The latest from New York Times bestselling, Goodread's Choice Award-winning, Eisner Award-nominated and Ringo Award-winning author Sarah Andersen is a delightful peek into the secret social lives of some of the world's most fascinating, monstrous, and mysterious creatures. Do you hate social gatherings? Dodge cameras? Enjoy staying up just a little too late at night? You might have more in common with your local cryptid than you think! Enter the world of Cryptid Club, a look inside the adventures of elusive creatures ranging from Mothman to the Loch Ness Monster. This humorous new series celebrates the unique qualities that make cryptids so desperately sought after by mankind (to no avail). After all, it's what makes us different that also makes us beautiful.

American comics from the start have reflected the white supremacist culture out of which they arose. Superheroes and comic books in general are products of whiteness, and both signal and hide its presence. Even when comics creators and publishers sought to advance an antiracist agenda, their attempts were often undermined by a lack of awareness of their own whiteness and the ideological baggage that goes along with it. Even the most celebrated figures of the industry, such as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jack Jackson, William Gaines, Stan Lee, Robert Crumb, Will Eisner, and Frank Miller, have not been able to distance themselves from the problematic racism embedded in their narratives despite their intentions or explanations. Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes: Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels provides a sober assessment of these creators and their role in perpetuating racism throughout the history of comics. Josef Benson and Doug Singsen identify how whiteness has been defined, transformed, and occasionally undermined over the course of eighty years in comics and in many genres, including westerns, horror, crime, funny animal, underground comix, autobiography, literary fiction, and historical fiction. This exciting and groundbreaking book assesses industry giants, highlights some of the most important episodes in American comic book history, and demonstrates how they relate to one another and form a larger pattern, in unexpected and surprising ways.

Contributions by Kylie Cardell, Aaron Cometbus, Margaret Galvan, Sarah Hildebrand, Frederik Byrn Kohlert, Tahneer Oksman, Seamus O'Malley, Annie Mok, Dan Nadel, Natalie Pendergast, Sarah Richardson, Jessica Stark, and James Yeh In a self-reflexive way, Julie Doucet's and Gabrielle Bell's comics, though often autobiographical, defy easy categorization. In this volume, editors Tahneer Oksman and Seamus O'Malley regard Doucet's and Bell's art as actively feminist, not only because they offer women's perspectives, but because they do so by provocatively bringing up the complicated, multivalent frameworks of such engagements. While each artist has a unique perspective, style, and worldview, the essays in this book investigate their shared investments in formal innovation and experimentation, and in playing with questions of the autobiographical, the fantastic, and the spaces in between. Doucet is a Canadian underground cartoonist, known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary. Meanwhile, Bell is a British American cartoonist best known for her intensely introspective semiautobiographical comics and graphic memoirs, such as the Lucky series and Cecil and Jordan in New York. By pairing Doucet alongside Bell, the book recognizes the significance of female networks, and the social and cultural connections, associations, and conditions that shape every work of art. In addition to original essays, this volume republishes interviews with the artists. By reading Doucet's and Bell's comics together in this volume housed in a series devoted to single-creator studies, the book shows how despite the importance of finding ""a place inside yourself"" to create, this space seems always for better or worse a shared space culled from and subject to surrounding lives, experiences, and subjectivities.

Experiencing Comics: An Introduction to Reading, Discussing, and Creating Comics shows students how to critically examine the craft and storytelling elements found inside a graphic novel or comic and spotlights groundbreaking work by comics creators and scholars from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds. This accessible, introductory guide to comics is divided into four chapters. Chapter one discusses how a comic is made and introduces students to the unique form and structure of comics, demonstrating how panels, splash pages, and word balloons are used to tell a story. Chapter two encourages students to apply literary theory and social politics to the world of comics to encourage discussions of comics within a larger cultural context. Chapter three explores the history of comics and introduces students to significant movements and moments in comics history in the United States. The final chapter provides students with comic-making activities so they can practice the craft and storytelling elements discussed throughout the book. Students will gain first-hand insight from comics professionals and practitioners through interviews with creators, artists, writers, anthology editors, scholars, and comics enthusiasts such as: John Jennings, Gene Luen Yang, Ramzi Fawaz, Lucy Knisley, Ronald Wimberly, Sonny Liew, Nilah Magruder, Belle Yang, Andi Santagata, Keith Chow, Yumi Sakugawa, Ryan North, Taneka Stotts, Fred Van Lente, Jeff Yang, MariNaomi, Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, Keith Sicat, Alexander Rothman, Glynnes Pruett, Danica Novgorodoff, Jenny Lin, Betsy Gomez, Sophie Goldstein, Ashanti Fortson, Leela Corman, Jeffrey A. Brown, Rina Ayuyang, and more. The second edition features fresh content on a variety of genres in comics, such as poetry, autographical, and horror comics. The text also includes new coverage on A.B.O. Comix, a collective that seeks to amplify the voices of incarcerated queer people through the medium of comics. Experiencing Comics is an excellent resource for courses in creative writing or comparative literature that focus specifically on graphic novels and comics. It can also be used in gender studies, ethnic studies, and sexuality courses.

