Welcome to BookGN.com

The new graphic novel by Jason is both a playful take on the classic detective story. A detective happens to find a lost cat and finds that he and the woman to whom he returns it have a lot in common. They agree to meet again... but she's disappeared. Isolation and memory intertwine in the longest story by Jason to date.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce walk into a Parisian bar... no, it's not the beginning of a joke, but the premise of Jason's unique new graphic novel. Set in 1920s Paris, The Left Bank Gang is a deliciously inventive re-imagining of these four literary figures as graphic novelists! Yes, in Jason's warped world, cartooning is the dominant form of fiction, and not only do these four literary giants work in the comics medium but they get together to discuss the latest graphic novels from Dostoevsky to Faulkner ("Hasn't he heard of white space? His panels are too crowded!"), and bemoan their erratic careers. With guest appearances by Zelda Fitzgerald and Jean-Paul Sartre, and a few remarkable twists and turns along the way, and you've got one of the funniest and most playful graphic novels of the year. Like Jason's acclaimed Why Are You Doing This?, The Left Bank Gang is rendered in full spectacular color.

After his existential thriller (Why Are You Doing This?), his Parisian famous-writers crime caper (The Left Bank Gang), and his time-travel story (I Killed Adolf Hitler), Jason's fourth full-color album may feature his loopiest premise yet. Set in the present time, The Last Musketeer stars the by-now centuries old musketeer Athos, who has been reduced to a suavely dressed but useless near-panhandler trading on his now almost extinct fame. All this changes when one day the Martians attack Earth. Suddenly there is a need for swashes to be buckled, and Athos leaps back into the fray with a vengeance. The Last Musketeer is a vintage sci-fi adventure with a unique twist from an internationally acclaimed cartoonist.

Five years ago, little Gwenny's father found, a map inside a bottle with instructions on how to reach the mysterious (and titular) Isle of 100,000 Graves and its legendary treasures - and then he vanished. Now Gwenny, having stumbled across another bottle-shipped map, enlists the dubious help of a shipful of pirates and sets out to find the island and her long-lost dad. Little does she realize that the Isle comes by its ominous name honestly, as the location of a secret school for executioners and torturers, where apple-cheeked youngsters are taught the finer points of extracting information from prisoners... and then putting an end to their lives in a wide variety of gruesome ways. And they've reached the point in their studies where theory should ideally give way to practice, so an influx of uninvited visitors comes as a blessing to the faculty. This story is a comedy, albeit a dark one.

In this full-color graphic novel, Jason posits a strange, violent world in which contract killers can be hired to rub out pests, be they dysfunctional relatives, abusive co-workers, loud neighbors, or just annoyances in general-- and as you might imagine, their services are in heavy demand. One such killer is given the unique job of traveling back in time to kill Adolf Hitler in 1939... but things go spectacularly wrong. Hitler overpowers the would-be assassin and sends himself to the present, leaving the killer stranded in the past. The killer eventually finds his way back to the present by simply waiting the decades out as he ages, and teams up with his now much-younger girlfriend to track down the missing fascist dictator... at which point the book veers further into Jason territory, as the cartoonist's minimalist, wickedly dry sense of humor slows down the story to a crawl: for long patches absolutely nothing happens, but nobody can make nothing happening as riotously entertaining as Jason does... and finally, when the reader isn't paying attention, he brings it together with a shocking, perfectly logical and yet completely unexpected climax which also solves a mystery from the very beginning of the book the reader had forgotten about. As always, I Killed Adolf Hitler is rendered in Jason's crisp deadpan neo-clear-line style, once again augmented by lovely, understated coloring.

For his ninth Fantagraphics graphic novel, Jason returns to his two-tone mute roots with The Living and the Dead, a George A. Romero-esque zombie comedy that he intends to be the middle installment of his "horror trilogy" begun with the Frankenstein monster love triangle of You Can't Get There From Here. Jason's elegant deadpan style somehow manages to make the gruesome gore and splatter effects almost... charming - and yes, it is a sweet love story at heart. If you read only one book in which a zombie devours a baby this year (even Romero never quite summoned up the nerve for that), read this one!

