Because I’m a big nincompoop, I missed a couple of new Fantagraphics books that were announced for 2014 in recent days. Both look spectacular.
But first, if you didn’t see the lively comments section on Gary Groth’s EC comics essay, you should. You’ll also find this succinct statement by Kim Thompson on what’s coming up in the EC Library, which is going by artist and not title:
Books #5 and #6 are Craig and Feldstein. They’ve both been up on Amazon for months, and we blogged this way back in October: http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&category=Johnny+Craig&Itemid=113 …and they’re available for pre-order on our website.
So yeah, if you eliminate the already-collected-or-planned Kurtzman, Wood, Davis, Williamson, Craig, Feldstein, and then Kamen, I think #8 is a fairly obvious pick for EC fans.
What is #8? posters attempt to solve the mystery, the name Bernard Kirgstein being the obvious omission. But Fanta is doing a separate Krigstein book so…? Thompson says that won’t affect the separate EC reprint series so…Make you best guess.
Okay on to two new books:
Nijigahara Holograph
by Inio Asano; translated by Matt Thorn
February 2014
$26.99 Hardcover • 200 pages
Black-and-white • 7″ x 9.25″
ISBN: 978-1-60699-583-9
This is a literary manga book by the author of Solanin. Asano is a young manga-ka who is sometimes tought of as the “voice of his generation.” Shaenon Garrity has more here. The logline:
Fantagraphics continues its line of acclaimed literary manga with new classic Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano. As society slowly spirals into darkness an unexplained explosion in the butterfly population is just the first of many curiosities in the town where rumors of a creature in a tunnel under the school spread like wildfire. A curse haunts the town as the story follows the scapegoat, Arié, who is plunged into the tunnel’s horrors and offered up to the creature. Many other characters harbor secrets, grudges, suicidal thoughts, and the physical scars of battles lost. How are they all linked and can the citizens of the town live with what they’ve done as the years creep by? Asano’s mysticism and slow terror take over the town in the span of a decade as told in two timelines.
Michael Jordan: Bull on Parade
by Wilfred Santiago
March 2014
$24.99 Hardcover • 200 pages
Full color • 5.75″ x 7.5″
ISBN: 978-1-60699-711-6
Did not see this one coming. The author of 21: The STory of Roberto Clement is back with another sports comic, this time about Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan, another sports figure who became one of the biggest cultural figures of his time and now sells underwear while sporting a weird Hitler-stache. Comcis Alliance has more preview pages, and an interview with Santiago.
15 seasons. 1,072 games. 41,011 minutes of basketball. Every kid, fan and often other players wished they could “Be Like Mike.” The man who inspired a generation of children to lace up their high-tops will be depicted in a kinetic graphic novel fit for the greatest basketball player of all time. Wilfred Santiago, the creator of the acclaimed and best-selling 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente, depicts Jordan’s public successes, private struggles and all the noise in between in his dynamic full-color graphic novel called Michael Jordan: Bull on Parade.
I hope that’s not the cover of the Michael Jordan book. What a way to turn off your average basketball fan.
Under the old school rules for evaluating EC the most obvious candidate for book #8 would be Graham ingels. Not sure the current view of EC values horror or the horror titles so much.
(I like Gary Groth’s article a lot, and this isn’t intended as criticism, but it’s interesting to note that if all you knew about EC was his article and the illustrations accompanying it you’d have little sense that horror was significant to EC).
I’m indebted to Chris Mautner for luring the Great Dragon out of his lair so that I could spear him.
http://arche-arc.blogspot.com/2013/01/ec-pc-part-4.html
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