Two more up this week at Comixology:
Our brand new Philosophy, a Discovery in Comics which is getting raves everywhere now…
And Rick Geary’s very first volume of the Treasury of Victorian Murder.
All our books up with Comixology have 10 page free previews! And a couple of those have been added this week: for Kinky & Cosy and for Stan Mack’s Taxes, The Tea Party and Those Revolting Rebels.
“The timing of this book couldn’t be better, speaking as it does to what the citizens of a well-off community value, and how they shirk social responsibility. The lesson is plain, yet sensitively and elegantly rendered.”
The AV Club on The Fairy Tales Of Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince
“Wilde’s beloved allegory is beautifully and smartly adapted by master craftsman Russell…The tale of the lifeless boy and the faithful avian is conveyed sweetly and with great heart.”
The Miami Herald on The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde:The Happy Prince
“P. Craig Russell has taken an interesting approach to illustrating this tale: he includes all the text from Wilde and adds a visual element to enhance and compliment that text…It’s his classic and timeless art style that elevate and enhance this story so well. It’s worth noting that Russell does everything on this book: layout, design and lettering along with the art. A meticulous artist who doesn’t do anything without a reason.”
Comic Book Daily on The Fairy Tales Of Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince
“I first read the prose in my late teens and it’s stayed in my heart ever since. Here P. Craig Russell has done wonders with the work, his fine, clean line lit with lambent colours. I even love what he’s done with the speech bubbles linked to their square-boxed, qualifying commentary. More than anything, though, his art here is the ultimate essay in tenderness.”
Page45.com on The Fairy Tales Of Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince
“The book is charming and sweet and well told. Gillies does very attractive comics, and his work can definitely be shared with kids who will probably appreciate this story.”
Comics Bulletin on Bubbles & Gondola
“Dilles’ engaging cartooning style is a bod to Krazy Kat, and he paces the book with a categorial whimsy that is simultaneously well-plotted and fanciful.”
Comic Buyer’s Guide on Bubbles & Gondola
“Despite the whimsical drawing and fanciful setting, one can’t help but feel that this is an intensely personal book for Dillies. This isn’t simply a book about writer’s block, but about a specific kind of aspiration and the blocks against that aspiration.”
“Despite focusing on two young girls, this is a very adult book. There are strips making jokes about the theory of relativity, adult toys, violence, and alcoholism. The twins’ mother’s sexual frustration and odd ways of coping with that frustration is a major storyline throughout the collection. The book derives a lot of its humor from the ridiculousness of seeing 8-year-olds make jokes about adult topics, such as the Neo-Nazi classmate who says the Holocaust never happened or when Kinky and Cosy have drinks in a bar with some aliens…The plotline involving the mother falling in love with the recycling bin, for example, was a bit too out there.”
No Flying No Tights on Kinky & Cosy
“A very bittersweet tale about love and how it fills our lives when it’s there and how we feel its absence…This is a book for pet lovers, the romantic, and anyone needing a pick-me-up.”
Portland Book Review on Stargazing Dog
“This melodramatic horror story should be popular with manga fans…The black-and-white drawings are bathed in pastel shades of pink, blue, and lavender, adding to the otherworldly tone of the story.”
School Library Journal on Rohan at the Louve
With such a wide variety of titles, we’re pretty fortunate to get a pretty amazing cross section of reviewers.
Here are a few kind words about several of our titles:
“A moving story for all devoted pet owners and animal lovers.”
“The jokes are, for the most part, snarky, sarcastic, and clever…The plotline involving the mother falling in love with the recycling bin, for example, was a bit too out there…This collection is fun and funny, until it just got too weird for my taste. Kinky and Cosy are smart, cute, and a bit disturbing all at the same time.”
“As with the previous graphic novels in The Louvre Collection series, this fourth installment features well-rendered art and a compelling plot…Araki’s book will be relished by readers who are fans of the manga format, especially those interested in art and art collections.”
The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti
“An honest and non-ideological recounting of the facts of the case, told in a straight-forward manner with a minimum of sensationalism (and no invective). In the course of the unfolding story, Geary’s attention to detail is consistent and impressive. Not only does he present us with the evidence, but he also cites the source for that evidence, and raises the questions about its validity, and explains any misgivings about those questions. The illustrations, likewise, are strikingly literal, with just the right mix of minute detail on the one hand, and clarity and simplicity on the other.”
