FLCL (aka Fooly Cooly) is a 6 episode OVA from Studio GAINAX which gained popularity in America from being shown on Adult Swim and also from the fact that it’s fucking awesome. A fast paced (and rather odd) coming-of-age story, FLCL is known for its beautiful animation, catchy soundtrack by Japanese rock group The Pillows and being filled with more phallic symbolism than you can shake a d-, uh, stick at. The series also has a great cast of characters and the artwork below highlights, across a variety of styles and mediums, the fan-love which their superb designs (by Gainax co-founder Yoshiyuki Sadamoto) have inspired. While this feature usually focuses on online cartoonists and illustrators, I wanted to branch out into some areas of fan-created artwork which I think are equally deserving of attention.

(Cover image, by こめつぶ was found here.)

Bowie Knife. 

Brandon Graham.

MD.

Kyle Templeton. 

Anonymous Artist

Cvy, LennethXVII. Photography by songster69. 

Omocat. (There are shirts of this!)

PEOPLE BREAKING DOWN: V’S ANALYSIS OF RACE & IDENTITY IN SHORTCOMINGS

This is part 2 of 3 in a series examining the three protagonists of Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine.

Shortcomings originally held the working title White on Rice, and for good reason. If you’ve read it, you know that this comic focuses as much on a break-up as it does on the politics of race in relationships. The comic follows the story of Japanese American Ben Tanaka’s dissolution of his relationship with Japanese American Miko Hayashi. Throughout the rebound and recovery period, Ben and his close (only) friend, Alice Kim, begin a series of life-changing choices. In exploring the relationships of Ben Tanaka, Alice Kim, and Miko Hayashi, Adrian Tomine explores a different kind of Asian American character than we typically see in American media. Tomine uses each character to both support and deconstruct Asian American stereotypes. Shortcomings is about, more or less, how these characters deal with their race and sexuality, and all the sticky situations that happen after that.

Today: we’re moving on from Ben Tanaka to explore the identity of his only friend, Alice Kim.

• ALICE KIM.

Alice Kim serves as the foil to Ben Tanaka: she’s loud, political, and as a lesbian, she has better luck in the pursuit of women than Ben. The fact that Alice is lesbian alone complicates traditional ways media presents Asian American women. Most representations of Asian and Asian American women fall back onto stereotypes that accentuate exoticness and sexiness. But because these stereotypes are created for the heterosexual (white) male viewer, Alice’s masculine lesbianism breaks this cycle.



Instead, Alice pursues women. And her visual presentation is just as important as her sexuality, because that’s how we know her as lesbian. Tomine draws her as chubby, sporting short hair and plain clothing. Why is this a big deal? Because we rarely see butch lesbians anywhere in media, much less comics. When looking for lesbians on TV, in the movies, etc., it’s usually impossible to find masculine women—even Ellen appears in Covergirl ads and Rachel Maddow looks a bit more feminine on her NBC show. Rather, women who are more masculine become feminized in media presentation, because people expect women to stay feminine. By “people,” I actually mean a small group of heterosexual men and women that are, respectively, masculine and feminine.

Here’s where we get into a complicated issue of biological sex and identity. To keep it simple, I think we can all agree that people born with two X chromosomes are mostly expected to wear make up, have breasts, wear dresses and heels to formal events, adore men’s pecs, and not have penises. So what about women who like breasts, who prefer to wear tuxedos, etc? Well, they usually get written out of mass-mediated stories. The rationale for this: if a lesbian is presented as feminine, straight men can still think she’s hot and straight women can still identify with her because she’s “ladylike.” If masculine ladies do appear, they’re typically demonized. Moreover, if a woman is lesbian, you rarely see her with other ladies (unless it’s pornography or a pop music video). Lesbians are sanitized so that they can be mistaken for straight women.*

Tomine avoids this by showing Alice being intimate with her partner, Meredith Lee, and actively discussing her sex life. Alice’s sexuality is not merely a label transposed upon a sexy “Asian” lady in a Qipao. No, her sexual identity is essential to understanding her character.



Alice also provides an extra shade in Shortcomings’ gradient of Asian American identity. Whereas Ben and Miko are Japanese American, Alice is distinctly Korean American. When “Asian” characters appear in stories, they tend to be marked as blanket “Asian.” This subtly erases nationalities and ethnicities therein (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indian, and so on), and forces Asian American characters to represent every national identity on a massive and diverse continent. Tomine avoids lumping Asian ethnicities by including multiple Asian American characters. Before attending a wedding with Ben, Alice points out an essential difference between the Japanese Ben and her Korean family. This scene provides us with a clearer sense of the characters and their respective heritages.



