Footnotes in Gaza

• Tom Spurgeon once again beats everyone to the punch with a review of Joe Sacco's new book, Footnotes in Gaza: The first good news to report ... is that the cartoonist is in top form throughout." He also has good things to say about Prison Pit.

• Christopher Allen offers 60 ways of looking at Watchmen.

• Critics critique critics -- Robert Boyd reviews Bart Beaty's Unpopular Culture: "This is a thought-provoking book, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in comics-as-art."

• David Welsh gets schooled in college manga.

• Rob Clough calls MK Reed's new book, Cross Country "the most complex, ambitious and visually interesting of her comics."

• Perhaps if I link to Sean Collins' review of Refresh, Refresh, he'll forgive me for accidentally (I swear) stealing the title of his review feature.

• Nina Stone enjoyed the first issue of Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love: "All the pieces of the story just started to fit together perfectly."

• Grant Goggans declares The Art of Osamu Tezuka "very highly recommended."

• Finally, Kristy Valenti looks at a 1999 graphic novel drawn by Mia Wolff and written by acclaimed sci-fi author Samuel Delany.

Love Punishes the Guilty by Tim Hensley

My Generation by Vanessa Davis

Rick Veitch and Peter Money's poetry comics

Pete the Pooch by Milt Gross

Stumbo in "Giant Removal Project"

The Record of Doom by Bill Ely

Inbad the Tailor by H.B. Martin

Water on the Brain by Virgil Partch

Welcome once again to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, the only place where on the Internet where the term "porn" suggests something non-sexual and PG-rated. We think. For now.

Poor planning on my part meant I almost resorted to linkblogging (brrr) instead of highlighting some brave soul's collection. Thankfully, mighty comics scholar and critic Michael Rhode came to save the day. For those who don't know, Rhode runs the ComicsDC blog, which covers comic-related events in and around our nation's capital. He's also co-author of the Comics Research Bibliography, the exhibition and media reviews editor for the International Journal of Comic Art, and the editor of the book Harvey Pekar: Conversations, among other accolades.

But as nice as Mike's collection is, he can't keep Shelf Porn going on his lonesome. It takes the help of all of brave individuals like perhaps yourself, who aren't afraid to flaunt their comics collection in front of all who have Internet access and know about this site. Simply send me pics of your shelves to cmautnerATcomcastDOTnet and you, too, can be one of the proud and few.

And now, let's move on to Mike and his shelves:

Chris asked me to fill in with pretty short notice, so I'm just touching on three bookcases in my collection -- there are a lot more and perhaps I'll be another fill-in for him in the future. I grew up with Marvel's 1970s-era Dreaded Deadline Doom in which, all of a sudden, the story you were expecting wasn't there, and you were looking at some out-of-continuity comic, so I'm fine with that idea. I've got a pretty wide range of interests in comic art and have been collecting for a few years.

This is a bookshelf that was formerly sacrosanct as far as not having comics, but we all know how that goes...

The top shelf still has remnants of its former life -- some books I meant to read, some that have particular meaning (a great-uncle's union-forming activities in In Transit, my grandfather's copy of Lynd Ward's Frankenstein, a leather bound Louis L'Amour from my father) while others are books that either I or my wife wrote parts of. On this shelf I've got a 'complete edition' set of the Harvey Pekar: Conversations book I edited - a proof copy, a paperback and a hardcover. I had to trade with a reviewer to get the proof. Some Jim Ottaviani snuck in up there too. The Robin Hood is illustrated by Frank Godwin, who also did comic strips like Connie.

The second shelf has what went on it when I moved the previous books on dinosaurs into the garage. Of interest might be the Richard Thompson cards of an Obama caricature (available on Cafe Press). The book on the far left, with a black dustjacket is Bryant's Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists. This has basic biographical information on them -- we really need a similar work for the US. Next to that is Roger Langridge and Jason so this shelf dates from an Small Press Expo when I got some of these signed by them. The yellow spine is Michaelis' Schulz biography which anyone reading this column should have. Dark Horses' reprinting of Harvey Comics has been popular with my daughter so I made some space so she could return to these -- the Richie Rich volume seems to be missing though. The Schulz book, and Tomine's Shortcomings, and Diffee's The Rejection Collection point out a highlight in living in a city -- these were all signed when the authors came to the Politics and Prose Bookstore.

