Graphic Novels
The first-ever graphic biography of Paul Robeson, Ballad of an American, charts Robeson's career as a singer, actor, scholar, athlete, and activist who achieved global fame. Through his films, concerts, and records, he became a potent symbol representing the promise of a multicultural, multiracial American democracy at a time when, despite his stardom, he was denied personal access to his many audiences.
Robeson was a major figure in the rise of anti-colonialism in Africa and elsewhere, and a tireless campaigner for internationalism, peace, and human rights. Later in life, he embraced the civil rights and antiwar movements with the hope that new generations would attain his ideals of a peaceful and abundant world. Ballad of an American features beautifully drawn chapters by artist Sharon Rudahl, a compelling narrative about his life, and an afterword on the lasting impact of Robeson's work in both the arts and politics. This graphic biography will enable all kinds of readers--especially newer generations who may be unfamiliar with him--to understand his life's story and everlasting global significance.Ballad of an American: A Graphic Biography of Paul Robeson is published in conjunction with Rutgers University's centennial commemoration of Robeson's 1919 graduation from the university.
View the blad for Ballad of an American.
In The Beats: A Graphic History, those who were mad to live have come back to life through artwork as vibrant as the Beat movement itself. Told by the comic legend Harvey Pekar, his frequent artistic collaborator Ed Piskor, and a range of artists and writers, including the feminist comic creator Trina Robbins and the Mad magazine artist Peter Kuper, The Beats takes us on a wild tour of a generation that, in the face of mainstream American conformity and conservatism, became known for its determined uprootedness, aggressive addictions, and startling creativity and experimentation.
What began among a small circle of friends in New York and San Francisco during the late 1940s and early 1950s laid the groundwork for a literary explosion, and this striking anthology captures the storied era in all its incarnations--from the Benzedrine-fueled antics of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs to the painting sessions of Jay DeFeo's disheveled studio, from the jazz hipsters to the beatnik chicks, from Chicago's College of Complexes to San Francisco's famed City Lights bookstore. Snapshots of lesser-known poets and writers sit alongside frank and compelling looks at the Beats' most recognizable faces. What emerges is a brilliant collage of--and tribute to--a generation, in a form and style that is as original as its subject.
Oliver Wendell "Ollie" Harrington (February 14, 1912 – November 2, 1995) was an American cartoonist and outspoken advocate against racism and for civil rights in the United States. Langston Hughes called him America's greatest African-American cartoonist. He became immersed in the Harlem Renaissance, and in 1935, Harrington created Dark Laughter, a regular single panel cartoon, for the Amsterdam News. The strip was later retitled Bootsie, after its most famous character, an ordinary African American dealing with racism in the U.S. Harrington described him as "a jolly, rather well-fed but soulful character."
This first edition 1958 compilation of a selection of Bootsie cartoons has an introduction by Langston Hughes; dust jacket in protective cover; some tears covered with scotch tape; yellow cloth with green lettering on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/G+
Oliver Wendell "Ollie" Harrington (February 14, 1912 – November 2, 1995) was an American cartoonist and outspoken advocate against racism and for civil rights in the United States. Langston Hughes called him America's greatest African-American cartoonist. He became immersed in the Harlem Renaissance, and in 1935, Harrington created Dark Laughter, a regular single panel cartoon, for the Amsterdam News. The strip was later retitled Bootsie, after its most famous character, an ordinary African American dealing with racism in the U.S. Harrington described him as "a jolly, rather well-fed but soulful character."
1st edition; introduction by Langston Hughes; no dust jacket; yellow cloth with green lettering on spine; spine slightly tanned; former owner's bookplate in bottom left corner of pastedown; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG
* enlightening new essays by the author (who also wrote the screenplay)
* interviews with the director, cast, and crew
* stills from the movie
* exclusive behind-the-scenes content
* previously unpublished early sketches by the illustrator, whose artwork inspires animated scenes in the film.
