FROM BOOMTOWN TO GHOST TOWN When the Gunsmith passes through West Bend, he senses there's something afoot. And he's right: voices seem to be coming from underground. Something must have torn through town, killing the luckier souls. The rest were also put six feet under—but still alive... It seems that Clint's life-long enemy, Morgan, changed his name and appointed himself Mayor Mason. His first move as mayor was to "clean up" his town—and Mason's enemies began to disappear into thin air. Add to his hit list some all-around no-gooders, and there's nary a sign of life in the whole town. One pretty double agent wants in on Mason's plan—but she also wants to see if the fabled Gunsmith is as much of a man as they say. Clint can't let himself get distracted. To avenge his long-standing enemy—to save a townful of innocent people, Clint has to get to the bottom of this. And to do that, he'll have to start digging...

Fiction. Poetry. Mysterious and sometimes hallucinogenic, RATS NEST builds a narrative out of the complexity and dialectical uncertainty that many people feel about being alive in the 21st century. This first full-length book by Mat Laporte introduces readers to a protoplasmic, fantastical underworld, as navigated by a self-reproducing 3D Printed Kid made especially for this purpose. As the Kid descends the layers of a seemingly never-ending pit, its nightmares and hallucinations--recorded in stunning detail--unfold in twelve chilling chapters of unreality that will make readers think twice about what it means to be a human (or humanoid) on the planet we call home. "RATS NEST is a fragmented and extended transmission from 'the world's first 3D Printed Kid.' It is a dissident, noir, cyberpunk diary that recalls the monotony of service/ office labour and projects that struggle onto the failed tropes of 'what the future may hold.' Here, the future is a recursive failure of both affinity and empathy, launched from the outer reaches of a space-time where both identity and narrative are in flux. This is a work that simultaneously calls to mind Ovid's Metamorphosis and the prose of Philip K. Dick, both Alice Notley's Descent of Alette and the riotous 'cut-up' novels of Kathy Acker. Has Mat Laporte eaten our dreams? Are these texts the cognitive-enteric-cybernetic remnants of a necessarily alienated posthumanity? 'Bursting forth from the primordial/ id itself . a flickering/non-linear flood of fact and sensory data,' Laporte has engendered for us an austere and gorgeous horror." --Liz Howard

Drats! My Hair is a Rats Nest is a silly story about messy, uncooperative hair. A young Asian girl, Kiran, is adopted into a Caucasian family and questions her differences, and how to fit in. Her world is further complicated through a divorced family, but her new extended family reaches out with advice and love to help her find acceptance. Author Susan Stevens tackles the topics of adoption and divorce, which are realities affecting families every day. In this humorous tale of a hairdo gone wrong, two extended families can work through anger and pain for the benefit of the children, emphasizing the needs of every individual.

When the Gunsmith passes through the town of West Bend, he senses something is wrong. He's right--the innocent residents are being held captive in underground corridors--practically buried alive. Now Clint Adams must start digging to get to the bottom of this. Original.

Life and friendship seen through the lens of the civil rights and racial justice movements, you might expect it to be stories of mistreatment based on race. But that is only the backdrop. Growing up in 1950s and '60s they went on to college and success in their respective professions.

They were unlike any other band in the punk scene they called home. NoMeansNo started in the basement of the family home of brothers Rob and John Wright in 1979. For the next three decades, they would add and then replace a guitar player, sign a record deal with Alternative Tentacles and tour the world. All along the way, they kept their integrity, saying "NO" to many mainstream opportunities. It was for this reason the band (intentionally) never became a household name, but earned the respect and love of thousands of fans around the world, including some who became big rock stars themselves. They were expertly skilled musicians playing a new kind of punk: intelligent, soulful, hilarious, and complex. They were also really nice Canadian dudes. NoMeansNo: From Obscurity to Oblivion is the fully authorized oral and visual history of this highly influential and enigmatic band which has never been told before now. Author Jason Lamb obtained exclusive access to all four former members and interviewed hundreds of people in their orbit, from managers and roadies to fellow musicians, friends, and family members. The result is their complete story, from the band's inception in 1979 to their retirement in 2016, along with hundreds of photos, posters, and memorabilia, much of which has never been seen publicly before. For established fans, this book serves as a "love letter" to their favorite group and provides many details previously unknown. For those curious about the story and influence of NoMeansNo, it reveals an eye-opening tale of how a punk band could be world class musicians while truly "doing it themselves." Their impact and importance cannot be overstated, and NoMeansNo: From Obscurity to Oblivion is the essential archive.