Previews

The late Harvey Pekar left behind several projects in various stages of composition, but none was as close to him as CLEVELAND, a love letter and social history of the city that was his muse—an everyman town of ordinary people and the mundane swirl of life that is nonetheless extraordinary. For Cleveland, Pekar's script found an artist among the greatest of his collaborators: Joseph Remnant, whose dense cross hatched naturalism recalls Crumb (who we meet in these pages) but finds its own voice with expansive staging and research.

Howard Cruse is one of the groundbreaking cartoonists of the last 30 years, with his iconic BAREFOOTZ and WENDEL—the latter a pioneering gay-themed comic that ran in the Advocate—and his founding GAY COMIX, an underground anthology. His STUCK RUBBER BABY was one of the early post-MAUS examples of the graphic novel coming of age as a literary medium. And that's just the highlights of a long award winning career. Now Boom! Town is bringing out THE OTHER SIDES OF HOWARD CRUSE, a thick hardcover which includes his work from the light-hearted Barefootz strips, his take on Nancy and Little Lulu, and the iconoclastic sheep Shearwell going on a “trip” or two, and other underground comics. The book is available in May. Boom has provided us with an exclusive preview -- and yes, this story is VERY NSFW.

Today Derf Backderf's memoir MY FRIEND DAHMER dropped in comics shops. It's the true story of some fairly typical loserish guys in high school..one of whom will grow up to be one of the most horrifying serial killers of the 20th century. And who already shows signs of being completely without empathy.

Here's the complete March 2012 solicitations from DC Comics. Enjoy!

Although you'd think he was busy enough drawing THE WALKING DEAD every month, artist Charlie Adlard occasionally has time to toss off something like CURSE OF THE WENDIGO (reviewed here) a horror comic written by French screenwriter Mathieu Missoffe and released in France in 2009. The story is set in World War I and finds French and GErman soldier teaming up to fight a greater horror. An American edition is out today from Dynamite, and here's a preview:

Multi-talented Kyle Baker has been a little under the radar for a while. He's working on some comics and animation proects, including, it seems something called HOTWIRE written by Kevin McCarthy (EPOCH). Or as Baker put it: I think this is the cover. Looks like a comic about a flying girl with pink hair...we're in.

Dynamite has provided us with the cover to the third part of their Charlaine Harris adaptation, by Benoit Springer.

This month's release of the first volume of Fantagraphics' Carl Barks reprints is call for rejoicing. There have been many reprint projects centered on Barks' work, but they must have been designed by the three bears: one was too expensive, one was too cheap, one had garish color, and so on. This new effort -- reprinted in handsome hardcovers with simple coloring by Rich Tommaso that recalls the original limited coloring without a lot of fanfare. I think a lot is going to be said as more of Barks' work becomes available in a world where the bodies of work of the great cartoonists are becoming increasingly available -- it is the golden age of the comics reprint, after all. For now, this conversation between James Romberger and Gary Groth will serve as a good introduction. Fantagraphics has a 17-page pdf preview available on their site. In the meantime, here's a seven-page preview of that preview. And these may be the seven of the greatest comics pages ever. Enjoy.

Slate has a preview of the autobio material in the upcoming Lynda Barry collection Everything Vol. 1. More in link.

This December, MEMORIAL by Chris Roberson and Rich Ellis comes out from IDW. The six issue mini-series is the story of Em, a young woman who arrives at a hospital in Portland, Oregon, with no memory of her past. A year later, her newly-rebuilt life is thrown into turmoil after she inherits a magical shop, the kind that appears in an alley one instant and disappears the next. Em is drawn into a supernatural conflict between beings that not only represent, but are, fundamental elements of the universe itself. All of existence is at stake, so there’s only a little pressure on Em, the magical shop, and a talking cat.

An all-star Madman anniversary collection and a Super Dinosaur coloring book highlight the month, plus a Jingle Belle collections, the first Witch Doctor trade, a comic about ancient Rome by Tito Faraci and Dan Brereton, and the second issue of Paul Grist's MUDMEN.

Dark Horse has just released its January solicitations -- a new reprint of a classic European comics by Hermann tops the list for us, along with a series of Mike Mignola variant covers in his monster year, and the Compleat Terminal City.