Category: books

Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier: How Midcentury Modernism Shaped Our View of the Future

Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969) was the first installment of one of the most successful and longest-running television franchises of all time. Today, Trek fans champion its writing, progressive social consciousness, and aesthetic. Designing the Final Frontier is a unique, expert look at the mid-century modern design that created and inspired that aesthetic. From Burke chairs to amorphous sculptures, from bright colors to futuristic frames, Star Trek TOS is bursting with mid-century modern furniture, art, and design elements—many of them bought directly from famous design showrooms.

The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book: Revised and Expanded

The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book: Revised and Expanded powerfully portrays flashpoints in history when Indigenous peoples have risen up and fought back against colonizers and other oppressors. Events depicted include the Spanish conquest of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca empires; the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico; the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890; the resistance of the Great Plains peoples in the 19th century; and more recently, the Idle No More protests supporting Indigenous sovereignty and rights in 2012 and 2013, and the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016. Canadian events depicted include the Oka crisis in 1990, the Grand River land dispute between Six Nations and the Government of Canada in 2006, and the Wet’suwet’en anti-pipeline protests in 2020.

The Art and Soul of Dune

Written by Dune executive producer Tanya Lapointe, THE ART AND SOUL OF DUNE is a visually dazzling exploration of the filmmaking process that gives unparalleled insight into the project’s genesis—from its striking environmental and creature designs to its intricate costume concepts and landmark digital effects. The Art and Soul of Dune also features exclusive interviews with key members of the cast and crew, including director/co-writer/producer Denis Villeneuve, stars Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac, and many more, delivering a uniquely candid account of the hugely ambitious international shoot.

Charles Addams: A Cartoonist’s Life

In Charles Addams: A Cartoonist’s Life, meet the legendary cartoonist behind the altogether ooky Addams Family in this first biographical exposé, written with exclusive access to Charles’ Addams’ private archives.

Eldo Yoshimizu’s Ryuko Box Set

From creator, Eldo Yoshimizu comes a stunning manga that tells the tale of Ryuko, a fierce woman of the Yakuza thirsty for revenge. Both Ryuko volumes are now collected into this one must-buy box set complete with three exclusive art cards.

Popeye Volume 1: Olive Oyl and Her Sweety

An irresistible alchemy of screwball comedy, tender romance, and rags-to-riches fantasy, Elsie Crisler Segar's newspaper comic strip captivated readers of the Roaring Twenties and beyond. And Popeye, the sailor man, was the unlikely star of the show. Fantagraphics is thrilled to bring Segar's whimsical world back into print, reviving the origins of the beloved spinach-eating American icon for a whole new readership. The E.C. Segar Popeye Sundays series collects the complete Popeye Sunday stories in four gorgeous full-color volumes, each packaged in a deluxe die-cut vertical slipcase.

Elvis: Destined to Die by Sally A. Hoedel

Elvis Presley’s downward spiral, punctuated by health problems routinely written off as the consequences of addiction, may have actually been triggered by an event that happened generations before he was even born: Elvis’s maternal grandparents were first cousins.

Life and Other Shortcomings

Life and Other Shortcomings is a collection of linked short stories that takes the reader from New Orleans to New York City to Madrid, and from 1970 to the present day. The women in these twelve stories make a number of different choices: some work, others don’t; some stay married, some get divorced; others never marry at all. Through each character’s intimate journey, specific truths are revealed about what it means to be a woman―in a relationship with another person, in a particular culture and era―and how these conditions ultimately affect her relationship with herself. The stories as a whole depict patriarchy, showing what still might be, but certainly what was, for some women in this country before the #MeToo movement.

Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash: The Definitive Visual History: Limited Edition

Making the leap from convenience store worker to international film icon, Kevin Smith has spent over twenty-five years at the forefront of pop culture. In this hilariously candid treasure trove of artifacts and anecdotes, Kevin tells the full story of his incredible life for the first time, from his early days in Highlands, New Jersey, through to the breakout success of low-budget indie smash Clerks in 1994, and the series of hit films that allowed him to build his own cinematic “View Askewniverse.

Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon

This is a gorgeous, hardcover retrospective, the first-ever history of PAC-MAN.

Full of historical imagery, concept designs, marketing photos and more, the book examines the game’s design philosophy and origins through the artists, designers, developers, and other creative teams who brought PAC-MAN to life.

Revised and Expanded Edition of Eddie Muller’s Dark City

If you watch Noir Alley and read Eddie Muller's Dark City revised and expanded edition, you will be blasted with a cornucopia of information about the origins and politics of the Film Noir from all the creators. The creators lived lives as complicated as their characters. Muller's book is more than a picture book, it's the top book on Film Noir movies. Muller has single-handed created a Film Noir universe, from actors to writers, many jumped from movie to movie. Dark City is a great read into old Hollywood and a genre long gone, often imitated, never duplicated. I never put down Dark City, Muller is a wordsmith of the highest caliber. This is the definitive book on Film Noir.

Fantastic Four No. 1: Panel by Panel

The first issue of Fantastic Four by legendary creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced fans to a now-iconic team of Super Heroes—Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and the Thing—ushering in the modern Marvel Age of comics. Chip Kidd uses an original copy of the comic book (which initially sold for ten cents and now sells for astronomical prices in good condition) to present the classic story in a whole new way that is sure to engage both lifelong fans and the latest generation of Marvel enthusiasts.