“I will be examining the first pages of random comics. Today’s page is from Brownsville, which was published by NBM… This is a graphic novel, so they don’t care about making you turn the page because you’re probably going to decide to buy this based on other considerations. But just because they don’t need to do it doesn’t mean they take the first page off. This page shows a lot in just five panels, and it hints at quite a bit to come. It’s well constructed, and leaves the reader wanting more. That’s how it’s done!”
“Things are constantly moving in this book, even if, like Salvatore discovers, all that movement wound up plopping him back at the beginning of the journey. De Crecy ensures the reader that the fruitlessness of Salvatore’s journey doesn’t extend to the entertainment value and sheer delight found in his cartooning.”
– High-Low
“Here are the female descendants of Wilhelm Busch’s Max and Moritz. Like Busch’s awful boys, it’s impossible not to cheer these two through all their silliness and well-deserved comeuppances.”
Booklist on Kinky & Cosy.
From Robot 6:
Chris Mautner: “You know who’s great? Lewis Trondheim. Trondheim continues to reveal his life to readers on a weekly basis over at his Web site (and the NBM blog), most of which has been collected in his “Little Nothings” series. The lastest book, My Shadow in the Distance, offers more of the same, and such a wonderful same it is.”
Also on Little Nothings, this from Don McPherson at Eyeoncomics:
“This collection of one-page, slice-of-life cartoons are eminently relatable, and the universality of Trondheim’s ‘toons becomes even more apparent when one considers this book is a translation of work originally crafted and presented in French.”
Bookgasm on Ernie Colon’s new Inner Sanctum, says it’s fun if be it predictable…:
“Colón’s art, however, is a pleasure throughout.” —Rod Lott
Also on Inner Sanctum from Comics Bulletin:
“This book is a hell of a lot of fun, an anthology of wonderfully drawn short tales, all of which amuse and delight and feature terrific artwork. And Ernie Colón’s storytelling chops are still a glory to behold.”
Paste Magazine on Bubbles & Gondola: “7.2. Full of small surprises, pleasurably mopey.”
Stargazing Dog still gets comments, this from Warren Peace:
“It’s really nice to see a book like this get release on American shores, aspiring to neither high artistic statements or in-your-face excitement, but still lodging itself firmly in the heart.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com calls Salvatore 2 a ‘delightful follow up.”
Library Journal had a couple sweet short comments about two of our frecent books:
For Kinky & Cosy: “Could easily kick Bart Simpson’s butt and love it”
Bubbles & Gondola: “Boast[s] whimsical drawings with surreal, dreamlike plots.”
+ Graphic Novel Reporter has a nice holiday gift guide that can also stand in as a best of 2011.
Two cat lovers on this dog’s tale, The Stargazing Dog that is:
“I may be a cat person, but I am certainly not immune to the touching tale of a good-hearted and grateful dog who is faithful to his master until the very end. Poignant.”
“I was surprised, really, at how much I got sucked in by this book, especially because I’m a cat person. But the universality of Daddy and the dog’s tale works no matter who you are. Recommended.”
says Marc Mason at Comics Waiting Room.
And Playback:Stl makes a good point on Sacco & Vanzetti:
“In this increasingly xenophobic and classist era, Geary does us all a service with this stylish reprise of their case.”
Kinky & Cosy, you either hate or love it:
“Now this is the kind of crazy crap I like to see in my comic strips. Arson, didlo jokes, cripple jokes, Fair Trade ripping, addressing the issue of violence in schools in an insensitive manner — all this and more is within the pages of Kinky and Cosy, from the Belgian comic strip from writer/artist, Nix. You’re pretty much going to have to toss all your self-righteousness out the window because if you don’t, you’ll just get offended and end up missing something that is cute, funny, and disturbing all rolled up into the form of two twin girls who get into their own brand of trouble.”
Comics Bulletin, giving it 4 bullets (it’ll take more than that to kill’em). The very same goes on to critique Bubbles & Gondola:
“This is an awfully charming book. Renaud Dillies is a wonderful artist, able to capture the intense and sweet fairy-tale life that Charlie the Mouse lives in, a world of bright colors, intense emotions and frustrating disappointments.”