This moment reveals an important generational difference between Alice and her parents: whereas Alice is an English-speaking liberal, her parents are Korean-speaking traditionalists. Though the scene itself gives us an interesting moment in Alice’s life, it also reinforces the idea that, once Asian parents have kids in the U.S., their children are magically American and the parents will never catch up. This wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t repeated so much in media — moreover, in media that rarely features Asian and Asian American characters to begin with. Apparently, characters can’t be Asian or Asian American: they must either be English-speaking and “modern” or foreign and “traditional.” This weird narrative theme occurred in one of the only TV shows ever to feature an Asian American cast, Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl. This show ran for a single season, and most of those plots revolved around Cho butting heads with her parents over things like dating. Rather than explore how her entire family was Asian and Asian American, the series reinforced a dichotomy between blanket-Asian old-world traditionalism (and backwardness) versus American modernity and freedom of the US.**

Alice’s alternative sexuality and no-nonsense personality make her a “modern American.” Her parents, speaking in untranslated Korean, disapproving of her presented Japanese American boyfriend and, implicitly, her lesbian identity, are the “conservative Asians.” Throughout the comic, Alice rarely consumes Korean food, speaks in Korean, or exhibits any kind of Korean values, furthering her construction as an American stripped of Asian identity. There’s no problem with a character “lacking” cultural identity. But pitting Alice against her parents not only reinforces the idea that Asian and American cultures are totally opposite, but it also implies that Alice’s American mindset is better than that of her parents.

This brings up another problem with Alice’s character: Alice seems like an altered version of a Margaret Cho type. Like her real-life counterpart, Alice is of queer sexuality and Korean descent. She speaks explicitly and crassly regarding personal affairs and, as explored above, struggles with her conservative Korean parents. Too much of Alice seems like a fictionalized version of Margaret Cho. It’s not everyday we see crass, Korean American women in media, so this repetition is pretty important to note.



Take, for example, the Connie Chung phenomenon. While her status as news icon appears fairly innocent, and perhaps even “progressive,” her presence as news anchor brought about a slew of roles in movies, news shows, and sitcoms where Asian American women started playing news anchors. Back in the 80’s, local news channels hiring Asian American women on as news anchors and requested them to wear “exotic” hair and make-up for their shows. Today you’ve got Tricia Takanawa on Family Guy (a decided parody, but still a repetition). While Chung herself is not any kind of stereotype, the constant replication of “exotic” Asian women as newscaster solidifies expectations of Asian American women in the media. ***

In the same way, Alice Kim’s character replicates Margaret Cho: a brash, funny, voluptuous Korean American woman, comfortably fitting in the queer spectrum. Though Tomine briefly acknowledges their similarity, this reference also points out the similarity to the reader, in case they had overlooked it. So while Alice is still a relatively complicated and unique character in terms of her lesbian identity, her similarity to Margaret Cho eclipses the individuality Tomine would like her to have.



For further reading:
* Ciasullo, Ann M. “Making Her (In)visible: Cultural Representations of Lesbianism and the Lesbian Body in the 1990s” from Feminist Studies, 2001.

** Kim, L.S. “Be the One You Want: Asian Americans in Television Culture, Onscreen and Beyond” from Amerasia Journal, 2004.

*** Slaying the Dragon. Dir. Deborah Gee, 1988.

BEST SHOT IN THE WEST by Randy DuBurke, Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick L. McKissack Jr. Beautiful painterly art from Randy DuBerke in this one. A bio-comic about Nat Love, aka Deadwood Dick, the comic is based off of the cowboy’s autobiography of his experiences as a slave-turned-legend. Early reviews say that the writers haven’t done much in the manner of shaping Love’s book, and the comic is something of a straight adaptation. Wikisearch tells me that Nat Love’s “groovy”-ness inspired a bunch of guys in Boston in the 60s to come up with hot pants, so this guy must have had a hellova interesting life.

GOLDEN AGE WESTERN COMICS edited by Steven Brower from various sources. A reprint anthology of old western stories from the legendary American Comics Group, Charlton Comics  and other first/second generation comics mills from the mid-20^th century. I found a really meaty write-up of this book here. This volume’s put out in a hardcover by art-book publisher Powerhouse, who gave the scanned-in yellow pages generous white margins, including at the gutters (which worries me editorially, as this might signify that the book’s design is the work of some pop-art fart thinking that he or she is doing someone a favor).

