Muderburg (sic), a sleepy island town off the coast of Maine aims to maintain a quiet existence for their population of families, fishermen, craftspeople, and aging oddballs. But every so often, incursions from scheming outsiders require ex-gangster mayor Leo Scazzo (and his loving wife and children) to enact counter-schemes to keep the peace for the other townsfolk... Collecting the complete run of short stories (serialized as Murderville in the 2010s) under one cover, Carol Lay's vivacious cartooning keeps the light side of these dark comedies shining.

These erotic comics stories, spanning 1974-1991, feature metropolitan settings like Valentina taking the subway - but what begins as an ordinary trip soon becomes a fantastical journey with familiar characters cameoing along the way. Then, in a giallo-inspired tale, fashion photographer Valentina''s models keep turning up dead. Could she be the murderer? In ''Time Out'' (1991), she''s once again stalked by a Subterranean... but what is its mission? The rest of this collection introduces a new heroine, Anita, who lives (and dies) for TV! Every flip of the channel has a new genre for her (and Crepax) to insert herself in. And in ''Input Anita,'' Crepax plays with the idea of bringing your work home with you. ''Data entry'' has never been so sexy (and a little sinister too).

Before focusing on tales of justice via superheroes under the Marvel banner, the publisher covered ground-level crime across a range of comics titles and true-crime magazines. Under the Timely imprint from 1947, and Atlas from 1951, up to eleven graphic series including Justice Comics, Official True Crime Cases, All-True Crime, Crime Cases, Crime Can't Win, Crime Must Lose, and Crime Exposed all muscled each other and competitors for space on the newsstands. For the first crime-themed volume in Fantagraphics' ongoing project to restore and resurrect pre-Marvel pulp classics, the Atlas Library has selected a book that debuted as the genre peaked, just before a Senate hearing and the institution of the Comics Code banned the use of the word "Crime" from even appearing in a comic's title. Escaping that fate, Police Action had a seven-issue run of violent and noir-ish morality plays, pitting the officers of the law against the forces of urban malevolence, and was produced by the cream of the Atlas freelance roster, including Joe Maneely, Robert Q. Sale, Gene Colan, Art Peddy, Mort Lawrence, Werner Roth and Bob Powell.Rounding the volume off, also presented is a post-Code one-shot, Police Badge #479, a snapshot of the industry's attempts to adapt to new strictures on the genre: here we view "our boys in blue" in the fight against rank corruption, highlighting the work of Don Heck and Joe Maneely.

Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins doubles as an official biography and coffee table art collection honoring the life and art of pioneering cartoonist Barbara Shermund, an unheralded early master of magazine cartooning whose career spanned the heyday of American magazines from the 1920s-1960s. Her sharp wit and loose style boldly tapped the zeitgeist of first-wave feminism with vivid characters that were alive and astute. Shermund''s women spoke their minds about sex, marriage, and society; smoked cigarettes and drank; and poked fun at everything in an era when it was not common to see young women doing so. Shermund left behind a body of work that was ahead of its time and remains insightful, witty, relevant, and contemporary. As one of the first women cartoonists to work for The New Yorker the year of its launch in 1925, she created nine covers and more than 600 cartoons for the magazine, in addition to countless spot illustrations, giving the nascent publication its unique visual brand. Shermund later became a mainstay at Esquire; contributed to Life, Colliers, Judge, and more; had a syndicated newspaper cartoon published by King Features; and illustrated a variety of books. In 1950, Shermund was among the first three women to be accepted as a member of the male-dominated National Cartoonist Society. A compelling facet of Shermund''s work is her frequent nods to queer audiences, which appeared in her work more than that of any of her contemporary New Yorker cartoonists. There are indications in her personal files that she also may have been queer, including love letters and other personal archives that McGurk has unearthed. Readers will discover Shermund''s unique and vibrant life and art and gain an understanding of how women''s place in the history of cartooning has been controlled and sublimated by greater societal and cultural allowances. Through close readings, archival research, reproductions of original art, correspondence and photographs, this volume uncovers and celebrates a trailblazing female magazine cartoonist, and rightfully places her in the canon of cartoon art history.