Nix’ snarky Kinky & Cosy is #10 on this week’s New York Times Bestseller list for hardcover graphic novels!
And Robot 6 has this to say about the collection:
“Nix’s little rascals are bad kids in the Bart Simpson/Calvin/Shinchan mode, but the humor is more fearless.”
“Recommended. The cultural tension is beautifuilly written, and the story is told well in the small moments between Lee and Matt.”
Library Media Connection on the Story Of Lee.
The Portland Examiner covers Rick Geary’s successful appearance at Bridge City Comics last week.
Finally, Manga Maniac Cafe gives Stargazing Dog an A-.
“Part South Park, part Flight of the Concords, Kinky and Cosy offers a series of comic strips about “the most dangerous twin girls in the universe. Surreal, darkly funny strips.The book is beautifully designed, with a foil cover that also includes cutouts to make room for the “googly eyes” of the girls.”
Warren Peace however, was not too impressed with Kinky & Cosy, alas.
We will have copies at SPX!
“Easily one of the most readable books I’ve come across in a long time.
Ruminations about the pitfalls of international travel and sinus surgery vie with quiet pointed observations of all that’s strange, wonderful, and mad about the world, as the artist shuffles gamely from airport to airport, under-packed suitcase in hand. Trondheim has a knack for gently knocking his audience down off our pedestal, implicating us in society’s often petty, narrow focus yet softening the blow by counting himself among our ranks with just the right touch of self-deprecating sarcasm. There’s true thought behind each of Trondheim’s observations, fueled by a keen insight into the human condition. A natural storyteller capable of tailoring his artistic style to the needs of the story or panel, Trondheim is a true cartoonist’s cartoonist.
Although he may not be well-known on this side of the Atlantic, Trondheim is a true giant of the medium and deserves recognition by North American audiences. Thoughtful, pointed, and at times truly laugh-out-loud funny, My Shadow in the Distance is a hard book to put down.”
Says Jason Wilkins at Broken Frontier about Trondheim’s latest Little Nothings collection. We’ll also have copies at SPX!
Marc Mason at Comics Waiting Room on 2 of our recent books: first on Sacco & Vanzetti:
“As with all the books he’s done in this series, he does his research, lays out the facts and evidence, and allows you to decide for yourself. That’s not only a hallmark of strong storytelling, but of confidence by the storyteller. He doesn’t need to pull you around by the nose if he has done his job right, and no one does the job right like Rick Geary. This is another incredible effort by a creator who simply seems to never swing and miss.”
And on Little Nothings 4:
“On the heels of Geary, LITTLE NOTHINGS VOL.4 arrived, and that’s about as happy as I get when it comes to comics. LITTLE NOTHINGS shows us a phenomenal talent at the peak of his powers. What more could you want?”
Over at Blogcritics, Bill Sherman is the first to review our freshly delivered Kinky & Cosy:
“The shiny die-cut cover to Kinky & Cosy (NBM) provides a strong indication of where this collection of comic strips is coming from: featuring google-eyed headshots of the book’s eight-year-old title twins, the collection opens to the image of two grinning death’s head skulls. A series of gag comics by Belgian cartoonist Nix, the strip is being compared by its publisher to the “Katzenjammer Kids on speed,” which is fair enough, particularly in a strip which ends on the image of our trickster girls rolling on the ground. I also detect elements of the manga/anime series Shin Chan, particularly in the strip’s (mis)treatment of our heroines’ parents.”
An unlikely source for a review of The Jade Door in our Eurotica collection: Unshelved which is a daily comics blog also with reviews for… Librarians. Hey, who said Librarians aren’t cool?
“Why I finished it: The gorgeous art. Chaiko’s softly colored maid-and-master story opens and closes the anthology, wrapping the collection up nicely. The rest of the tales are more vibrantly hued, making the folktales seem more realistic than the comparably modern story of the girl reading them.”
See the book (You need to be over 18!)
NBM has a number of show premieres at the San Diego Comicon this year:
Appearing at the booth besides Geary will be controversial cartoonist Ted Rall.
NBM Blog 