HOLLIDAY by Nate Bowden and Doug Dabbs. Another western project out this week, this one a noir-ish, ink-splattery reimagining of the Doc Holliday myth transposed to the modern era. Dabbs’ art, all scratchy black ink and grimacing faces, is something that isn’t usually what the guys at Oni Press handle. That’s a good thing? I think? The digital lettering in this grates upon me something fierce, but that’s something that I assume most folks have no problem with.

YOUNGBLOOD #71 by John McLaughlin, John Malin, Rob Liefeld, Ross Hughes, Matt Yackey and Russ Wooton. The last of the new line of EXTREME STUDIOS ROB LIEFELD AWESOME reboots that began with Prophet back in January. Liefeld’s Youngblood #1 was the first non-Big-2 title to top the bestsellers list and was heralded as a victory for creators, even as its Liefeldian inanity signaled some sort of metaphysical defeat. This new series is ludicrously written by John McLaughlin, screenwriter of the Darren Aronofsky Black Swan joint. No worries now though: Liefeld has a kickin twitter account now, and the rest of the Image 6 graze at greener, gassier pastures.

PROPHET #25 by Brandon Graham , Giannis Milonogiannis , Farel Dalrymple, Simon Roy and Joeseph Begin III. Speaking of Prophet, new Prophet! This one’s got art by Milonogiannis of Old City Blues, whose work Graham frequently champions on his always-amazing Royalboiler blog. This series is just warming up: the story arcs are falling into a sacred geometry as the reader and multiple John Prophets are introduced to fantastical alien worlds in the same way that Cassius Clay introduced fists to faces. With panache.

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKOWN! VOL 1 by Edvard Moritz, King Ward, Fred Guardineer, Al Feldstein, Leonard Starr, Al Ulmer, Paul Reinman and others. Pre-Comics Code horror comics from Dark Horse Archives! Adventures of the Unknown was one of the biggest early horror titles, with the first issue dropping in 1948 from American Comics Group.

MIND MGMT #1 by Matt Kindt. This new Dark Horse series by Matt Kindt (Revolver, Super Spy) looks pleasantly paced based on the previews. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Kindt’s stuff (his Pistolwhip stuff completely loses me), but the dude seems to have a lot of energy for solid sci-fi plots that actually go somewhere, so I take no trouble paying him mind. This first issue has an alternate cover by Gilbert Hernandez! Good old Dark Horse. I think the most amusing thing about this comic, about a desperate new-journalism writer investigating survivors of a commercial flight where everyone onboard was struck with amnesia, is a logline shill by some coked-up PR guy. I quote from Dark Horse’s website: “Akira meets Heart of Darkness by way of 100 Bullets!” When I read that, I yelled “AW SHIT SON” and nearly threw my laptop across the room. A meaningless sentence that could only come out of a mouth screwed into a shit-eating grin! Damn, that’s cold! That’s that shit that makes you scrunch your face up like you just smelled something nasty.

DARK HORSE PRESENTS #12 by John Layman, John Arcudi, Carla Speed McNeil, Steve Niles, Evan Dorkin, Tim Seeley, Francesco Francavilla, Dean Motter, Mike Baron, Harlan Ellison, Carla Speed McNeil, Evan Dorkin, Francesco Francavilla, Sam Kieth, Christopher Mitten, Victor Drujiniu, Steve Rude and Jonathan Case. Speaking of Hernandez: this issue has a Mister X story in it! Hot damn! As always, anthologies are always worth flipping through.

UNWRITTEN #37 by Mike Carey, Peter Gross and Chris Chuckry. I haven’t been keeping up with this series at all, but from my understanding it’s joined Fables and Scalped as one of the premier series that Vertigo is pushing. This issue starts a four part arc.

DUNGEON ZENITH COMPLETE SET by Lewis Trondheim , Boulet and Joann Sfar. We interviewed Boulet, whose crosshatch-heavy art graces the third volume of this three-books set, back in February when his 24 hour comic blew up the comics internet. I’ve very frequently seen these volumes in the stacks of public libraries that actively attempt to cultivate their “graphic novel” sections, and there’s a good reason why: Trondheim’s riff off of dungeon-crawling fantasy is hilarious and accessible. Eurocomics, man.

Character Inspired Fashion is probably one of my favorite blogs because it combines two things I hold very close to my heart: fandom and fashion.