A collection of full-color graphic novellas, Athos in America takes its title from the lead story, a prequel of sort to the graphic novel The Last Musketer, in which the seemingly ageless swashbuckler turns up in a bar in 1920 New York and relates the tale of how he went to Hollywood to play himself in a film version of The Three Musketeers. Also included: "The Brain That Wouldn't Virginia Woolf," "Tom Waits on the Moon," and "So Long Mary Ann."

Before Joe Sacco crafted his two major works of "cartoon journalism," Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde, he created a number of shorter pieces, ranging from one-page gags to 30-page "graphic novelettes." This massive book finally collects the entirety of Sacco's earlier journalistic and autobiographical work, plus a sizable serving of his satirical strips, many of them never before collected in book form. The centerpieces in Notes from a Defeatist are a triptych of war stories: "When Good Bombs Happen to Bad People," a history of aerial bombing that specifically targets civilian populations; "More Women, More Children, More Quickly," in which Sacco relates his mother's harrowing experiences during World War II in Malta; and, most personally (and closest to Sacco's later work), "How I Loved the War," Sacco's impassioned but sardonic reflection on the Gulf War, the surrounding propaganda and media circus, and his own ambivalent feelings as both a spectator and commentator: The book derives its title from this sequence, which has acquired a painful new relevance in the past half-year. Notes from a Defeatist also includes a roadie's-eye view of an American punk band's eventful European tour, a reminiscence of an awful season spent in his native Malta, and much more. Notes from a Defeatist is a fantastic primer to Sacco's work.

Writer Bruce Jones (Hulk) makes his DCU debut, teaming with red-hot newcomer Sean Murphy and cover artists Zach Howard & Jay Leisten for a 2-issue series delving into the background of one of the Dark Knight's most fearsome foes!
Think you know everything there is to know about the Scarecrow and his origin? Think again! YEAR ONE: BATMAN/SCARECROW goes back to the very beginning, to Jonathan Crane's birth and questionable lineage, and follows his story up to his first appearance taking on Batman and Robin!
A trail of death and straw leads the Dynamic Duo in a race to identify and stop Gotham's newest serial killer, but the demons that shaped the Scarecrow aren't so easily revealed!

Sgt. Rock and the Easy Company faced insurmountable odds from the Axis powers and lived to tell the tale. But have they finally been given a mission that will stop them in their tracks? Comics legend Joe Kubert returns to DC's legendary unit for a six-issue limited series based on a true story!

Ka-Zar wonders if he should leave the jungle and join modern civilization, and ultimately discovers a vast new section of the Savage Land called Pangea!

Former assassin Velveteen is on the run from the Order of the 9, the organization that took her from her family and forced her into a life where all she knows is secrecy, violence, and death. Now, after years of running, she is bringing the fight to them. With help from an American hacker, Jasper, and a rookie officer with an attitude, Inspector Pazzi, Velveteen will use everything she was taught by the Order of the 9 against them. Collects issues #1-5.

This single volume features stories by series creator Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews (Serenity: Those Left Behind), and Christopher Golden (Baltimore). Set during Seasons 1 and 2 of the Angel television series, favorite characters appear—Cordelia, Doyle, Wes, Gunn—as the investigations of LA's vampire detective agency delve into all that is dark, grotesque, strange, and unexplainable. Angel faces demonic rats, bizarre deaths from spontaneous combustion, Hollywood demons encountered courtesy of Cordelia, angry spirits, zombies, and more!
* Includes four issues written by Joss Whedon.
* Chronicles the earliest adventures in the Angel saga!
* A collection of the first published Angel comics! Angel #1 - #14, #17, Angel: Long Night's Journey #1 - #4, Dark Horse Presents #153 - #155: "Hunting Ground," Dark Horse Extra #25 - #28: "Angel," and Angel: Point of Order.

