Author: About Comics

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Revolting Rebels: a History in Comics of the American Revolution

Acclaimed cartoonist-author Stan Mack turns his humorously journalistic comics style on the events and characters of the American Revolution, creating a reader-friendly cartoon guide to the who, what, when, and why of the effort to end ties with Britain and create a new nation. Getting away from the simplistic all-patriotic takes, this graphic novel covers the battles, the arguments, and the very un-united set of people who somehow still managed to launch the United States. From the king to the commoners, the book uses a light, readable visual presentation for serious topics and real subtleties. Called “spectacular” by Publisher’s Weekly, given a starred review by Library Journal, and chosen as “New York Public Library Recommended Book” for teens, this lively graphic history demonstrates how the people and issues of a quarter of a millennium ago are not so different from those we deal with today, and how their impact is still felt.

(Previously released under the titles Stan Mack’s Real Life American Revolution and Taxes, the Tea Party and those Revolting Rebels.)

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 173 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996646
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996647
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.39 x 9 inches

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Cold War Coloring: Political Adult Coloring Books of the Kennedy Era – Expanded Edition

The first time adult coloring books swept America, they weren’t therapeutic… they were satiric.

In the early 1960s, the first wave of parody coloring books used the form to mock the culture of the day. Here in this expanded edition are seven prime examples that took on the political conflicts of that era.

  • The New Frontier Coloring Book – The very first political adult coloring book takes on the liberalism of the Kennedy administration.
  • JFK Coloring Book – a genuine New York Times-certified best seller, this look at the Kennedy White House, the Kennedy friends, and especially the Kennedy family contains beautiful art by Mort Drucker, master caricaturist from Mad.
  • New Frontier Comic Coloring Book – an all-out attack on the Kennedy administration, produced by Arthur J. Weaver, a politician who was a four-time delegate to the Republican National Convention
  • Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev Coloring Book – a look at the notorious but colorful Soviet leader, written by Amram Ducovny, father of actor David Duchovny.
  • Khrushchev’s Top Secret Coloring Book – with Gene Shalit on the writing and Jack Davis of Mad fame handling the art, the communists take it on the chin.
  • The Sing Along with Khrushchov Coloring Book – drawn by a Hungarian artist who had been imprisoned by the Nazis for his political cartoons, this book was discussed at a meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
  • The John Birch Coloring Book – a poke at the right-wing John Birch Society, who were concerned with communists abroad and communists (real and perceived) at home.
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 197 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 194999659X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996593
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.29 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.45 x 11 inches
  • Cover price: $20

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Dazzling Diamond Lil’

Cover to Dazzling Diamond Lil’, featuring a head shot of a girl with blond curls and diamonds for eyes.

She’s a little gem with diamonds for eyes!

The year after the great Bill Woggon created Katy Keene, the comic book character who would bring him to attention and gain him the lasting love of fans, he created another special character. Diamond Lil’ reached the nation’s newspapers not on the comics page, but in jewelry store ads, where week after week she would promote the advantages of buying from the local shop, often in the most ridiculous ways. While Katy went on to a long-running comics career and ever her own TV series, Lil’ has been long forgotten and never collected… until now. Finally, over seventy years since she first saw print, her cartoons are available again for a whole new audience. Includes an introduction by Eisner Award-winning comics history writer Nat Gertler.

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 103 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996603
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996609
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.06 x 0.24 x 7.81 inches
  • Cover price: $10 US

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Scott Shaw!s Comix & Stories: about Fandom, Underground Culture, the Comics Industry, Talking Animals, a Gonzo Cartoonist, & Other Stuff!

For over fifty years, SCOTT SHAW! has been writing and drawing allegedly funny stuff for mainstream comics sold on spinner racks (including Sonic the Hedgehog, Captain Carrot and The Simpsons), underground comix sold in head shops — and almost everything in between. Finally, here’s the first collection starring the award-winning cartoonist’s most notorious characters (including Scott himself!), with over 200 pages of offbeat stories, plus surprises and silliness from the depths of his archives!

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 335 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996581
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996586
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.44 x 0.76 x 9.69 inches
  • Cover price: US$30

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Analysis of Bone: a look at the Jeff Smith graphic novel masterpiece

Since it started being serialized in 1991, Jeff Smith’s masterwork Bone has drawn a huge number of readers, intrigued by its subtleties and complexities as the work evolved from a lighthearted romp to a dark fantasy with a richly-built world. It is a work worthy of scholarly attention, and that’s just what award-winning writer about comics Stephen Weiner set out to do. His essay on the work, its influences, and its place in the culture was first release in e-book form (as A Bone Companion) in 2015. The fine folks at Cartoon Books thought that it was a worthy analysis, and included in in their 2016 book Bone: Coda. But now that volume is out of print, and and About Comics has made the work under its own cover, and the title Analysis of Bone.
This volume contains not only Weiner’s text accompanied by Jeff Smith art from Bone, but also a seven page interview with Smith himself. The book has the same cover size as the Scholastic editions of Bone, so that it can sit nicely with your Bone collection on your shelf.

About the author: Stephen Weiner has been writing about comics since 1992, including writing for such periodicals as The Boston Globe, School Library Journal, and Booklist, and authoring or co-authoring such books as 100 Graphic Novels for Public Libraries, The Will Eisner Companion, and Hellboy: The Companion. A holder of master degrees in both Children’s Literature and Library Science, Weiner received the Comic Creators’ Guild Award in 2006

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 65 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996573
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996579
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.15 x 9 inches
  • Cover price: US$7.99

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The Wolf: Expanded Edition

This World War II classic is back!

