The DesignAddict Shop: Books, magazines and DVD on modern and post-modern design, architecture and contemporary art

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32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics
by Adrian Tomine (Illustrator) / Drawn and Quarterly (Editor)

In 1991, Adrian Tomine self-published the first issue of Optic Nerve. Consisting of three xeroxed sheets of paper, and with a print run of twenty-five, it was a less-than-auspicious, largely unnoticed debut. In the following three years, though, Optic Nerve developed at a startlingly rapid pace: the artwork and writing evolved with each story, production quality improved, page counts increased, and by issue seven, sales had reached 6,000. In 1994, Drawn & Quarterly took over the publishing duties of Optic Nerve, and the original seven issues sold out and were left out of print. 32 stories presents these rare, early editions, collected for the first time in a single volume.

A Contract with God: And Other Tenement Stories
by Will Eisner (Author) / DC Comics (Editor)

It's fair to say that Will Eisner invented modern comic art. A Contract with God has been called the first graphic novel, and its divergence from traditional comics themes and forms highlights Eisner's foresight and brilliance. Dealing with stories and memories from his childhood in a Bronx tenement, he explores the brutality, fragility, and tenderness possible among people living in close quarters close to the poverty line. The four stories here are tough but funny, deep but finely detailed, much like the traditional Jewish stories he drew upon to flavor his own work. Ending reflectively (and perhaps autobiographically), A Contract with God shows us a young man peering out into his city as he decides whether and how to face adulthood. You won't see that in the funny papers. --Rob Lightner

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Epileptic
by David B. (Author) / Fantagraphics Books (Editor)

The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the last ten years is finally published in English. The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the 1990s, Epileptic is author David B.'s story of his brother's battle with epilepsy?but it turns into a penetrating and sometimes lacerating self-examination on the author's part, as he delves into his own complex emotions and his family's troubled history, as well as his own youthful fantasy life. Particularly pointed is his description of the family's journey from one attempted cure to another (including acupuncture, spiritualism, and macrobiotic diet), the book is drawn in David B.'s spare but detailed, straightforward but elegant style. We would have called this A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius if it hadn't been taken already.

One of the most extraordinarily well-received graphic novels in France and the winner of the French national cartooning award "Alph'Art," Epileptic will intrigue American readers with its sharp yet (mostly) sympathetic treatment of the '70s alternative-health milieu and its often harrowing depiction of a family under siege by this singular and devastating malady. Co-published with France's L'Association.

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Get a Life
by Philippe Dupuy (Author) / Charles Berberian (Author) / Drawn and Quarterly (Editor)

A celebration of the sophistication, wit and charm found only in the singular collaboration of French cartooning team

For twenty years, French cartoonists Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian have collaborated on every aspect?sharing both the writing and drawing?of their highly acclaimed Mr. Jean short stories, creating one of the most endearing, clever, and readable series in contemporary French comics. Their award-winning, critically acclaimed series has sold more than 120,000 copies in France and has won one of comics? most coveted awards, the prestigious Angoulême Alph-Art
Award for the Best Book of the Year.

Get a Life is a collection of the early Mr. Jean stories where the reader is introduced to the life of the titular character, a laconic, single Parisian male struggling through the usual calamities of life: bachelorhood in his twenties and early thirties and the impending responsibilities of marriage, kids, and deadlines for his publisher. Mr. Jean is a typical everyman?a scholar who fancies himself a man of letters, a nostalgist whose memories carry a weight few can understand, a lover whose heart knows the greatest of burdens. Melancholic yet joyful reflections on past loves, favorite authors, marriage, and fatherhood are laid out in a breezy, comic style.

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Harum Scarum: The Spiffy Adventures of McConey Vol. 1
by Lewis Trondheim (Author) / Kim Thompson (Author) / Fantagraphics Books (Editor)

It is impossible not to love the hysterical monster mystery Harum Scarum. The plot is well thought out, and the characters--a police detective dog, a wise-cracking reporter cat, and an innocent-bystander bunny--are utterly enjoyable. The bunny's school pal asks him to stop by the pal's father's place and to bring along a journalist. Imagine the surprise of the bunny and the journalist when they find a monster in the apartment! From there they get wrapped up in police cover-ups, communist terrorists, and a mad scientist's plan to cleanse the world. Lewis Trondheim's gift of comics storytelling really shows through when you read a scene in which one of the characters explains a trick or a trap, and you can go back a few panels and see the whole thing perfectly set up, wondering all the while how you could have missed it. And Trondheim's ability to have his character's dialogue devolve into petty discourses about trivial matters such as the "niceties of tipping and the exact location of the jugular vein" is a true joy.

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