BEST OF THE YEAR NODS FROM AMAZON, THE WASHINGTON POST, AND USA TODAY'S POP CANDY BLOG!
"For years I've encountered Lisa Hanawalt's comics and illustrations piecemeal -- in various magazines and periodicals. They're always a pleasant jolt. Now, they've been assembled into one thick, blazing bludgeon. I envy you getting walloped by them all for the first time. This is a Hanawalt assault. Succumb."-Patton Oswalt
"Hanawalt's My Dirty Dumb Eyes is a fantastically vivid and whimsical playground, offering page after page of absurdity, humor, and charm. The artwork is stunning and the jokes are surprising and fresh. This book is a rare and wonderful invitation inside the surreal world of Hanawalt."--Kristen Schaal
"Lisa Hanawalt is as gifted of an artist as she is a hilarious writer, which is completely upsetting and unfair considering how untalented most people in this stupid world are. Her comics are brilliantly funny, gloriously weird, and visually stunning. I worship the chair she farts on."--Julie Klausner
My Dirty Dumb Eyes introduces Lisa Hanawalt as a first-rank cartoonist/humorist/stalker for an audience that likes its humor idiosyncratic, at times anthropomorphic or scatological, often uncomfortable, and always sharp witted. Her world vision is intricately rendered in a full spectrum of color, unapologetically gorgeous and intensely bizarre. With movie reviews, tips for her readers, laugh-out-loud lists and short pieces such as "Rumors I've Heard About Anna Wintour," and "The Secret Lives of Chefs," Hanawalt's comedy shines, making the quotidian silly and surreal, flatulent and facetious.
Hanawalt's comics have appeared in the Hairpin, VanityFair.com, the New York Times, and the Believer. She lives in Brooklyn with a dog and a comedian.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2013 ALA/YALSA Alex Award
2014 Revelation Award at Angoulême
2015 ALA/YALSA Alex Award (Excellence in Narrative Nonfiction)
Named a BEST OF 2012 by Time, The Village Voice, A.V. Club, comiXology, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, MTV Geek, and more!
You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer--the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper--seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, "Jeff" was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche--a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget.
Also available by Derf Backderf, Trashed.
Find teaching guides for My Friend Dahmer and other titles at abramsbooks.com/resources.
The Night Bookmobile is a haunting tale of both transcendence and the passion for books, and features the evocative full-color pen-and-ink work of one of the world's most beloved storytellers.
The legendary Harlem theater comes alive in this celebrated graphic novel--now available in paperback
Writer Ted Fox and artist James Otis Smith bring to life Harlem's legendary theater in this celebrated graphic novel adaptation of Fox's definitive, critically acclaimed history of the Apollo--now available in paperback. Since its inception as an African-American theater in 1934, the Apollo and the thousands of legendary entertainers who have performed there led the way in swing, bebop, rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk, and hip hop-along with the latest in dance and comedy. Today, the Apollo enjoys an almost mythical status. With its breathtaking art, Showtime at the Apollo illuminates the theater's significance in music history, African-American history, and urban culture.
"Imagine if David Sedaris could draw....Enchanting." --People
"One of the best things I've ever read in my life." --Marc Maron
"Will make you laugh until you sob, even when Brosh describes her struggle with depression." --Entertainment Weekly
"I would gladly pay to sit in a room full of people reading this book, merely to share the laughter." --The Philadelphia Inquirer
"In a culture that encourages people to carry mental illness as a secret burden....Brosh's bracing honesty is a gift." --Chicago Tribune
Frans Masereel (1889-1972) was a Belgian painter and wood engraver who illustrated books by Oscar Wilde, Emile Zola, and Leo Tolstoy. He was most widely known for his novels-without-words and for his antiwar woodcuts that appeared in magazines and newspapers in Europe in the early twentieth century.
