Comic books in 'Blab Storybook'

1st printing. By Walter Minus. Darling Chéri is the sensually illustrated story of a young career woman who awakens one morning to not only the light of an early dawn but also to the realization that love has left her current relationship. Immediately she begins penning a brisk farewell note to her soundly sleeping boyfriend before pursuing the love that has since left. Celebrated throughout Europe for his captivating illustrations of fashionable and scantily clad females, Walter Minus' colorful work is featured in the third BLAB! Storybook, a series of graphic novels showcasing artists from Monte Beauchamp's annual BLAB! Anthology, presented in a faux-children's book format, though this volume is aimed at older readers. Hardcover, 10-in. x 10-in., 32 pages, full color. Mature Readers Cover price $14.95.

Volume 1 - 1st printing. Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $7.95.

Volume 2 - 1st printing. Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $6.95.

Volume 3 - 1st printing. Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $7.95.

Volume 6 - 1st printing. Monte Beauchamps art-comix anthology from Kitchen Sink. Alcoholic Cartoonists, a sad but true history by Beauchamp and Dan Clowes; Where Is Christine Brooder? by Richard Sala; Great Moments in Alcoholism by underground comix legend Justin Green. Also features stories and art by Joe Coleman, Skip Williamson, Frank Stack, Doug Allen, Spain Rodriguez, Mary Fleener, Josh Allan Friedman, Gary Leib, Mark Landman, Lloyd Dangle, and Carol Sobocinski. Cover by Sala. Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $7.95.

Volume 7 - 1st printing. Featuring Psychorama by Richard Sala; BoxCar Bertha by Joe Coleman; Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware; The Bard Must Die by Frank Stack; Come to Papa by Josh Alan Friedman; Ashes of Passion by Mary Fleener; The Shadow of Fred Toote by Spain Rodriguez and more! Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 144 pages, B&W. Mature Readers Cover price $8.95.

Volume 8 - 1st printing. Cartoon Books of Quality - That's why BLAB! goes out of its way to fulfill all craving for amusement and authenticity in just a few short minutes. Offering proven conflation of reading and seeing into a seamless analogue for perceptual experience. BLAB! is classy, stylish, roomy and expensive - an invaluable addition to any modern lifestyle. Softcover, 10-in. x 10-in., 112 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $16.95.

Volume 9 - 1st printing. With this issue, Fantagraphics takes over the publishing of Monte Beauchamps art-comix anthology. The Prestigious Blanket by Richard Sala; a Fred Toote story by Spain Rodriguez; Tales of Tomorrow No. 8 by Chris Ware. Also features stories and art by Peter Kuper, Terry Laban, Josh Alan Friedman and Randee Ladden, Doug Allen, David Goldin, Archer Prewitt, J. Bradley Johnson, Marc Trujillo, Stephane Blanquet, Jeffrey Steele, Teresa Mucha, Christian Northeast, Gary Baseman, Tony Fitzpatrick, Charles Paul Freund, Peter Hoey, Walter Minus and Cherise Mericle, plus a 13-page tribute to artist Boris Artzybasheff. Covers by Baseman. Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $18.95.

Volume 10 - 1st printing. Monte Beauchamps art-comix anthology. Stranger Street by Richard Sala; a Fred Toote story by Spain Rodriguez; Porn Again by Peter Kuper. Also features stories and art by Chris Ware, Gary Panter, Al Columbia, Drew Friedman, Josh Alan Friedman, Randee Ladden, Doug Allen, David Goldin, Archer Prewitt, J. Bradley Johnson, Marc Trujillo, Stephane Blanquet, Mark Landman, Pamela Butler, Agnes Muckensturm and Walter Minus, Matti Hagelberg, Greg Cwiklik, Jeffrey Steele, Christian Northeast, Gary Baseman, Peter Hoey, and Cherise Mericle. Covers by Christian Northeast. Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

Volume 12 - 1st printing. Monte Beauchamp's annual darling of the graphic design and illustration world is back with its most spectacular collection of cutting-edge comics, illustration, and graphic design yet. Blab!'s list of contributors past and present reads like a Who's Who of the contemporary visual art world, including Mark Ryden, Chris Ware, Gary Panter, Joe Coleman, and many more. Blab! is edited and designed by five-time New York Festival of Advertising award-winner Monte Beauchamp, whose work has appeared in Print, Graphis, Communication Arts and American Illustration. Under his guidance, Blab! has grown from a digest-sized B&W fanzine he began over 10 years ago to an annual coffee-table showcase event of impeccable production values and master craftsmanship, an object d'art that has become a standard-bearer in the world of professional graphic arts. Volume 12 features stunning front and back covers by Christian Northeast, as well as a stories by the Clayton Brothers, Northeast, Peter Kuper, Peter Hoey, Lou Brooks, Fred Stonehouse, and children's book illustrator Mike Bartolas, appearing in Blab! for the first time. Blab! stalwarts Gary Baseman, Drew Friedman, Spain, Blanquet, and Walter Minus are also back, along with Blab! newcomer and DEVO frontman Mark Mothersbaugh, who contributes a four-page color story, and several others. Softcover (Horizontal Format), 10-in. x 10-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