I sometimes get upset when I hear geeks say that they don’t care about clothes. Hey geeks: of course you care about clothes. You complain every time a superhero changes their outfit. You immediately point out chronological inaccuracies in a period drama. And if you’re remotely interested in drawing comics, then fashion is a must. I can’t tell you how many times I get turned off by comics where I’m constantly thinking, “teenage boys don’t dress that way” or “office ladies don’t dress that way.”

So now that we’ve established that geeksreally do care about their clothes, here’s Character Inspired Fashion, a Tumblr that’s out to prove that fandom and fashion can live harmoniously after all in geek chic style collages. A style collage is fairly self-explanatory and you’ve probably seen them before: a person combines pictures of clothing and accessories, and pastes them together to make an outfit.

(And let me set things straight: I love fashion, but I suck at it. This love is relatively new. Most girls discover clothes when they get a Barbie shoved in their hands at age four. I never liked Barbies. I barely liked putting effort into pulling clothes onto my own body, much less a doll’s. The fashion bug didn’t really bite me until high school, where it laid dormant with passing symptoms and only fully infected me a few years ago (i.e., started working full time and could afford to buy my own clothes).

Character Inspired Fashion posted a badass lineup of superheroes in preparation for the summer blockbuster hit, The Avengers.

Loki by ja-vy featuring a green long sleeve shirt

And if superheroes aren’t your cup of tea, don’t worry. There’s fashion from shows like BBC’s Sherlock:

Sherlock Holmes by ja-vy featuring a tweed coat

To webcomics like Homestuck:

John Egbert by ja-vy featuring 14k jewelry

And even Greek Mythology:

Hermes by ja-vy featuring cross shoulder bags

These outfits are perfect for anybody with a penchant for undercover cosplay. All outfits are made exclusively for fun. Chances are you won’t be able to afford that $1,100 belt. But for all those quadruple-figure accessory costs and “They want how much for that?” dresses, there’s a $7 shirt and a $10 pair of shorts that make the perfect undercover Misty costume.

Misty by ja-vy featuring jean shorts

And for all you fashion-conscious (or fashion-curious) dudes out there, yes, there is a Character Inspired Fashion for Men.

Eleventh Doctor by ja-vy featuring american apparel suspenders

The Character Inspired Fashion Tumblr even encourages its followers to share pictures of undercover cosplay influenced by the blog itself. This unites a community of fans who are passionate about their fandoms, but can’t afford (or perhaps have no interest in) going all-out at conventions. I can only hope that Character Inspired Fashion keeps coming up with new, fun outfits. This Tumblr creates a great back-and-forth between creators and fans:  it makes fandoms accessible to fans and in turn inspires creators to dream up fashionable artistic choices that in turn motivates and engages the fans all over again. Hopefully blogs like this one will help keep comics fashion grounded and fresh.

V GOES TO TCAF, EATS FOOD.

So for the (hard copy) release of Spera Magical Girls, I hopped on a plane to Toronto and sat at the Spera table with the lovely, amazing, and ever-talented Josh Tierney, Kyla Vanderklugt, and Hwei. TCAF itself was a blast — we sold out of Magical Girls and all of Josh’s Archaia-ordered hard copies of Spera Vol. I. The next day Josh was able to get a good dozen-plus more copies, but we sold them all in little over an hour on Sunday. Hwei and Kyla came pretty close to selling everything they had on table as well.

As I understand, TCAF was good to all its artists, and most people sold out or did extremely well selling their work. And I should mention the sheer number of talented names that showed up in the TCAF program —

And this is about 10% of the artists there. So, you can imagine.

But I’m here to talk to you about the food of Toronto, as suggested to me and explored by my Spera tablemates.



Once I told Hwei and Kyla I was seeking the best of Toronto bakeries, both fine ladies came up with tons of suggestions. Hwei, who’d been exploring Toronto beforehand, drew up this adorable Toronto Eats map for me, which I lived by during my After TCAF days.



Saturday, Kyla and Josh take me to Café Crèpe on Queen West — Kyla gets apricot marmalade, I get plain Nutella, and Josh gets Nutella & bananas. We walked up to Kyla’s old campus and enjoy our warm crèpes in the park. 



On Sunday, this happens. Josh sent this helpful selection of Toronto restaurants specifically catered to TCAF-goers to the Spera artists showing up this year. We agreed on Kenzo ramen, which was probably the best decision we made. I don’t think Josh or I had eaten non-instant ramen before this, and it was a life-changing experience.