Collects ANGEL issues (2007-2011) 39-44!
IDW's final arc of ANGEL is an epic, bittersweet, last stand to save the city Angel loves! Ripped from the "now" into the far future, Angel discovers that if he doesn't stop James or "Myr", the not-angel, Los Angeles will end up as a Blade Runnery disaster of demon breeding farms and war. His ally in this stark world is Wolfram & Hart, who he knows better than to trust. Yet, it's clear that some things are worse than the Apocalypse. Maybe.

Collects ANGEL (2007-2011) #33-38 plus bonus materials!
Now that Angel's back in charge, he struggles to keep his relationship with Connor from getting messy and discovers weird new things about Illyria as she tries to woo the prodigal son. Meanwhile, Spike gets into the prophecy business, Laura Kay Weathermill has some strange ideas, and a demon army of warrior women tries to "fix" L.A. You know, just another day for Angel and crew.

Collects ANGEL (2007-2011) #28-32!
Eisner Award-winning writer Bill Willingham's (Fables) first story arc on Angel: Immortality For Dummies, takes us down the dark path of fame, testing old allegiances and new friendships. When Angel goes missing, Connor steps in, and learns pretty quickly that being a hero is a lot harder than dad makes it look.

In this volume, Usagi teams with his friend Gen, a rhino bounty hunter, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to protect an aging sensei from an evil ninja clan. His travels also take him to a remote village under threat from deadly assassins, where only Usagi stands between their merciless blades and a community's destruction. This edition of Usagi Yojimbo: Shades of Death features completely remastered artwork and new story notes, highlighting Stan Sakai's exhaustive research into the world of feudal Japan! Features an introduction by acclaimed artist William Stout.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles travel through time to team with Usagi in 17th-century Japan! Collecting the first six issues of the Mirage-published Usagi Yojimbo, out of print since 1993, this is the eighth in a series of successful Usagi trade paperbacks. This book weighs in at a whopping two hundred pages! Collects Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 2 #1-6

Collects Conan and the Songs of the Dead (2006) #1-5, Free Comic Book Day 2006: Conan, Conan: Trophy (2008) #1, Conan: Kiss of the Undead (2010) #1, Conan: Island of No Return (2011) #1-2, material from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (2006) #1.
Only Conan's cold steel can save all of creation! Conan aids an old ally in the wretched wastes of Stygia - a harsh desert that harbors undreamed-of wealth! But Conan's pursuit of ancient treasure soon unearths a conniving spirit - and as blood spills on the desolate dust, a dark-hearted sorcerer brings forth unholy abominations! Then, Conan teams with two sister thieves to rob a haunted clifftop castle. But evil spirits are the least of Conan's problems when both sisters set their sights on him! Plus: Conan must prevent the revival of a sleeping god - and walk the road of kings!

The Gaza strip? No problem! Deepest Serbia? A cakewalk. Those were easy. But now the time has come to follow award-winning cartoon journalist Joe Sacco on one of the most dangerous beats (and we mean "beats" literally) of all... namely the world of rock 'n' roll. The centerpiece of the book is "In the Company of Long Hair," the early '90s graphic novelette Sacco created on the subject of his raucous European tour with the punk band the Miracle Workers. Although already published in other Sacco collections, "Long Hair" appears here for the first time in an expanded version with an added 15-page section of his original sketches and notes, and a bound-in CD featuring songs from the Miracle Workers' live shows of the timeincluding a blasting version of the Iggy Pop classic "I Got a Right." As for the rest of the book: In a series of hilarious and sharply observed vignettes, Sacco turns his pitiless pen on all strata of Rock 'n' Roll, from old rockers ("The Stones and Me," a diehard fan's lament, and its sequel, "Suffering for the Stones") to new (the abovementioned Miracle Workers); from salacious gossip ("Who's Sleeping With Who") to how-to ("Woodstock in your Own Home"), from portraits of typical rock creatures ("Record Producer," "The Musician Who Wanted to Save the World," "The Rock Journalist") to self-deprecating autobiographical stories ("Why I Let my Hair Grow" and "So You Want to Meet a Rock 'n' Roll Star.").

When Archie Andrews proves to a local DJ that he's got the makings of a hip-shaking stardom, he begins an ascent to fame that will carry with it both triumph and tragedy.