Comics Review comic books issue 1

Add to cart Near Mint $22.95

1st printing. By Dash Shaw. A murder mystery set in pandemic-era Virginia, where a young web designer attempts to uncover who shot and killed her brother—and why the murderer decided to use a silver bullet, from the author of Blurry and Discipline. Like Swimmers opens during the Covid summer of 2020, when Richmond-based web designer Mackenzie wakes up to find her younger brother Howie dead in their apartment. An autopsy reveals a startling cause: Howie was killed by a silver bullet. With no help from a police force overwhelmed by protest and plague, Mackenzie turns sleuth and goes on the hunt for an answer to what she believes is a simple question: who murdered Howie? But what seems straightforward to her isnt to anyone else. Howies deadbeat friends arent even sure Howie was murdered: what if he just killed himself? Undeterred, Mackenzie suspects the cryptic Isa, who Howie was running errands for before his death. Was she Howies lover? Or just the focus of Howies unrelenting obsession? Mackenzie will follow all the threads—from Howies time as a courier during the worst of Covid to the sleazy machinations of Isas professor husband—all the way to a startling and brutal conclusion. Dash Shaw, fresh off the acclaimed Blurry, delivers a fast-paced mystery in lush painted color that delves into loss, calamity, and whether we ever really know the people we love. Hardcover, 8-in. x 11-in., 120 pages, full color. Cover price $32.95.

Add to cart Near Mint $23.00

1st printing. Story and art by Rea Irvin. Edited by R. Kikuo Johnson and Dash Shaw. Afterword by Caitlin McGurk. A CLASSIC 1930s COMIC STRIP: The New Yorkers first art editor satirizes the petit bourgeoisie in these stylishly eccentric cartoons with echoes of Cheever and Wodehouse. Rea Irvin was The New Yorkers first art editor and creator of the magazines iconic mascot, the butterfly enthusiast Eustace Tilly. In 1930, he ventured into new territory with the comic strip The Smythes. The Smythes—comprised of John, Margie, and their two forgettable children, Willie and Maudie—are a niceish suburban family, restless in their social stature, and eager to climb a sometimes wobbly social ladder (a ladder made even wobblier by the Great Depression). Irvins distinct, graceful line renders the Smythes in all their glory and hilarity as they navigate ill-fated dinner parties with pompous socialites, fend off robbers dressed as Santa, and get chased out of restaurants by cleaver-wielding chefs. With flavors of the upper-crust humor of Wodehouse and the suburban surrealism of Cheever, The Smythes drolly captures the joys, heartbreaks, and humiliations of being in a family. Handpicked by acclaimed cartoonists R. Kikuo Johnson and Dash Shaw—who also penned the introduction together—this new selection of Smythes strips also includes an afterword by comics historian Caitlin McGurk that sheds new light on Irvins work and life. An unsung masterpiece of cartooning, The Smythes is finally available to a new generation of readers ready to marvel at the full reach of Irvins artistic abilities. Hardcover, 9 1/2-in. x 12-in., 168 pages, full color. Cover price $39.95.