Monday, I’m on my own with Hwei’s map and Kyla’s direction. I walk down Queen West to make my homage to macarons, a magical treat I’ve only ever eaten at a Parisian McCafé in the Lourve.



I found them at Nadège, and they were delicious.



The next day I hit up Porchetta, a sandwich shop that specializes in my favorite non-sweet food, pig meat.



I get the most basic sandwich: porchetta and mustard on a sourdough roll. The meat is tender, and the bread is fresh, and I almost cried. Meat.



After that, I hop on a streetcar down to Wagamama and order a delicious slice of cake and an americano.



Also as delicious as pictured. I think it was Espresso Walnut Mousse cake? As a testament to the porchetta sandwich, this was the first time in my entire life I was unable to finish a slice of cake.



To complete the Toronto Journey, I shall show you The Beguiling. The Beguiling is hands-down the most incredible comic book store I have ever been to in my entire life. For perspective, The Beguiling coordinates and helps host TCAF with the Toronto Public Library system, meaning that this shop is responsible for TCAF.

The shop is comprised of two floors. The bottom floor is packed with zines, minis, TCAF leftovers, French & other European imports, indie manga, non-mainstream comics, and more. On the stairwell to the second floor are framed inked pages by artists like Joe Matt, Jason, and Becky Cloonan. The second floor is more mainstream — sections of Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, and Neil Gaiman comics, DC, Marvel kinda stuff. But you turn around and the manga section, the manga section. That was the first time in my life I have ever touched with my two hands, or even seen with my two eyes, an original Naoko Takeuchi Sailor Moon art book. 

In other words, TCAF was the best, Toronto was the best, and the Beguiling was the best. Good job, Canada. Now we just have to hope the rest of North America can catch up to you. 

Free Comic Book Day this year was very interesting, as this was the first time that I’ve ever attempted to bring a non comics-reading friend to the proceedings. My local Diamond Direct Market store, the esteemed Austin Books and Comics, ordered over a hundred copies of each of the offerings. The turnout was heartening; persons of all ages stretched around the building waiting for their selections. 

My non comics-reading friend had just seen the new Avengers movie the previous night, and was pretty hyped up to take a look at what the Iron Man comics were like. He had seen the FCBD Avengers issue, but he didn’t like it when he skimmed it, frowning dejectedly as he put it back on the racks. “I didn’t know what was going on,” he says. “It was weird.”

I think the biggest surprise, bar none, was that Archaia decided to ball hard on the rest of us and splurge on a full-color hardcover book to give away for free. It’s barely justifiable; Archaia, which focuses on all-ages titles, does most of its business in trade collections, so it makes marketing sense to give away a product that looks like the products Archaia wants consumers to purchase. However, that still doesn’t change the fact that Archaia pulled the comics publishing equivalent of the “Otis” video. Just look at this thing, which is now commanding prices of nine dollars plus shipping on eBay:

This is guaranteed to make at least a few publishers mad as hell, as putting out beautiful hardcover full color books are what keeps most book fetishists up at night in hot fever. It sure got my goat. Of course, the easy argument is that Archaia is attempting to sell comics in the form of a traditional illustrated children book (RIP Maurice, tipped a forty for the shawtys). It’s still kinda problematic though, as the whole point of Free Comic Book Day is to draw in interest to Diamond market retailers who sell floppies and pamphlets, and to expose new readers to what “a comic book is supposed to look like.” To help correct and redirect some of the cultural signs that come with the public consumption of something in the floppy pamphlet format. It’s a further abandonment of the traditional American comic book. 

As for new comics, there’s a pretty sizable list to gander at this week:

DAN THE UNHARMABLE #1 by David Lapham and Rafael Ortiz. Look at that wraparound cover! Avatar Press as fuck. David Lapham of Stray Bullets Eisner-award fame is writing this book, with art by an international artist. Ortiz doesn’t have much of a web presence past a rather spartan blog, but he’s uploaded some black and white inked pages that I’ve taken a liking to. “Superhero art” is usually something I’m not comfortable with; it’s too slick, too removed. However, Ortiz’s black and white pages (the coloring job adds nothing, maybe even subtracts) have a warmth to them that makes it accessible to me. 

SPACE DUCKS: AN INFINITE COMIC BOOK OF MUSICAL GREATNESS by Daniel Johnston. I honestly don’t know much about this one, but the artist is something of an Austin treasure. He’s the one responsible for the “Hi, How Are You” mural next to the University of Texas campus, painted on the south side of what used to be a record store and is now a terrible Thai food restaurant. A-town stand up!