The wedding of Karen and Vanni! The adventures of three queens and a princess! Val and Sir Gawain in North Africa! A traitor in control of Aleta''s Misty Isles! Siege on top of siege! Val''s quest for the truth-compelling Shield of Achilles! Plus, Prince Valiant scholar and translator Dr. Uwe Baumann on Prince Valiant in the early 1990s. Universally acclaimed as the most stunningly gorgeous adventure comic strip of all time, Prince Valiant ran for 35 years under the virtuoso pen of its creator, Hal Foster. Starring a daring and gallant young hero, the series features epic sword fights, elaborate scenes of pomp and pageantry, and breathless plotting that always leaves the reader wanting more. Fantagraphics'' deluxe editions, each collecting two years'' worth of Sunday strips, boast superbly restored artwork that captures every delicate line and chromatic nuance of Foster''s art.

This dynamic concluding volume introduces a curious creature from the fourth dimension - Eugene the Jeep! The minute this mysterious marvel with the power of teleportation arrives on the scene, the strip is infused with an oddball, otherworldly quality. Elsewhere, Wimpy continues his befuddling antics; the wily orphan Swee''Pea and the patriarch Poopdeck Pappy cause domestic hijinks; and Popeye does battle with the big bad Man from Mars! Plus, contemporary artist Kayla E. pens a comic homage to the topsy-turvy character headlining this volume. An irresistible alchemy of screwball comedy, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar''s newspaper comic strip, starring Popeye the sailor man, captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond. Fantagraphics is thrilled to bring Segar''s whimsical world back into print, collecting the complete Popeye Sunday stories in four gorgeous full-color volumes, each packaged in a die-cut vertical slipcase.

Children reading to cats, penguins imagining the impossibility of alien life not including them, imaginary friends romping in the forest, horror-movie characters looking for friends, cartoons experiencing the awkwardness of zoom calls, witches frustrated over a Netflix lag on their crystal balls... Liniers mixes his repertory cast of fantasy and child characters with one-offs to express whatever happens to be on his mind that day. While the touches of real life are always intermixed among his whimsical world, the spirit of imagination and love of nature only becomes more heightened in many of these strips which run from early 2020 into 2021. Handsome, landscape-format hardcovers with debossed covers showcase Liniers'' beautiful, full-color cartooning in the way it deserves. The influence of Krazy Kat and Mutts extends beyond the tone, charm, and humanity of the content to formal playfulness, and these books are the best way to appreciate the full range of the work.

''I''m psyched. I''m totally psyched. I''m not a loser... Who the hell am I kidding?'' Life sucks for Dave Miller - he''s broke, girlfriendless, and stuck in a dead-end job. Really dead-end: Dave is the night manager at the Last Stop, LA''s finest vampire-owned and operated, all-night convenience store. Facing an eternity of turning hot dogs and restocking blood broth for his crappy boss and Vampire Master, the future looks about as appealing as the sunrise. It''s bad enough that Dave is clinging to his days as a vegetarian and refusing to feed off humans, leaving him weak as a kitten. But when he finds himself competing with psychotic surfer-vamp Wes for the affections of Rosa, a beautiful mortal flirting with the dark side, unlife gets about as sucky as it possibly can. Originally published in 2008, Fantagraphics is proud to bring this YA classic back into print with a new edition. Veteran comics creators Jessica Abel (Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars), Gabe Soria (Batman ''66), and Warren Pleece (Incognegro) have crafted a timeless goth love triangle/coming-of-age story that garnered awards and accolades when initially published, including the 2009 YALSA Top Ten Graphic Novels for Teens list.