“Along with the jeep, the robot bomb and Spam, the wolf in GI clothing will become one of the historical mementos of World War II.” —Life

When the attack on Pearl Harbor turned Golden Age comic book and advertising artist Leonard Sansone into Pvt. Sansone, he brought his art tools and sense of humor with him. The Wolf, his comics panel about a girl-crazed soldier went quickly from being in his local camp paper to appearing in thousands of service papers wherever Americans were stationed. Here, the original 1945 edition, out of print for most of a century, is not only brought back but expanded with seventy additional post-war cartoons. Look out, ladies! The Wolf’s uniform may be gone; his obsession remains.

“Sansone’s work is marked by cleverness and originality” — Tampa Tribune

”The best in GI cartoons” — Pic

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 177 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996557
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996555
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.45 x 8 inches

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Spot the Dog

Over a decade before George Booth brought his cartooning talent to the New Yorker, where his quirky style, wry sense of the world, and quirky view of dogs would get him recognized as one of America’s premiere cartoonists, he had a daily cartoon panel appearing in newspapers. That panel, Spot, about an aware, pipe-smoking starlet-chasing mutt and the family that loves him (well, puts up with him, more or less) has never before been collected. Here you have over 150 Spot cartoons, unseen for over sixty years.

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 91 page
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996565
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996562
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.23 x 6 inches

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The Factor

There’s a hero. He saves the day. But what effect does he have on everyone else’s life?
This is the book where you never see the hero. It isn’t about him. These are the tales of the man on the street, the cop on the beat, the dreamers and schemers and even the kid playing with a doll of the hero. One person can change the world for so many…
This is a complete collection of the series that got Nat Gertler the first of his Eisner Award nominations. Over 20 short stories in all adding up to one full graphic novel, with a range of artists including Huntress co-creator Joe Staton, children’s book creator Adam Rex, mini-comics king Matt Feazell, crime novelist Alex Grecian, and Eisner- and LA Times Book Prize-winning graphic novelist Carla Speed McNeil.
Contents:

  • “Exposure”, art by Adam Rex & Paul Whitehead
  • “Arms and the Man”, art by Janine Johnston
  • “Protection”, art by Alex Grecian
  • “To Serve and Protect”, art by Jim Schumaker & Bradley Walton
  • “Da-Daba-Dumma-Dum-Da-Data”, art by Joe Staton
  • “Escalation”, art by Alex Grecian
  • “Telephone for the ‘90s”, art by Nat Gertler
  • “Commute”, art by Mike Vosburg
  • “Da Oudda-Towners”, art by Matt Feazell
  • “Disagreement”, art by John Drury
  • “In Need”, art by Tom Luth
  • “Clothes Making”, art by Carla Speed McNeil
  • “Essay”, art by Rich Johnston
  • “The Green Diamond Protocol”, art by Carlos Saldaña
  • “Dull Summer Day”, art by Paul Whitehead
  • “The Limits of the Lawyer”, art by Ted Slampyak
  • “Direction”, art by Mark Lewis
  • “Action”, art by Jim Schumaker & Bradley Walton
  • “I am the Factor”, art by Justine Shaw
  • “I am Too the Factor”, art by Rich Johnston
  • “I am the Factoy”, art by Rusty Haller
  • “News Carrier”, art by Jim Wheelock
  • “At Joe’s Lunch Stop”, art by Jason Whitley
  • “Friday Morning, 11:47 AM”, art by Justine Shaw

Product details:

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 127 pages, black and white
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 194999645X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996456
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.29 x 10 inches
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Wife Gets Smart, Makes Husband Happy: Supermarket Comic Strip Ads of World War II

Compiled & Annotated by Nat Gertler
Foreword by Dr. Vicki Howard

When a major American supermarket chain began including comic strips win their newspaper ads in 1941, they probably thought that it would just be a series of little tales that just reminded you to shop at their stores. But then America got pulled into the war, and the strip became an unintended chronicle of life on the homefront, with patriotism, shortages, rationing, fundraising, fears, hopes, and ultimately expectations of a better tomorrow. Here are the hundreds of strips that made up that campaign, which ran from 1941 to 1947. Plus, there’s dozens of examples of comic strips from ads for independent grocery stores from before and after the war, and as an added bonus, a healthy run of Glamorous Gloria, a hilarious strip advertising clothing stores.

“Nat Gertler’s Wife Gets Smart, Makes Husband Happy is a time capsule of comic strips that gives insight to an era in the United States where food rationing was enforced and families were encouraged to grow their own food so that more processed food was available for American soldiers. […] It’s a history book about mid-20th century America, a practical guide in using sequential art to quickly convey a message, and — if you happen to be a collector of grocery store memorabilia (yep, they exist) certain a book you’d want to have on your shelf. Grade: 5.0/5.0″ — RJ Carter, CriticalBlast.com

“The American comic industry has always had a space for small, independent publishers, and I’m glad, because it means you can sometimes stumble across something like this […] odd but strangely readable.” – Comics Worth Reading

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 175 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996417
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996418
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.44 x 6 inches

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The Jam: Urban Adventure: Beginnings

Gordon Kirby is one laid back individual… but when duty (or boredom) calls, he dons his homebrew hero outfit and patrols the streets and rooftops of Montreal as The Jammer!
Collected here for the first time is the original five-issue storyline of Bernie Mireault’s cult favorite alt hero series The Jam: Urban Adventure, newly remastered and enhanced by Mireault himself. As an added bonus, the book leads off with a series of shorter pieces that appeared in New Triumph Featuring Northguard and The Jam Special.

  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 167 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949996433
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949996432
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.38 x 10 inches

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