Bookshelf #29

The organizing principle of most of my bookshelves has been the publisher, but with this particular shelving unit, it has actually been what books will fit on its very small shelves.

That said, the two best-represented publishers here are Oni Press and Tokyopop. 

From Oni, we have a quartet of books by Western creators that are all extremely manga-inspired, so much so that Oni published them in tankobon-like digests so that they could easily be shelved in the manga sections of bookstores. These are Corey S. Lewis' incredible Sharknife, the story of a busboy/Japanese-style superhero, James Stokoe's Wonton Soup, a crazy sci-fi story about a chef, Ray Fawkes and Cameron Stewart's Apocalipstix, about an all-girl rock band in a post-apocalyptic world (Josie and The Pussycats meets Mad Max!), and Rick Spears and Chuck BB's Black Metal, an all-ages mélange of heavy metal and dark fantasy with a Cartoon Network aesthetic. 

These were all great books by great creators, and I think my first exposure to each of them. They are all also from the same "class" of books that gave birth to Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, although none of them obviously got as big. I'd recommend all of 'em if you can find them at this point...although Apocalipstix is obviously problematic at this point, given that it's drawn by Stewart. (Speaking of the now problematic, Sharknife has a blurb from Warren Ellis on the back, in which the writer says, "Did you ever wish you'd been at a great band's first gig? This is exactly the same thing." Which, true, but still...)

From Tokyopop, we have Bandon Graham's King City, another inspired American manga, this one involving a pet cat that can turn into anything. I was a big fan of this when I first read it, and it put Graham on my radar as one of a handful of great, emergent creators to watch...although he has since also had troubling allegations made against him regarding his treatment of trans women. (God, it's dismaying how often one has to stop and flag particular creators when discussing older comics...)

There's also the first four volumes of Kenji Sonishi's manga series Neko Ramen, a four-panel comic strip about a cat who runs a ramen shop and whose food is terrible...which probably shouldn't be a surprise given that he is, you know, a cat (Despite this, the same young Japanese businessman seems to stop by for lunch, like, every day, and plays the straight man). As with most manga, I didn't keep up with, but, looking it up now, I guess there were only five volumes of it total, so I didn't do so bad with this one.

I think it's interesting to note here how similar the packaging of Oni's Western manga-like comics (and Tokyopop's King City) is to that of Neko Ramen, an actual manga series.

As for the rest of the shelf? Well, there's Lewis' Seedless, and Image Comics original graphic novel about warrior grapes that is heavily inspired by toy franchises like Playmate's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*. (I'm pretty sure I stuck this on this shelf so it would be next to Lewis' Sharknife.) There's a pair of Debbie Huey's charming Bumperboy books from AdHouse, a comic I think was probably ahead of its time, given that kids' comics weren't yet as big a presence in the market as they are now. There are some quality graphic novels from more literature/art-focused publishers, Jordan Crane's The Clouds Above from Fantagraphics (This is still one of my all-time favorite book designs; I just love looking at this book as an object), Renee French's H Day from PictureBox and Adrian Tomine's Scenes from an Impending Marriage and Pablo Holmberg's Eden, both from Drawn & Quarterly. 

The final book on the shelf is that little black one in the middle, the oddlyshaped, longer-than-it-is-tall Process Recess, an AdHouse published art book devoted to the work of James Jean, who comics readers probably know best from his striking cover work on Vertigo series Fables (He also did about a year and a half's worth of Batgirl covers circa 2003-2004, and a half-dozen Green Arrow covers in 2005; of those, this is might the best one, but this one featuring Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle's Anarky is my favorite).

*Though Seedless reads a bit like a tie-in comic for a toy line akin to TMNT and those of the 1980s like Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, Transformers and the like, the fact that it involves sentient food reminded me of Mattel's short-lived Food Fighters line, of which my little brother had a figure or two when we were growing up. I remember the doughnut guy being around the house, anyway.