Volume 13 - 1st printing. The latest, all-new volume cruises with a cover by Rocket USA's (Futurama tin toy makers) phenomenal robot artist George Eisner, Rolling Stone artists Rob & Christian Clayton, Washington Post contributors Peter& Maria Hoey, and the return of Time Magazine artist Peter Kuper! Also, Raw artist Sue Coe joins Blab! with the six-page story, "Ghost Tiger," and Little Lit illustrator Marc Rosenthal contributes "Une Crise de Style," a tour de-force of two interlocking comic strips. There is also a spotlight on the great Johnson & Smith novelty ads from the '40s, which have influenced Chris Ware and others so strongly. Also featuring contributions from Gary Baseman, Drew Friedman, Stephane Blanquet, Spain, Walter Minus, David Goldin, Laura Levine, Christian Northeast and many more of America's best award-winning illustrators. Softcover (Horizontal Format), 10-in. x 10-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

Volume 14 - 1st printing. BLAB!'s list of contributors reads like a "Who's Who" of the contemporary visual art world. Included in this volume: David Sandlin's "Slumburbia"; Sue Coe's "WOMD," which focuses on the weapons of mass destruction that affect the planet everyday; plus regulars Gary Baseman, The Clayton Brothers, Drew Friedman, Blanquet, and others. Cover by The Magic Bottle author, Camille Rose Garcia. Softcover (Horizontal Format), 10-in. x 10-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

Volume 15 - 1st printing. Conceived, edited, and designed by five-time New York Festival of Advertising award-winner, Monte Beauchamp, BLAB! has been an annual coffee-table showcase of fine art, illustration and comix for over a decade. Pop Art virtuoso Lou Brooks delivers the front and back covers, while Juxtapoz magazine favorite Christian Northeast does the inside covers. Also: Sue Coe takes a look at the so-called Bird-Flu; Matti Hagelberg's tale of an undead President of Finland; Jeffrey Steele's story about the Black Dahlia; Peter Kuper's four-page, full-color, Little Nemo-inspired fantasy; plus, more from Blab! regular Gary Baseman (Teacher's Pet).This volume also includes Beauchamp's long-awaited piece on Kilroy (of "was here" fame), originally slated for Volume 14. Softcover (Horizontal Format), 10-in. x 10-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

Volume 16 - 1st printing. This volume features Geoffrey Grahn's The Man Who Saved the World, which tells the tale of Vasily Arkhipov, the Russian sub brigade commander who did not follow orders to begin firing nuclear torpedoes at the U.S., thereby saving the world from nuclear war. Plus, Laura Levine's Veronica recounts the life of 1940s movie star, Veronica Lake. Peter and Maria Hoey present Lost Liner Notes, which examine the lives of jazz musicians like Fats Navarro, Dodo Marmarosa, Serge Chaloff, Dick Twardzik, Wardell Gray, and Sonny Criss. This volume also features work by Spain, Peter Kuper, Gary Baseman, and others. Softcover (Horizontal Format), 10-in. x 10-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

1st printing. Story and art by Camille Rose Garcia. An original, first graphic novel from the acclaimed California painter Camille Rose Garcia (her work has been shown in Juxtapoz, Art Issues and Paper, and exhibited in galleries and museums up and down the west coast), the first of a proposed series set in the fantasyland of the Lost World of the Peppermint Islands. In The Magic Bottle, Lulu Blackenshoe lives in a gray world dominated by factories, landfills and giant corporations. Nature has all but disappeared in her world, but no one notices because of the antidepressants they're on. Lulu (who never takes her medicine) feels an increasing sense of dread and despair, until her fate changes one cold day when she finds a magic bottle containing a map. Drawn by pirates long ago, this map shows the way to the lost world of the Peppermint Islands, sunk to the bottom of the sea 400 years ago in the great battle between the pirates and the capitalists. Suddenly, Lulu has the chance to save the last remaining wild animals on earth, but she'll have to battle the Peppermint Man and the Great Trading Company in order to defeat the capitalist machine out to ruin the natural world. The Magic Bottle is presented in a faux-children's book format, though its aimed squarely at adults and young adults. Hardcover, 10-in. x 10-in., 48 pages, full color. Cover price $14.95.

