Twenty years in the making, legendary Canadian cartoonist Seth's landmark series Clyde Fans shows the rituals, hopes, and delusions of a middle-class that has long ceased to exist in North America. Abe and Simon Matchcard are brothers, the second generation struggling to save their archaic family business. Much like the myth of an ever-growing economy, their family unit is a fraud-the patriarch has abandoned the business to mismatched sons, one who strives to keep the business afloat and the other who retreats into the arms of the remaining parent. Presented in a deluxe slipcase edition, Clyde Fans is an epic time capsule of a storyline that begs rereading.
(W/A) Seth In Dominion, on Milverton Street there stands a handsome old building, with a pink stone façade and the familiar Canadian cartoon characters over the doorway. It was the Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, erected in 1935 and the last standing building of the once prestigious members-only organization. For years, this building, filled with art deco lamps, simple handcrafted wood furniture, and halls and halls of black-and-white portraits of Canada's best cartoonists, was where the professionals of the Great White North's active comics community met, gathered in their dark green blazers to drink cocktails, eat, dance, and discuss all things cartooning.
(W/A) John Stanley (D)esigned by Seth The ghoulish capers of everyone's favorite monster continue with the third volume of the acclaimed series! Melvin lands his first babysitting job, only to discover he has his hands full, literally - the "baby " in this case is a giant monster, almost the size of a room! When Melvin meets his friend for a friendly game of marbles, an older monster-woman passing by is offended by the scene, as everybody in Monsterville knows that monsters should always fight when they 're together. Finally, she is content only after forcing the two monsters into a scrap. Melvin also attempts to be the first kid in Monsterville to attend school in more than six hundred years, but he is thwarted each time by Miss McGargoyle, his would-be teacher. He is threatened with boulders, giant boomerangs, and even long-range missiles, but nothing can stop Melvin from wanting to go to school every day. Melvin Monster illustrates just how timeless the comics of John Stanley are.
(W/A) John Stanley The second volume of Nancy in D+Q's John Stanley Library, elegantly designed by Seth, stars the beloved Brillo-headed Nancy in her own comic book series written by the greatest children's comics writer of all time, John Stanley. Stanley, the author of Melvin Monster and Little Lulu, puts his own deft sense of humor and superior cartooning on the Ernie Bushmiller creation with spooky Oona Goosepimple, Spike, and Mr.McOnion. Nancy, along with her sidekick, Sluggo, will charm readers young and old with her hilarious, scheming hijinks. [(w) John Stanley (a) John Stanley (ca) Seth]
(W/A) John Stanley Thirteen Going on Eighteen collects one of the seminal "teen" comics of the 1960s. Each comic is a darkly hilarious look at the social maneuverings and betrayals of the teen set. John Stanley's stripped down approach perfectly captures the fever pitch of the time. He creates what would otherwise be a teenage sitcom and turns it into an anguished character study.
(W/A) John Stanley Meet Tubby Tomkins, a mischievous gourmand, rabble rouser and schemer who, along with neighborhood buddies The Fellers, is continually at odds with the belligerent and thwarting West Side Boys headed by Wilbur Van Snobbe, the rich trickster who always gets the girl Tubby likes, Gloria Darling. From clubhouse standoffs to pogo stick time machines, the day is rarely long enough for the hilarious escapades and witty shenanigans that divert and preoccupy the epicurean Tubby and his pals.
(W/A) John Stanley Continuing Drawn & Quarterly's John Stanley archival series, Melvin Monster Volume 2 is about the oddball monster boy who just wants to be good, go to school, and do as he is told. A satirical and funny sendup of the monster craze of the 1960s, Melvin Monster is a classic kids comic of the Silver Age. Designed by Seth.
From the incomparable David Rakoff, a poignant, beautiful, witty, and wise novel in verse whose scope spans the twentieth century. Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish leaps cities and decades as Rakoff sings the song of an America whose freedoms can be intoxicating, or brutal. Rakoff's insistence on beauty and the necessity of kindness in a selfish world raises the novel far above mere satire. A critic once called Rakoff magnificent, a word that perfectly describes this wonderful novel in verse. [(W) David Rakoff, Chip Kidd / (A/CA) Seth]
(W/A) Doug Wright Last year's Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist introduced the world to Nipper, the mischievous little kid who starred in Doug Wright's ingenious and enduring comic strip. This volume covers a peak period in Wright's four-decade career as he comes into his own as an iconic cartoonist capable of documenting middle-class suburban existence in all its minute joys and indignities. Packed with period details and loaded with charm, this collection features an introduction by journalist Brad Mackay.
(W/A) Seth Palookaville Volume 20 is the first volume of the seminal comic book series to be published in book form. The expansion into hardcover from pamphlet is a parallel that illustrates Seth's growth into an award-winning cartoonist, book designer, hobbyist, editor, essayist, and installation artist. Part comic book with the ongoing serialization of Clyde Fans, part sketchbook, and part documentation of Seth's fictional town of Dominion City, this visual compendium will showcase Seth's varied creative passions.
Continuing the new semiannual hardcover format for Palookaville in volume 21, Seth presents two very different autobiographical pieces, and the continuation of Part Four of the ongoing Clyde Fans serial. In the latest dispatch from the beautifully crafted Clyde Fans, Abraham muses further on the ruins of his life. Then, in the first sustained sequence of the two Matchcard brothers, Abraham and Simon finally sit down together and begin to talk. Nothing Lasts is the first half of a sketchbook memoir about Seth's childhood and adolescence in small-town Ontario. It is a wryly self-conscious, often moving visit to the attic of Seth's memories: from his first attempts at cartooning to the last time he kissed his mother good night, Nothing Lasts is a masterpiece of the graphic short story. Finally, the third section of this volume consists of entries from the comic-strip diary Seth has been keeping for almost a decade. He employs a mixture of hand-drawn panels and rubber stamps of his own work to tell anecdotes about moments from his life. Nothing from this diary has ever been made public before. This lushly designed collection of stories comprises an anthology of the different types of cartooning work Seth has done over his two-decade-long career. [(W/A/CA) Seth]
This installment of Seth's critically acclaimed one-man anthology features an autobiographical comic about Seth's childhood, part four of his long-running Clyde Fans serial, a photo essay about a barbershop he designed, and a comic strip about the art of barbering. Nothing Lasts revisits Seth's childhood in 1960s Ontario, with a special focus on the salvation that he found in library books and drug-store comics. The Clyde Fans chapter included here shows the conclusion of brothers Abe and Simon Matchcard's first lengthy conversation, and Abe's pensive, self-questioning mood as he drives back to Dominion to meet up with his old flame, Alice.
The most anticipated issue to date of Seth's iconic comics digest, Palookaville 23 marks the culmination of twenty years of serialization: here, Clyde Fans comes to a conclusion. In this final chapter, we return to Simon Matchcard and the year 1957, exactly where we left off at the end of the first Clyde Fans volume. After his disastrous attempt at sales in the city of Dominion, we witness the out of body experience and ecstatic vision that sets Simon on his path of lonely isolation in the years to come. But of course that's not all; the next installment in Seth's memoir, Nothing Lasts, follows him from late childhood to his high school years, from innocent crushes to adolescent brooding, all told with what has become Seth's signature anecdotal approach to autobiography.
Palookaville 24 marks the long-awaited return of Seth's beloved series, which offers readers an invitation into the world and varied artistic practice of the iconic cartoonist. An intriguing visual feast, "The Apology of Albert Batch" is the culmination of ten years of collaboration between director Luc Chamberlane and Seth-a short film documenting Seth's venture into puppetry. An extensive photo essay detailing the making of the film accompanies a DVD.