Follow Peter Parker's journey from ordinary boy to Spider-Man. This is the story of Peter Parker, a shy and brainy boy living in New York. He struggles to fit in with the cool crowd at school, but he loves science and going to watch the wrestling with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Then one day, his whole world is changed forever as a chance encounter with a radioactive spider turns him into Spider-Man, one of the most remarkable Super Heroes in history. Spider-Man must learn about the responsibility that comes with his powers. Marvel Origins tell the stories of our favourite Marvel characters from their early lives and struggles to getting their powers and becoming some of the best-known Super Heroes of all time. These action-packed books are the perfect way to introduce children to the world of Marvel or to learn more about their favourite heroes. (c) 2020 MARVEL

Since the original TASCHEN edition of Manga Design, Japan's comic phenomenon has produced yet more captivating characters and a whole host of hot new talents. This revised and updated edition delivers the lowdown on the latest and the greatest makers and shapers of the manga scene. Through an A-Z directory, we discover the superstars-both human and fictional-of what is now a vast global industry, inspiring advertisers, filmmakers, creative professionals, millions of avid fans, not to mention an entire cosplay lifestyle, in which manga devotees in elaborate costume meet to celebrate the existence of their characters at huge conventions from Los Angeles to Leipzig. From classic maestros-like Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy) and Katsuhiro Otomo (creator of Akira)-to newcomers such as Hajime Isayama, each entry includes biographical and bibliographical information, descriptions of main characters, and, of course, plenty of examples of the artist's finest manga spreads and covers. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

A comprehensive history of a small, but important, comic book publisher, this work reflects the reading tastes of tens of millions of Americans during the Golden and Silver ages of comics (1934-1970). The earlier Sangor "Shop" reinvented itself as the American Comics Group and by 1967 had published over one thousand issues. ACG was a microcosm of the larger industry, publishing magazines in every major comic book genre. Best known titles include "Herbie" and "Forbidden Worlds." It was ACG's "Adventures into the Unknown" that sparked a new genre--horror--which led to the Comics Code Authority, and industry-wide "self" censorship.

"The real war," said Walt Whitman, "will never get in the books." During World War II, the truest glimpse most Americans got of the "real war" came through the flashing black lines of twenty-two-year-old infantry sergeant Bill Mauldin. Week after week, Mauldin defied army censors, German artillery, and Patton's pledge to "throw his ass in jail" to deliver his wildly popular cartoon, "Up Front," to the pages of Stars and Stripes. "Up Front" featured the wise-cracking Willie and Joe, whose stooped shoulders, mud-soaked uniforms, and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect bore eloquent witness to the world of combat and the men who lived-and died-in it. This taut, lushly illustrated biography-the first of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Mauldin-is illustrated with more than ninety classic Mauldin cartoons and rare photographs. It traces the improbable career and tumultuous private life of a charismatic genius who rose to fame on his motto: "If it's big, hit it."

Unlocking a new and overdue model for reading comic books, this unique volume explores religious interpretations of popular comic book superheroes such as the Green Lantern and the Hulk. This superhero subgenre offers a hermeneutic for those interested in integrating mutiplicity into religious practices and considerations of the afterlife.

'Fast-paced, furiously funny and utterly fantastic.' A.F. Steadman 'Culture and technology clash as Zachary Ying takes adventure to a new level!' Kwame Mbalia Percy Jackson meets Yu-Gi-Oh in this hilarious, action-packed fantasy adventure. Zachary Ying has never had much chance to learn about his Chinese heritage. So when he's chosen to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission, he is woefully unprepared. As a result, the emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack's body and binds to his AR gaming headset instead. With the legendary tyrant yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to steal magical artifacts and defeat figures from history and myth. Using his newfound water dragon powers, can Zack complete the mission in time to save the mortal world?

Jonathan Bowden was a paradox: on the one hand, he was an avowed elitist and aesthetic modernist, yet on the other hand, he relished such forms of popular entertainment as comics, graphic novels, pulps, and even Punch and Judy shows, which not only appeal to the masses but also offer a refuge for pre- and anti-modern aesthetic tastes and tendencies. Bowden was drawn to popular culture because it was rife with Nietzschean and Right-wing themes: heroic vitalism, Faustian adventurism, anti-egalitarianism, biological determinism, racial consciousness, biologically-based (and traditional) notions of the differences and proper relations of the sexes, etc. Pulp Fascism collects Jonathan Bowden's principal statements on Right-wing themes in popular culture drawn from his essays, lectures, and interviews. These high-brow analyses of low-brow culture reveal just how deep and serious shallow entertainment can be. 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.