2nd and later printings. Story and art by Camille Rose Garcia. An original, first graphic novel from the acclaimed California painter Camille Rose Garcia (her work has been shown in Juxtapoz, Art Issues and Paper, and exhibited in galleries and museums up and down the west coast), the first of a proposed series set in the fantasyland of the Lost World of the Peppermint Islands. In The Magic Bottle, Lulu Blackenshoe lives in a gray world dominated by factories, landfills and giant corporations. Nature has all but disappeared in her world, but no one notices because of the antidepressants they're on. Lulu (who never takes her medicine) feels an increasing sense of dread and despair, until her fate changes one cold day when she finds a magic bottle containing a map. Drawn by pirates long ago, this map shows the way to the lost world of the Peppermint Islands, sunk to the bottom of the sea 400 years ago in the great battle between the pirates and the capitalists. Suddenly, Lulu has the chance to save the last remaining wild animals on earth, but she'll have to battle the Peppermint Man and the Great Trading Company in order to defeat the capitalist machine out to ruin the natural world. The Magic Bottle is presented in a faux-children's book format, though its aimed squarely at adults and young adults. Hardcover, 10-in. x 10-in., 48 pages, full color. Cover price $14.95.

1st printing. By Shag. Shag: A to Z presents, quite simply, 26 original paintings corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. Each painting is accompanied by a short verse extolling the pleasures of a hedonistic lifestyle and the virtues of overindulgence. Shag has spent the last decade creating a body of work based on his idiomatic aesthetic preferences, a world of mid-20th-century modern architecture and design, populated by hedonists, supplicants, and indifferent women. Hardcover, 10 1/2-in. x 10-in., 48 pages, full color. Cover price $14.95.

1st printing. Written by Sue Coe and Judith Brody. Art by Sue Coe. Sheep Of Fools describes the desperate and cruel economic phenomenon of "live transport" (sheep being transported across oceans to be slaughtered). Illustrated by Sue Coe's powerful images, her true 'yarn' harkens back to the beginning of the "Wool Mart", through which the British refined their Parliamentary system, its rules, and dispersal of power. Hardcover, 10-in. x 10-in., 32 pages, PC/PB&W. Cover price $14.95.

Volume 11 - 1st printing. Monte Beauchamps art-comix anthology. The Story of the Inventor of the Paroximus Elixir by Richard Sala; another Fred Toote story by Spain Rodriguez; Spine by Peter Kuper. Also features stories and art by Drew Friedman, Doug Allen, Lloyd Dangle, David Goldin, Stephane Blanquet, Agnes Muckensturm and Walter Minus, Greg Clarke, Lou Brooks, Fred Stonehouse, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Rob and Christian Clayton, Jethro Kamberos, Steven Guarnaccia, Laura Levine, Matti Hagelberg, Jeffrey Steele and Teresa Mucha, Christian Northeast, Gary Baseman, Peter Hoey, and Jonathon Rosen. All this plus a 7-page tribute to Krampus, the anti-Santa of German folklore. Typically cute/disturbing painted covers by Mark Ryden. Softcover, 5 1/2-in. x 8 1/2-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

Volume 17 - 1st printing. This volume of BLAB! features a full-color tribute to Bazooka Joe, plus Sue Coe and Judith Brody's "...And Not a Drop To Drink" is an exploration of the destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast by angry gods of wind and water against a backdrop of war. Plus, Greg Clarke's "The Pungent Gaul" is a surprisingly harrowing story of a Frenchman who smuggles illegal cheeses from his homeland into the United States and sells them on the black market. Also, Drew Friedman's 4-pager "Old Jewish Comedians"; Peter Kuper's story of the various ways he's almost died; "Fetal Elvis" from Mark Landman; and "Max Vesta, Matchbook Artist," master of the matchbook cover. Plus stories by Tim Biskup, Gary Baseman, Spain, Mats!, and more. Softcover (Horizontal Format), 10-in. x 10-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $19.95.

Volume 18 - 1st printing. Blab! Volume 18 delivers like nobody's business, with a decided focus on the comic arts. Underneath the covers by Ryan Heshka are a slew of all-new comic stories: Mark Zingarelli reveals the "Chick's Club Taboo"; Euro-comics sensation Paco Alcazar tells a Lynchian superhero tale called "Obedience"; Pete Kuper dishes on the bullies that dogged him as a youth in "Bully for You!"; "Sirens of Silence" is cover artist Heshka's wordless depiction of a post-global disaster existence; Sue Coe presents the true tale of Coney Island's "Topsy the Elephant"; underground legend Skip Williamson serves up "Daddy Was a Lady," a portrait of legendary drag queen Rae Burton; Steven Guarnaccia returns with the story behind the man who created Miniature Golf in "Moe Greene's Hole in One"; Kramer's Ergot phenoms Xavier; and Helge prove once and for all that atheists are a product of cloned humans. Plus, Mark Frauenfelder of boingboing.com fame contributes the comic strip, "Juicemaker's Dream." This volume also features "Mr. Foney's Funnies," a feature on the bubble-gum card set that set the stage in 1960 for Topps' million dollar mega-hit, Wacky Packages. Softcover (Horizontal Format), 10-in. x 10-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers Cover price $22.95.

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1st printing. By Bob Staake. Staake lavishly adapts and illustrates a German fairy tale from 1845 and gives it a modernized flair. Hardcover, 10 1/2-in. x 10 1/2-in., 40 pages, full color. Cover price $14.95.