A comprehensive biography of Hal Foster, in which author Brian M. Kane examines the 70-year career of one of the greatest illustrators of the 20th century. "Superman" was modelled after Foster's drawings of Tarzan, Flash Gordon's Alex Raymond borrowed compositions from "Prince Valiant", and many artists, including the famous contemporary Western painter James Bama, count Foster among their greatest influences. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1892 of a seafaring family, Hal naturally took to the sea. At the age of eight he paddled a 12-foot plank across Halifax Harbor to the consternation of large Cunard liners. In his youth he was a catalogue artist, a trapper, a professional boxer, a gold prospector, and a hunter-guide in the uncharted forests of Canada. In 1921 with a wife and two children to support he peddled his one-speed bicycle 1000 miles across dirt and gravel roads from Winnipeg to Chicago to attend the Art Institute and later find permanent employment. The young illustrator's work appeared on the covers of "Popular Mechanics" and in hundreds of magazines for clients such as "Northwest Paper", "Jekle Margarine", "Southern Pacific Railroad" and "Illinois Pacific Railroad". In 1929 Foster illustrated the first newspaper adaptation of "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The comic strip was the first of its kind and it was Foster's sense of realism, composition, draftsmanship, and understanding of fluid anatomy that would forever mark him as "The Father of the Adventure Strip". The famous newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst, wanted Foster and made the artist an unheard of offer. If Foster would leave Tarzan and come to work for Hearst's King Features Syndicate he could do anything he wanted and have complete ownership of the new series. The first episode of "Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur" appeared on 13 February 1937. Foster's work has inspired generations of artists including Jack Kirby, Lou Fine, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Wayne Boring, Joe Kubert, Russ Manning, Wally Wood, Dave Stevens, Carmine Infantino, Charles Vess, William Stout, John Buscema, Mark Schultz and the great Disney artist, Carl Barks. This volume features quotes and sidebars from many of these artists.

About Pulp Fascism: "Jonathan Bowden said that greatness lies in the mind and in the fist. Nietzsche combined both forms in the image of the warrior poet. For Bowden it was the image of the cultured thug. I give you Jonathan Bowden: cultured thug." -Greg Johnson, from the Foreword "Jonathan Bowden was uniquely gifted as a cultural critic and revisionist, willing to explore the obscure areas of high and low culture, and apply ideas from the former to the analysis of the later, starting always from the supposition that inequality is a moral good. Bowden's texts are dense and rich with reference and insight, yet remain entertaining and replete with humor." -Alex Kurtagi "Many men give speeches; Jonathan Bowden gave orations. To experience one of Bowden's performances must have been something like hearing Maria Callas in her prime or witnessing one of Mussolini's call to arms from a Roman balcony. "As an intellectual, Jonathan was a Renaissance man, or perhaps a bundle of contradictions: his novels and paintings were of Joycean complexity, and yet, in his orations and non-fiction writings, he was able to cut to the essence of a philosophy or political development in a way that was immediately understandable and, indeed, useful for nationalists. "Pulp Fascism could be called Bowden's 'unfinished symphony'- his attempt (not quite realized) to reveal the radical, ambivalent, and, in some cases, shockingly traditionalist undercurrents in pop culture. "That which envelops our lives is taken for granted . . . and thus rarely properly analyzed and understood. Bowden brings new life to those characters and comic-book worlds we too often dismiss as child's play." -Richard Spencer About the Author Jonathan Bowden, April 12, 1962-March 29, 2012, was a British novelist, playwright, essayist, painter, actor, and orator, and a leading thinker and spokesman of the British New Right. Born in Kent and largely self-educated, Bowden was involved with a series of Right-wing groups for which he was a popular speaker, including the Monday Club, the Western Goals Institute, the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus, the Freedom Party, the Bloomsbury Forum, the British National Party, and finally the New Right (London), of which he was the Chairman. Bowden was a prolific author of fiction, philosophy, criticism, and commentary.

Here is the incomparable cast of the DC Comics universe: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, the Green Lantern, and the rest of the Justice League as you've never seen them before. Mythology brings together the best-loved comic characters in the world, brought to life by one of the most astonishing young artists working in the medium today, Alex Ross. The award-winning designer/writer Chip Kidd and photographer Geoff Spear have teamed up to create a book like no other, with an introduction by M. Night Shyamalan, the acclaimed director of "Signs" and "The Sixth Sense."
Ross has often been called "the Norman Rockwell of comics," and this book reveals not only his lifelong love of these classic super heroes but also his vision: Mythology takes you into the studio for a behind-the-scenes look at his fascinating creative process. The combination of Ross's dynamic art and Kidd's kinetic design make images from his most memorable stories-including Kingdom Come, Superman: Peace on Earth, Batman: War on Crime, and Uncle Sam-soar off the more than 280 pages. There are also hundreds of never-before-seen sketches, limited edition prints, and prototype sculptures. Vintage DC comic panels are interspersed throughout, as reference points from which Ross launches his extraordinary interpretations.
And most exciting for Ross fans, inside is a DC Comics first: an exclusive, original Superman-Batman story, written by Kidd and painted by Ross. Also included is an all-new origin of Robin, written by Paul Dini. Mythology is a book in which every page explodes with the power of the icons it celebrates.

One of the most eclectic and distinctive writers currently working in comics, Grant Morrison (b. 1960) brings the auteurist sensibility of alternative comics and graphic novels to the popular genres-superhero, science fiction, and fantasy-that dominate the American and British comics industries. His comics range from bestsellers featuring the most universally recognized superhero franchises ("All-Star Superman," "New X-Men," "Batman") to more independent, creator-owned work ("The Invisibles," "The Filth," "We3") that defies any generic classification.

In "Grant Morrison: Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics," author Marc Singer examines how Morrison uses this fusion of styles to intervene in the major political, aesthetic, and intellectual challenges of our time. His comics blur the boundaries between fantasy and realism, mixing autobiographical representation and cultural critique with heroic adventure. They offer self-reflexive appraisals of their own genres while they experiment with the formal elements of comics. Perhaps most ambitiously, they challenge contemporary theories of language and meaning, seeking to develop new modes of expression grounded in comics' capacity for visual narrative and the fantasy genres' ability to make figurative meanings literal.

Siobhan's blood has brought her victory and the throne, but it contains its own kernel of evil... Time has passed in Eruin Dulea. Siobhan reigns with wisdom and compassion. One day, during a trip with her protector Seamus, she meets Kyle of Klanach, a minor nobleman haunted by his family's dishonour, whose charm doesn't leave her indifferent... Unfortunately, the evil Lady Gerfaut is plotting to place her own son in power. And what better way to do this than a marriage, even if it requires black magic to arrange?