Postcards is done by Jason Rodriguez, a local comics writer, as is Mr. Big by Matt Dembicki a slim volume next to it. Barefoot Gen, the story of surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima never appeared completely in English until recently -- this is part of the set of eight books, I think. The Power of Angels is Herb Trimpe's story of being a minister in New York after 9-11, and the Chris Ware book was bought and signed when he spoke at the local Jewish center with Alison Bechdel and Lynda Barry. I love the fact that you can now get so many comics I only dreamed of as a kid, so that explains Jim Aparo's Phantom Stranger and the Marvel Masterworks Ant-Man/Giant Man. I've bought 98% of DC Archives and Marvel Masterworks because I never expected these to stay available for so long.

We cross the living room away from this shelf and go to the one that has the starting core of my collection, although it's now largely hidden by accretions.

Back before the current explosion of reprints and graphic novels, one collection came out a year. You can see the Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee poking out -- that was the reprint book for the year. The others next to it -- Son of Origins, Superhero Women, Mysteries in Space (that one from DC) - are all similar collections. Also on this shelf are proto- or early graphic novels like Lee and Kirby's Silver Surfer or the 'computer-generated' Shatter. Comics that I really liked back in the day (and still do) such as V for Vendetta, O'Neil/Adams' Green Lantern, Claremont/Byrne's X-Men, Gaiman's Sandman and Moore's Swamp Thing fill the back row. Also on this shelf are signed copies of Don Rosa's excellent Scrooge McDuck collections, a few of my self-published projects, books by my friend Cul de Sac cartoonist Richard Thompson, a few knickknacks and a large collection of Rob Ullman's art, which he sells at cons. He used to illustrate Savage Love for the Washington City Paper, but there's a relatively tame coffee drinker showing (with a recent Chris Schweizer image tucked in front of it and behind the Iron Giant). Before we leave this shelf, on the top note All in Color for a Dime by Thompson and Lupoff and The Comic-Stripped American by Berger. Once upon a time, this was a significant part of the written history of comics.

I'm an editor of the International Journal of Comic Art, and these have largely taken over this shelf, blocking a set of Marvel Masterworks and some DC reprints especially of Gaiman's Sandman. The jewel cases are recordings of talks by cartoonists from Politics and Prose that they'll sell you. The mug is by the great Keith Knight.

This shelf takes us way back in time. Some of the earlier collections of comics are here - the 4-volume Disney set and Blackbeard's Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics in particular. Great stuff, as is the Monster Society of Evil collection of Fawcett's Captain Marvel on the far right. The Trigan Empire is a collection of a British strip -- you used to have to work to avoid tripping on it, but it's gotten rarer now, I guess. Empire next to it is an early Howard Chaykin / Samuel R. Delaney graphic novel. Asterix and Tintin are Franco-Belgian comics that everyone should read. There's some great strip reprints like McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, Popeye and Tarzan. I'm glad to see all the current strip reprint projects because I couldn't afford to buy sets in the past, but I can now.

There's a British history book, 4th in from the left -- Denis Gifford was a great collector who did a lot of the early work on cataloguing British comics. This is more wide- ranging The International Book of Comics. When Gifford died a few years ago, his collection was dispersed at auction. The Pink Panther toy is from my grandmother's house -- I used to hide it around the living room on her whenever I visited. On the next shelf, you'll see a few things that won't appear in the next image as I cleaned them out of the way including the Bone stuffed toy, a Tom and Jerry Big Little Book and a bunch of DVDs of comics movies like Trudeau's Tanner on Tanner and the Italian Danger Diabolik.