BILL GATES [Bluewater Comics] by Marc Shapiro, Martin T. Pierro and Joe Phillips. In other news, here’s a Bluewater Comics biography of a random famous person, part of an ongoing project to create a grotesque reproduction of the whole of modern popular culture. Last year’s Free Comic Book Day rag on Lady Gaga “went viral,” mostly due to a ludicrous framing narrative to the biography that centered on a middle-aged father catching the Gaga fever. Also: the art in this comic seems to be from Joe Phillips, whom I, being a sharkish sodomite, know chiefly for his gay erotica. Phillips, a queer cartoonist of color, is one of only a handful of such working the lanes in mainstream comics. Salute. 

FLCL [Collected Omnibus] by “Gainax” and Hajime Ueda. I’ve never actually picked this adaptation of the anime up before, although I’ve been told that it’s very good and departs from the cartoon at some key plot points. It’s defiantly worth a look; the publisher claims that the translation was “remastered” for this edition. Whatever that means. 

THE BIBLE [DC COMICS’ STORYS FROM THE BIBLE] by Sheldon Mayer, Joe Kubert and Nestor Redondo. I only know about this project through association in Comics Journal essays with R. Crumb’s Genesis, as one of three high-profile attempted adaptations of the first book of the Bible into comics form. Writ by the legendary Joe Kubert, this project was supposed to be a survey of all the most prominent stories of both the Old and New Testaments, but DC canned the series before the first issue even hit shelves.  

I ZOMBIE #25 by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred. Chris Robertson is another Austin comics-person, and so I gotta rep my ’hood. I’ve not kept up with this series at all, and I don’t remember being particularly moved by what I’ve read. But it wasn’t bad, and real gotta support real when it comes down to the line. Robertson, who was recently shitcanned by DiDio ‘n Lee for talking down the Before Watchmen project, is a good guy who’s probably going to be blackballed from the Big 2 until the revolution comes.

NONNONBA by Shigeru Mizuki. Your Drawn and Quarterly gekiga volume for the week. The French edition of this book won the Best Album award at this year’s Angouleme fest, so there must be something to it. Alternatively, the French love it, so it must be a secret conspiracy text to spread godless communism from the frozen Canadian wastes. I’ve emailed Žižek already about this, but he hasn’t replied in time for publication. 

INTERIORAE by Gabriella Giandelli. This is the collected trade for one of Fantagraphics’ Ignatz books.  I remember being in awe of the moody, pencil-y art when this was coming out. Apparently there’s metaphysical rabbits in this. I’ll have to see about this one, as I don’t remember being enraptured by this book enough to pick it up when it was coming out.

MEGALEX by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fred Beltran. Jodorowsky comics. That’s all I know about this one, but Jodorowsky being involved is enough for me. I’ve always liked Jodorowsky’s stuff because his metaphysical occult knowledge never seems forced or shoehorned into the narrative. He doesn’t have to try to be cool, he is cool. This is a collection of a series that was published in three volumes from 1998 to 2008. Knowing Humanoids, you should pick this up while you still can, as there’s probably only going to be 20 copies of this thing printed, with half of the edition already in a rocket payload destined for a deposit on the moon.  

SILVER SURFER: PARABLE by Stan Lee and Moebius. Stan Lee, a guy with enough energy, enthusiasm and estatic moxie to power said rocket, once wrote of his experience working with Moebius:

“They were very easy to write … though ironically, they took about three times longer to write than normal — I was such a nervous wreck about doing justice to the work!”

ARCHIE’S SUNDAY FINEST by Bob Montana. All IDW reprints are really good quality, and this 10” x 13” coffee table looks to be no exception. These are some of  the first strips from Bob Montana, architect of the Archie empire. 

THE STEVE DITKO ARCHIVES VOL. 3: MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER by Steve Ditko.  This book is full of work for Charleston Comics, a publisher famous for printing just about anything, with little editorial input. Ditko, among many other hot-headed artists who worked for Charleston, was known to have turned down higher-paying work for other publishers for this freedom alone. Artists, right? These super-designed hardcover Steve Ditko collections of horror comics miscellany are awesome full color hardbacks, and they count among the most beautiful books ever put out by Fantagraphics. Just hold one of these suckers in your hand. 

CONJUNCTION JUNCTION: Rachel on “Everything We Miss”