Sunday, August 02, 2026

Bookshelf #40

This week's bookshelf is a real hodgepodge, with, as far as I can now discern, no real orgainizing principle. These books seem to be almost all small press and/or self-published (with a few prominent exceptions), and to be of such a size that they fit better on this shelf than they might have on other shelves. A few seem to be pretty out-of-place though, like the couple of manga volumes. 

The publisher's represented include AdHouse, Drawn & Quarterly, NBM, Pantheon, Sparkplug, Tokyopop, Viper Comics, Viz. 

Creators include Lamar Abrams, Chynna Clugston, Josh Howard, K. Thor Jensen, Hope Larson, Junko Mizuno, Scott Morse, Paul Pope and Joey Weiser. 

The most recognizable books here though are a trio from the late Marjane Satrapi (the two volumes of Persepolis, although now I think you're more likely to find them as a single volume, and Chicken with Plums) and the two volumes of Art Spiegelman's Maus (Which I would guess is also more commonly published as a single volume at this point).  Note the sun damage to the two volumes of the latter, how the red of the spines is faded at the top. 

There's a lot of interesting books in here—the collected edition of Bone colorist Steve Hamaker's fun Fish N Chips buddy cop comic, L.Neil Smith and company's alternate history/libertarian fantasy Roswell, Texas, manga guide to sex The Manga Sutra, those must-read AdHouse Project... anthologies full of some of your favorite cartoonists—and if I were independently wealthy (that is, I didn't have to go to work ever) I would reread and write my way through this shelf, posting a review a day on the blog like I was able to do in the good old days.

Alas, I need health insurance, food and shelter...