Here's that shelf cleaned off -- lots of older material here too. On the left, behind a Gaston LeGaffe toy wrapped in a mattress that was made by a French friend, is Batman (that's an odd sentence). Batman always had a lot of books about him due to his mass media appearances. The Batman, Superman and Shazam collections came out in the 1970s and were great reading from the library. The three encyclopedias next to them for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were the source of a lot of amazement to a 10-year old. Some classic comic books, comic strips and cartoonists come next. Of note are The Incredible Hulk, one of those 'once a year' books but 3" taller just so it wouldn't fit with the others, Michael Kaluta's adaptation of Metropolis (with the stripes), Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein, the famed collector Art Wood's Great Cartoonists and their Art, and photocopies of hard to find stuff like Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent. You can see part of the bottom shelf although most of it is obscured with recent purchases waiting to be put away. There's Trudeau's fantastic Doonesbury, P. Craig Russell's adaptations, the pulp hero The Shadow, and a bunch of works by comics historian Maurice Horn including a volume of his World Encyclopedia of Comics.

It's a small house, and this bookcase is tucked at the end of the basement stairs. Of note on the top is a set of 'finger puppets' from Richard Thompson's Saturday feature 'Richards Poor Almanack' which only runs in the Washington Post. Some more signed books are Stephanie McMillan's As The World Burns, Ted Rall's 2024 and John Kovaleski's Bo Nanas - Monkey Meets World as well as some other books from SPX 2008. You'll notice a lot of toys and the like on shelves too - I love the creativity of merchandising. One of the first articles on comics I wrote was 'The Commercialization of Comics' (IJOCA 1:2, Fall 1999). In spite of the opinion of Bill Watterson, comics spun off all kinds of licensing since the 1890s - Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore is a great place to see that type of thing. There's a couple of toys from Ratatouille here too - I love about half of Pixar's output. And be sure to check out the New Yorker cover artist Bruce McCall's Marveltown.

I've fallen behind on my Complete Peanuts again, but here's the start of the set as well as Walt and Skeezix (aka Gasoline Alley) and Dick Tracy. Shannon Wheeler's lamented Postage Stamp Funnies from the Onion lurks under a gift Super Hero Kit. Above that we can see a mixture -- More Washingtoons by Mark Alan Stamaty, Jen Sorenson's Slowpoke, Ward Sutton, the Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig, Mutts' Patrick McDonell, political cartoonist Joel Pett, and as we move across the top piles, Edward Gorey and S. Gross, followed by a fantasy novel with a cover by Charles Vess, the Indian cartoonist RK Laxman, a Walt Kelly book, and under them, Mo Willem's travel cartoons, Alison Bechdel's awesome Fun Home, more Winsor McCay, more DC Archives, Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse, and some manga novels.

Two shelves, one of which has a bunch of comic book novels. I'm a sucker for these. Around 1977, Marvel came out with a set of them and I loved them (I was 12. What can I say?) so since then I've been collecting them. Walt Disney's Comics Digest used to be a reliable place to find great Carl Barks reprints. In the middle, near the Hellboy movie cup is minicomics from Ryan Claytor who does good autobiographical work. The bottom shelf has the authorized spiral-bound photocopy reprint of David Kunzle's amazing works on early comics, more Ted Rall, Charles Addams, a beer bottle labeled by Ralph Steadman, Brunetti's Graphic Fiction anthology, Preston's The Artist Within book of photographs, and the exhibit catalog of the arguable Masters of American Comics.

We wrap up with the reality of milk crates filled with con buys like Graphic Classics and Shakespeare comics ... and hey, Richard Sala and Matt Madden. There's Fantagraphics' Crumb book which is too big to store easily, the National Lampoon on French Comics, and a bunch of mystery magazines (although the New Yorker is recognizable) in both crates. Faced with Warman's Comic Book Field Guide (what is that?) and topped off with The Don Rosa Archives vol. II, Marvel Comics Guide to New York City and The Definitive Frazetta Reference because they all fit so well together.

Believe me, there's more... but that's it for today.

Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button

Sandy Bilus of I Love Rob Liefeld, the Comics Internet tips its collective hat to you. Picking up the torch from the sadly discontinued blog of Dick Hyancith, Bilus has compiled a "meta-list" of the 100 best comics of 2008, as tabulated from the personal best-of lists of dozens of critics and commentators. Behold the Top Ten:

1. Bottomless Belly Button, by Dash Shaw
2. Acme Novelty Library #19, by Chris Ware
3. All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
4. Too Cool To Be Forgotten, by Alex Robinson
5. What It Is, by Lynda Barry
6. Ganges #2, by Kevin Huizenga
7. The Alcoholic, by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel
8. Skyscrapers of the Midwest, by Joshua Cotter
9. Kramers Ergot 7, by various
10. Capacity, by Theo Ellsworth

The point system used to tabulate the list makes it easy for books that made it onto a lot of individual lists but didn't top them to put in a strong showing; perhaps that explains the blowout victory of Bottomless Belly Button, which I recall as being widely liked but few people's #1 pick.

For you front-of-Previews types out there, DC's All-Star Superman is the highest ranking superhero comic, coming in at a strong #3. DC/Vertigo's The Alcoholic is the Big Two's next-highest representative at #7, while its labelmate Scalped comes in at #12. The top Marvel book, and second-highest superhero comic, is Omega the Unknown at #13. Manga's top-ranking title is Travel at #16. Click the link to see what else made the grade.

Me, I've got some quibbles here and there, as is to be expected. But overall, if you're looking to do some shopping this holiday season and don't mind being a year behind, you'd be hard pressed to top this for a wishlist.

Iron Man #18

George Tuska, the Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist whose career in comics spanned six decades, has died at the age of 93. As noted by Tom Spurgeon, The Art of George Tuska author Dewey Cassell broke the news in a Yahoo group; Cassell had relayed word of Tuska's retirement from drawing commissions just six days ago.

Tuska was perhaps best known for his nine and a half year stint as the artist for Marvel's Iron Man series, from September 1968's issue #5 through January 1978's issue #106. This was preceded by a similarly lengthy stint drawing the Buck Rogers newspaper strip from 1959-1967 and succeeded by a 15-year run on the daily The World's Greatest Superheroes Present Superman strip, which Tuska helped launch in 1978 and drew until 1993. Tuska tackled a slew of other well-known superhero titles for Marvel during the '60s and '70s and DC in the '70s and '80s, including such Bronze Age mainstays as Ghost Rider, Luke Cage, Power Man, and The Sub-Mariner.

George Tuska

Tuska's career in comics dated back to 1939, when he got his start as an assistant on the adventure strip Scorchy Smith (to which he would return later as a writer/artist). He went on to spend time in the Eisner-Iger studio, and to illustrate such classic titles as Crime Does Not Pay and Captain Marvel Adventures.

Tuska's speed, versatility, and good-natured ability to conform to house styles, most notably Marvel's, led some to label him "The King Of The Fill-In Issue." But his long, varied career straddled newspaper strips and comic books and included time with virtually every major comic book publisher since the dawn of the medium--essentially, George Tuska was the 20th-century comics industry, and his work was read and enjoyed by generation after generation of heroic-fantasy fans.

The son of Russian immigrants, Tuska lived in Manchester, New Jersey and is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy. According to Cassell, the couple had three children, five grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.

Classic Comics

Reading With Pictures is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the use of comics in the classroom to aid in literacy and the visual arts:

Educators have begun to see the value of having graphic novels in the classroom -- they just don't know which books to use or how to best use them. To address those needs, Reading With Pictures plans to work with academics, educators, and publishers to provide schools with the best possible teaching methods and classroom materials in order to successfully integrate comics and graphic novels into their curriculum.

Among their goals are to create a database of lesson plans, provide consultation and launch a speakers' bureau. It's a project First Second's Calista Brill finds worthy of merit:

There's nothing fundamentally different about teaching comics literacy to kids than teaching them the basics of poetry, art, music, math, science, reading - even running. When we educate children, we are giving them the tools to educate themselves. To find the things they love. To experience the world more fully.

And as long as there are people making amazing comics in the world, anyone who lacks the basic tools to read them is missing out. Big time.

Brill puts it a lot better than I could have. If you have time or money available, consider donating to this worthy organization.

What Sean got at this year's SPX

I love the Small Press Expo. My five-plus-hour drive down to its Bethesda location from Long Island guarantees me an annual 36-hour immersion in the lifeblood of alternative comics, and there's nothing about it I like better than getting back to the hotel room or my library at home and spreading out all the new comics I dredged up from the depths. Here's a look at what I picked up this year.

Ganges #3, New Tales of Old Palomar #3, Reflections #3, Niger #2: On Sunday afternoon, Fantagraphics had a killer "buy one get one free" sale going on for two of its best publishing initiatives, the MOME anthology series and the Ignatz line of deluxe pamphlet-format comics, co-published with Coconino Press. I'm all caught up on MOME (in terms of ownership at least--I'm still a couple volumes behind readingwise), but there were several Ignatz issues that had fallen through the cracks for me. Fortunately I kept a list of the ones I was missing on my laptop, so after quickly running to the car and popping open the computer for consultation, I hustled back and snagged this quartet for a song. The Ganges was a show debut from Kevin Huizenga and the belle of the ball for many attendees, but I'm looking forward to digging into the others--stories from the Love & Rockets universe by Gilbert Hernandez, a multigenerational drama by Marco Corona, and a funny-animals fable by Leila Marzocchi respectively--just as much.

King-Cat: Minicomics legend John Porcellino is somehow still one of comics' best-kept secrets--seriously, mainstream readers, if you've dabbled in alternative comics at all, chances are what you read was influenced in one way or another by John P., whose poetically simple King-Cat minicomic has had a run of Cal Ripken-esque longevity and quality. I tend to be mail-order resistant when it comes to getting individual issues of comics, though, so my main exposure to Porcellino had been through his relatively few book-format collections: Perfect Example from Highwater/Drawn & Quarterly, Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man from La Mano, and King-Cat Classics from D&Q. Porcellino made an ultra-rare con appearance at the show to promote his latest perfectbound collection, D&Q's Map of My Heart, but he also debuted King-Cat's 70th (!) issue. I picked that up along with several recent installments--my first proper King-Cat purchases ever!

Mammal #1 & 2 and Daring American Comics #1: Benjamin Marra was on my "New Action" panel about alternative-action comics on the strength of the series he writes and draws himself, Night Business and Gangsta Rap Posse. These books are another part of his publishing empire: Mammal is an art and design showcase featuring Marra and his friends and colleagues, while DAC are comics in his usual B-movie vein written by him and drawn by others. Take-no-prisoners material in any case.

Cold Heat #7/8, Cold Heat Special #6 & 7, and Chimera: Speaking of publishing empires, Frank Santoro was quite well represented at the PictureBox table, as is his wont. Frank debuted three Cold Heat comics--the new double issue of the main series, cowritten by Ben Jones, and two issues of the spinoff series showcasing other artists, featuring Chris Cornwell and Michael DeForge. As veteran Robot 6 readers are aware, Cold Heat's a favorite of mine. I also snapped up Chimera, an earlier tabloid-format comic of Santoro's I'd never actually come across until now.

The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror: Bongo's annual horror-comedy anthology goes altcomix in a big way with this Sammy Harkham-edited issue featuring a galaxy of Kramers Ergot-veteran stars. It's in the vein of Marvel's Strange Tales or DC's Bizarro World, but probably even further out and more free-reined.

Self Indulgence: The Blot author Tom Neely combines the style of early animation with the disconcerting atmosphere and body-horror of Davids Cronenberg and Lynch better than anyone this side of Al Columbia, with a defiant remnant of humanity that Columbia lacks. I've barely yet glanced at this customized minicomic (he'll draw the body part of your choice on the cover!) but I assume it's more of the high-quality same.

Sulk #3 and The Collected Essex County: In general I stay away from book-format comics at small press shows, since I can often get them cheaper, and with less need to lug them around all day, at a store or online when I get home. But there's nothing cheaper than free, and the boys at Top Shelf were good enough to provide me review copies of Jeffrey Brown's latest and Jeff Lemire's biggest. Brown's action-centric Sulk series tapdances over the line between parody and sincerity, while Lemire's Essex County trilogy boasts some truly evocative linework, and I'm psyched to crack into both.

Sleeper Car: New Theo Ellsworth? That's all you have to say.

Crickets #2: Depending on who you talk to, Sammy Harkham's Eightball-style one-man anthology series is/isn't a victim of Diamond's new order-minimum policy; at any rate there won't be any more issues, and this sucker is out of print and hard to find even through publisher Drawn & Quarterly. But PR maestra and booth captain extraordinaire Jessica Campbell actually brought one of the company's few remaining office copies down from their Montreal headquarters to sell to me at the show. Now THAT'S dedication to getting your comics to their audience.

Head to Head: My college buddy and occasional comics collaborator Matt Wiegle created yet another mini to add to his already impressive back catalog for this show; it mostly features various figures of fable, fiction and fantasy facing off, hence the title. I really enjoy the Phantom/Randall Flagg match-up, aka The Ghost-Who-Walks vs. Walkin' Dude Walk-Off.

Archaeology, Schematic Comics, Three Very Small Comics #2 & 3: Printed on cardtock and cut with a saw; boasting a cover that feels like it's been laquered; envelopes containing three-packs of matchbook-sized comics--these minicomics releases from James McShane, Dan Zettwoch, and Tom Gauld respectively, all on sale at the Buenaventura Press table, show just how far beyond Kinko's minicomic production values can go.

Driven by Lemons: Gussied up to look like an exact replica of the sketchbook in which its comics were originally drawn, this new AdHouse release from Skyscrapers of the Midwest's Josh Cotter is emotional, abstract, and accomplished--book of the show, I would say.

Warrior Twenty Seven: Two issues of Christopher Beckett's anthology series were pressed into my hands by Beckett himself following his enthusiastic reception of the New Action panel, after which we were introduced by Frank Santoro. And quite frankly, being handed comics by their enthusiastic creators is one of the best ways in the world to get comics.

Not pictured: Boy's Club #3, Injury #3, I Want You #1, and The Aviatrix #1: I'd managed to secure copies of these damn-the-torpedoes altcomix-pamphlets-ahead Buenaventura Press comics by Matt Furie, Ted May & friends, Lisa Hanawalt, and Eric Haven, along with recent book-format releases Jack Survives by Jerry Moriarty and The Gigantic Robot by Tom Gauld, earlier in the week. But such a nerd am I that I actually brought them down to Bethesda with me so I could flip through them in the hotel along with everyone else who snapped them up at the show.

Anything look intriguing to you?

The comic, which debuted at SPX on October 1st 2004, details the foul-mouthed misadventures of two twenty-somethings - Hazel Tellington and Jamie McJack and their talking Scottish cactus, McPedro. Since its debut, GIRLS WITH SLINGSHOTS has grown from a cult-hit to a massive webcomics phenomenon with over 70,000 readers a day.

And, as Danielle’s following grew – so did her style. And, on the pinnacle of her 800th strip, she’s covered themes of lesbianism, masturbation, cancer, love, loss, and loneliness in her own dirty little way.

To help Danielle commemorate this awesome anniversary, you could purchase your own copy of GIRLS WITH SLINGSHOTS, Volume One. Alternatively, you could also purchase original art from the series that Ms. Corsetto is selling for 50% off this week only! Both are perfect acceptable ways to celebrate this excellent strip.

And on a personal level ...

I raise my glass to you, Danielle.

As a cartoonist, you are remarkable.

As one of my closest friends, you are very, very dangerous.

And, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Here’s to five years of success, Danielle – and may many, many more follow!

Cheers!

Thor hat

You're heading off to school, and I know what you're thinking: How can I impress everyone with my good fashion sense? Well how about a Thor trucker hat?

No? Well perhaps that is a bit outlandish. Instead, perhaps you'd prefer this stunning bag designed by Exit Wounds author Rutu Modan? At only $11.99, it's an affordable head-turner:

Modan's shopping bag

(hat found via Comics Alliance.

Who says comics can't help change the world? Here's a 25-page manual designed to help teach the Afghan people about the recent election process, the candidates and the issues at hand. Why doesn't someone do something like this for the health care debate? (found via Boing Boing)