This edition of Masereel's wordless novel, The Sun, comes in a box and includes 4 postcards with reproductions of Masereel's woodcuts, as well as a fold-out poster; box scuffed; right edge of box broken at corners; book, postcards, and poster in pristine condition. VG/G
In time for the 75th anniversary of the Man of Steel, comes the first comprehensive literary biography of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, creators of the DC Comics superhero Superman and the inspiration for Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay
Drawing on ten years of research in the trenches of Cleveland libraries, boarded-up high schools, and secret, private collections, and a love of comic books, Brad Ricca's Super Boys is the first ever full biography about Superman's creators. Among scores of new discoveries, the book reveals the first stories and pictures ever published by the two, where the first Superman story really came from, the real inspiration for Lois Lane, the template for Superman's costume, and much, much more. Super Boys also tracks the boys' unknown, often mysterious lives after they left Superman, including Siegel's secret work during World War II and never-before-seen work from Shuster.
Super Boys explains, finally, what exactly happened with the infamous check for $130 that pulled Superman away from his creators--and gave control of the character to the publisher. Ricca also uncovers the true nature of Jerry's father's death, a crime that has always remained a mystery. Super Boys is the story of a long friendship between boys who grew to be men and the standard that would be impossible for both of them to live up to.
First edition, 3rd printing, signed with little drawing by Walt Kelly; edges lightly worn; spine edges slightly chipped and worn; front hinge weak; text clean. G+
Soon to be a major motion picture from director Bradley Jay Kaplan (Stealing Cars).
Soon to be a major motion picture from director Bradley Jay Kaplan (Stealing Cars).
Derf creator of the graphic novels Trashed, Punk Rock & Trailer Parks and the international bestseller, My Friend Dahmer presents the best of his True Stories from the long running The City comic strip, as seen in Best American Comics. These timeless tales of urban oddness will surprise and amuse, and make for many WTF moments. It's like Humans of New York, but somewhat stranger. Pressure... Pressure...
Best of 2018 lists from Nylon, the New York Public Library, Boing Boing, and The Cut!
With her startling humor, it's no surprise that Aminder Dhaliwal's web comic Woman World has a devoted audience of more than 150,000 readers, updated biweekly with each installment earning an average of 25,000 likes. Now, readers everywhere will delight in the print edition as Dhaliwal seamlessly incorporates feminist philosophical concerns into a series of perfectly-paced strips that skewer perceived notions of femininity and contemporary cultural icons. D+Q's edition of Woman World will include new and previously unpublished material.
When a birth defect wipes out the planet's entire population of men, Woman World rises out of society's ashes. Dhaliwal's infectiously funny instagram comic follows the rebuilding process, tracking a group of women who have rallied together under the flag of "Beyonce's Thighs." Only Grandma remembers the distant past, a civilization of segway-riding mall cops, Blockbuster movie rental shops, and "That's What She Said" jokes. For the most part, Woman World's residents are focused on their struggles with unrequited love and anxiety, not to mention that whole "survival of humanity" thing.
Woman World is an uproarious and insightful graphic novel from a very talented and funny new voice.
A Most Anticipated Book according to:
*Elle * Oprah Magazine * Vulture * New York Times * PureWow * AV CLub * Time Magazine * Entertainment Weekly * PureWow * Buzzfeed * The Observer * Bustle * Huffington Post * The Millions * Parade * Electric Literature * Bustle * Lithub * BookRiot * Bitch * Washington Independent * The Rumpus * and more * "Stay-up-all-night, miss-your-subway-stop, spit-out-your-beverage funny.... irresistible as a snack tray, as intimately pleasurable as an Irish goodbye."
--Jia Tolentino From Samantha Irby--beloved author of New York Times bestseller We Are Never Meeting in Real Life--a rip-roaring, edgy and unabashedly raunchy new collection of hilarious essays. Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "tv executives slash amateur astrologers" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," "with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees," who still hides past due bills under her pillow.
The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby's new life. Wow, No Thank You. is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable.