-twenty-first-century revival in the classic American art of mixing drinks. In The Comic Book Story of the Cocktail, Wondrich teams up with comics artist Dean Kotz to trace the evolution of the cocktail. Beginning with the ancient days of wassail and hypocras (mixed drinks based on wine and beer), they narrate a tumultuous and vibrant history that stretches through the Age of Exploration, the boozier parts of the Enlightenment and America's hurly-burly nineteenth century, to the Disco years, the Cosmo years, and the modern Cocktail Revolution. Kotz's intricate, masterful drawings illustrate stories that have never been properly told and introduce key characters who haven't yet received their due. Nearly thirty recipes round out this spirited account, featuring accurate versions of old classics and a generous selection of secret weapons from the mixologist's vest pocket. So, settle in with your libation of choice and prepare to meet the good, the bad, and the boozy in this lively and jam-packed tale.
$29.99
-
History of World War II: A Graphic Novel
A massive and lushly illustrated graphic novel on World War II that looks through the eyes of major players such as Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt In 20 captivating chapters, interspersed with informative chapter openers as well as a bibliography for further reading, The History of World War II unravels the complex dynamics of the conflict that transformed every corner of the globe into a theater of war. From fragile alliances tested to their limit, to long-simmering bitter rivalries, the root causes of the war immediately following the "war to end all wars" are unpacked and examined in a powerful narrative that illuminates the enduring legacy of this tumultuous period, asking the reader to reflect on the lessons it can offer for our time. Arnaud De La Croix and Vicente Cifuentes expertly weave together a compelling and vivid history of World War II, the scope of which has yet to be matched in graphic novel format.
$29.99
-
Elon Musk: American Oligarch
An unvarnished, critical graphic biography of the tech innovator and presidential confidant by the author/illustrator of Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator and Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful. Darryl Cunningham's new graphic biography of Elon Musk is a riveting deep-dive into the audacious mind and tumultuous journey of the world's richest man. Using his signature pictographic style--clean lines, vivid colors, and lean panel compositions--Cunningham peels back the layers of myth around Musk to deliver a timely portrait that is provocative and informative. Spanning several generations, the book traces Musk's journey from his family roots in South Africa and his grandfather's role in the Technocracy Movement to his current position at the apex of tech power and far-right politics. From Musk's early education and influences, the creation of PayPal, and the meteoric rise of Tesla and SpaceX thanks to millions in government handouts, to his ascension as a "dark MAGA" influencer and kingmaker, Elon Musk: American Oligarch captures the tension, tumult, and chaos in which oligarchs thrive today. Cunningham's award-winning clarity and style sparkle as he presents freewheeling financial and engineering concepts used by startups and tech companies. This fast-paced biography reveals the complex interactions of visionary ideas, relentless drive, and unyielding ambition. Elon Musk: American Oligarch offers a fresh, unvarnished look at Musk's rise, aggressive leadership style, and appetite for risk-taking that have propelled him into a unique position as an unelected private business owner with unprecedented access to political power. Praise for Billionaires by Darryl Cunningham: "Extensively researched. . . a good choice for students interested in economics and public policy." ―School Library Journal
$24.95
You have seen 23 out of 23 products