Ed Brubaker (b. 1966) has emerged as one of the most popular, significant figures in art comics since the 1990s. Most famous as the man who killed Captain America in 2007, Brubaker's work on company-owned properties such as Batman and Captain America and creator-owned series like Criminal and Fatale live up to the usual expectations for the superhero and crime genres. And yet, Brubaker layers his stories with a keen self-awareness, applying his expansive knowledge of American comic book history to invigorate his work and challenge the dividing line between popular entertainment and high art. This collection of interviews explores the sophisticated artist's work, drawing upon the entire length of the award-winning Brubaker's career. With his stints writing Catwoman, Gotham Central, and Daredevil, Brubaker advanced the work of crime comic book writers through superhero stories informed by hard-boiled detective fiction and film noir. During his time on Captain America and his series Sleeper and Incognito, Brubaker revisited the conventions of the espionage thriller. With double agents who lose themselves in their jobs, the stories expose the arbitrary superhero standards of good and evil. In his series Criminal, Brubaker offered complex crime stories and, with a clear sense of the complicated lost world before the Comics Code, rejected crusading critic Fredric Wertham's myth of the innocence of early comics. Overall, Brubaker demonstrates his self-conscious methodology in these often little-known and hard-to-find interviews, worthwhile conversations in their own right as well as objects of study for both scholars and researchers.

Moomin Classics Set of 3 Mini Notebooks features a collection of three mini, foiled notebooks, each with a different beautiful design. With alternating lined and blank pages, a sturdy cover and rounded corners, they are perfect to be carried everywhere!

Tove Jansson was a Finnish-Swedish writer and artist who created the Moomin family and their friends. She first started painting Moomintrolls in 1935 and her last Moomin book was published in 1970; but her stories live on and continue to be adapted and enjoyed by many generations.

Superheroes are enjoying a cultural resurgence, dominating the box office and breaking out of specialty comics stores onto the shelves of mainstream retailers. A leading figure behind the superhero Renaissance is Grant Morrison, long-time architect of the DC Comics' universe and author of many of the most successful comic books in recent years. Known for his anarchic original creations - Zenith, The Invisibles, The Filth, We3 - as well as for his acclaimed serialized comics - JLA, Superman, Batman, New X-Men - Morrison has radically redefined the superhero archetype. Known for his eccentric lifestyle and as a practitioner of ""pop magic,"" Morrison sees the superhero as not merely fantasy but a medium for imagining a better humanity. Drawing on a variety of analytical approaches, this first-ever collection of critical essays on his work explores his rejuvenation of the figure of the superhero as a means to address the challenges of modern life.

The people who make the World's Most Popular Manga share their tricks, advice, and secrets! From Dragon Ball to Demon Slayer, from One Piece to My Hero Academia and beyond, Weekly Shonen Jump has published some of the finest manga to grace the earth. Now, the creators and editors behind several of the most popular manga in Shonen Jump sit down to discuss how to craft exciting stories, how to use your tools to the best of your abilities, and more. Whether you're getting started on your artistic path or a veteran looking for new tips, The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga is the perfect book to sharpen your skills. Featuring commentary and advice from Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Tite Kubo (Bleach), Shun Saeki (Food Wars), Kaiu Shirai & Posuka Demizu (The Promised Neverland), Yusei Matsui (Assassination Classroom), Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia), and more!

Turn creating anime characters and stories from a passion into your profession with this guide to drawing and painting, promoting, and selling your work. Specially commissioned step-by-step tutorials by respected professionals help you fine-tune your technique for engaging results, and define your niche as a pro artist. Projects tackle anime styles such as the dynamic Shonen and fantasy tinged Shojo, both aimed at adults, and Kodomo, created for children. Case studies explore anime sub-styles, helping you pinpoint how your innate style fits into the anime landscape, and what to focus on creatively and commercially for professional success. The book also asks: what is your brand, who is your audience, and how will you engage with it In a competitive environment, your ability to stand out, grab, and maintain attention is key. Independent professional artists who have done just that discuss this, plus the planning, work, and management that go into running you own brand. Promoting your art, growing your audience on social media, and establishing an ecommerce site to convert that audience into sales - every aspect of being a professional artist is covered. There is even advice about choosing related products and merchandise that complement your brand and provide a relevant backdrop for your art.