"The story traces the lives and techniques of Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon, RipKirby), Stan Drake (Juliet Jones), Hal Foster (Prince Valiant), and more, dissecting their techniques through recreations of their artwork,and highlighting the metatextual resonances that bind them together"--Page 4 of cove

Alex Raymond was one of the most influential comic strip artists of the 20th Century, creating action-packed art for Secret Agent X-9, the spectacular, classic imagery for Flash Gordon, and the nuanced, brilliant artwork for the detective/film-noiresque Rip Kirby. Now, for the first time, Hermes Press presents a comprehensive, definitive, art monograph covering Raymond's complete artistic output with an authoritative text by noted comics historian Ron Goulart. This new exhaustive full color art book features over 400 images, many scanned directly from Raymond's original artwork, and is being published under license from King Features as part of their 100th anniversary celebration. See original artwork from Raymond's work on Secret Agent X-9, Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Rip Kirby together with numerous examples of his earliest strip artwork, commercial illustration, and more. This extra large format art book is presented in a 10 by 13 inch size, so collectors can savor every detail of Raymond's artistic genius.

Comix – A History of Comic Books in America (1988) : Covers the whole history of comic books in America to 1970–the major creations, the major creators, the major comic book lines, the major comic book enemies. Co-authors Les Daniels and The Mad Peck tell the story of how comic books captured the imagination of millions and became an American institution, and whether or not they deserved to. Adjoining the text, providing an illustrated history of their own, is a large selection of complete comic book stories. No selected snippets. Full stories. “It seems safe to say,” the authors write, “that no book to date has contained such a wide range of comic book tales Where else can one find in the same volume such divergent personalities as the Old Witch and Donald Duck, or Captain America and Those Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers?

Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell continue their comprehensive review of the life and art of Alex Toth in Genius, Illustrated. Covering the years from the 1960s to Toth's poignant death in 2006, this oversized 9.5" v 13" book features artwork and complete stories from Toth's latter-day work at Warren, DC Comics, Red Circle, Marvel, and his own creator-owned properties, plus samples of his animation work for Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, and others, as well as sketchbook pages, doodles, advertising art, and other rarities provided through the cooperation of Toth's family and his legion of fans. Two of Toth's best stories are reproduced complete from the original artwork: "Burma Skies" and "White Devil…Yellow Devil." A full-length text biography will chart the path from Toth's increasingly-reclusive lifestyle to his touching re-connection to the world in his final years. Fans of comics, cartoons, and all-around great artwork revere Alex Toth. See why Genius, Illustrated — along with its companion volume, 2011's Genius, Isolated — are being praised as the definitive examination of the life and art of The Master, Alex Toth. Winner of the 2014 Eisner Awards for Best Comics-Related Book and Best Publication Design.

Will Self possesses one of the greatest literary imaginations of any writer working today. How the Dead Live is his most extraordinary book yet—a novel that will challenge, entertain, and truly astonish. Lily Bloom is an aging American transplanted to England who has lost her battle with cancer and lies wasting away at the Royal Ear Hospital. As her two daughters—lumpy Charlotte, who runs a hugely successful chain of stationery stores called Waste of Paper, and beautiful Natasha, a junkie—buzz around her and the nurses pump her full of morphine, Lily slides in and out of the present, taking us on a surreal, opinionated trip through the stages of a lifetime of lust and rage. A career girl in the 1940s, a sexed-up, tippling adulteress in the 1950s and ‘60s, a divorced PR flak in the 1970s and ‘80s, Lily presents us with a portrait of America and England over sixty years of riotous and unreal change. And then it’s over: Lily catches a cab with the aboriginal wizard Phar Lap Jones, her guide to the shockingly banal world of the dead. It’s a world that is surreal but familiar, where she again works in PR and rediscovers how great smoking is, where her cohabitants include Rude Boy, the son who died at age nine and now swears a blue streak, and three eyeless, murmuring wraiths, the Fats—composed of the pounds, literally the whole selves, she lost and gained over her lifetime. As Lily settles into her nonexistence, the most difficult challenge for this staunchly difficult woman is how to understand that she’s dead, and how to leave the rest behind. How the Dead Live is an unforgettable portrait of the human condition, the struggle with life and with death. It’s a novel that will disturb and provoke, the work, in the words of one British reviewer, “of a novelist writing at the height of his powers.”

Beginning the complete library of the greatest science fiction hero of all time. Volume One will spotlight the work of Alex Raymond, legendary for some of the finest storytelling of the 20th century. Raymond illustrated the Sunday strips until 1944; with his clear and much-imitated style forming the original aesthetic of the most popular and easily recognised science fiction hero for decades to come. Introducing Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, Dr. Hans Zarkov, and Ming the Merciless, this volume will catapult readers to the deadly planet Mongo. These are the strips that influenced George Lucas to create Star Wars, and which illustrator Al Williamson said were "the reason I became an artist."