Julia Gfrorer is quietly one of the most influential cartoonists of her generation. Emerging from the Portland scene at the height of the Obama era, her comics augured the dark times to come, using graphic sex, pitch-black horror, a hunger for exploring the past, and a line cruel as a whip to create her own unmistakable sense of millennial melancholy. Reflecting her DIY ethos, much of her work has only been available in self-published zines or independent anthologies, many of them rare or out-of-print - until now. World Within the World features 30 of Gfrorer''s short stories, culled from a decade of writing and drawing at the bleeding edge of the art form. Her tales of desire, despair, and the universal need for connection span centuries, continents, and cultures from prehistoric teenagers in love to Christian martyrs in the making to modern-day vampires on the make. Along the way her bold, confident work leads the reader to some unexpected places, whether erotica inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe or a post-apocalyptic parody of Frasier. In World Within the World, there is no distinction between the realistic and the fantastic, the psychological and the supernatural, the modern and the medieval, the mundane and the sublime - just the artist''s unflinching vision of how it feels to be human, no matter when or where.

Like a Lynchian take on Alice in Wonderland, Jessica Farm opens with an exterior of what could be any Midwestern farmhouse. Once inside, we track our titular heroine (she is a person, not a place) as she bounds out of bed on Christmas morning and goes about her routine, eventually breakfasting with her grandparents. The banality of the situation is subverted by a ratcheting sense of dread as we discover that Jessica''s increasingly nightmarish house - where the inside seems bigger than the outside, like Snoopy''s doghouse - is filled with creatures around every corner: some whimsical, some sexual, some despairing, and some malevolent. Most terrifying of all is Jessica''s father. Will she even get to open the presents under the Christmas tree? Taking place over a single Christmas Day, Jessica Farm is a career-spanning comics project in which Simmons has been drawing one page every month for the past 24 years, starting in January 2000. This is a horror-fantasy-psychodrama that will appeal to fans of Charles Burns, David Cronenberg, and Dario Argento.

When French tank crewman Rene Tardi was captured by the Germans on May 22, 1940, his life was forever changed. He is shipped off to a P.O.W. camp, Stalag IIB, where he endures a brutal day-to-day existence for nearly five years. Once the war winds down, he faces a long, grueling journey back to France, buoyed only by the vision of his wife Henriette awaiting him at home. The final act finds Rene struggling to adapt to civilian life, begrudgingly re-enlisting, and returning to Germany to help rebuild the country that imprisoned him. In The Complete I, Rene Tardi, P.O.W., cartoonist Jacques Tardi vividly renders his father''s harrowing story, a story enriched with his own childhood memories. Both an homage to his father and a testament to the silent suffering of a generation of men scarred by war, Tardi''s graphic novel trilogy is a personal and artistic triumph. This box set also features a slew of fascinating contextual features, including reference photographs, excerpts of Rene''s notebooks, and several illuminating essays.

Explore classic Disney adventures with Disney Masters Vol. 21: Mickey Mouse: The Monster of Sawtooth Mountain by Paul Murry and Vol. 22: Uncle Scrooge: Operation Galleon Grab by Giorgio Cavazzano! First: in "The Monster of Sawtooth Mountain," Chief O'Hara pitchforks Mickey and Goofy into saving Cousin Frosty's winter resort from big, fat, hairy trouble! From snowballs to cliffside falls, deadly accidents have Sawtooth Mountain in an uproar... and if a man-eating yeti isn't responsible, who is? Then Mickey confronts mystical Hawaiian elves in "Pineapple Poachers"... and is forced to reform the villainous Pegleg Pete in "Mickey's Strange Mission"! Next: in "Operation Galleon Grab," Uncle Scrooge finds an old model ship covered with clues to a pirate treasure--but hot on its trail are real pirates: rival billionaire John D. Rockerduck and the Beagle Boys! Also in this exciting volume: Donald Duck seeks a crocodile-infested fountain of youth in "There's No Fool Like an Old Fool"; Goofy battles supervillains in "Here Today, Gone Apollo"... and Scrooge discovers a parallel dimension in "Brother From Another Earth"!Fantagraphics' Disney Masters series unearths a treasure trove of previously unavailable comics epics in the grand Walt Disney tradition: expanding the lore of Mickey, Donald, and Scrooge, anthologizing the work of fan-favorite North American talents, and bringing you the best of the acclaimed international artists who have popularized Disney around the world.