Comics Journal Special Edition (2001) comic books 2001-2003

Edited by Gary Groth. 2001 marks the 25th anniversary of The Comics Journal, the renowned monthly magazine of journalism, criticism and scholarship. This edition's cover features Joe Sacco, whose recent book of reportage during the Bosnia civil war, Safe Area Gorazde, has been both a commercial and critical success. Sacco contributes a new cover, a new strip, and is the subject of a long interview. Taking full advantage of the coffee-table size and color capacity, text-and-visual features include an appreciation by Jim Woodring on the great turn-of-the-century cartoonist T.S. Sullivant, with many examples of Sulivant's virtuoso pen and ink work; an essay by Don Phelps (Reading the Funnies) on Smokey Stover, with a generous portion of full-color strips; an appreciation of the obscure newspaper cartoonist W.E. Hill by Bill Griffith with examples of Hill's full-page Sunday strips; and an excerpt from the second chapter of B. Krigstein, a critical biography of Bernard Krigstein forthcoming from Fantagraphics. The special edition also features new strips done especially for the magazine by today's best cartoonists, including: Dave Cooper, Bill Griffith, Charles Burns, Gary Panter, R. Crumb, Ivan Brunetti, Jaime Hernandez, Justin Green, Mary Fleener, Gilbert Hernandez, Phoebe Gloeckner, Carol Tyler, Richard Sala, Jordan Crane, Dylan Horrocks, Roger Langridge and Chris Ware. Softcover, 12-in. x 12-in., 120 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers. Cover price $19.95.

Edited by Gary Groth. The 2002 Summer Special spotlights master cartoonist Jim Woodring, with a spectacular cover painting, two essays on the artist's ouevre by Donald Phelps and Kenneth Smith, and a new interview. Text-and-art features include an appreciation of the cartoonist W.E. Hill by Zippy creator Bill Griffith (with many examples of Hill's gorgeous tabloid-sized Sunday pages in full-color), and Timothy Kreider on B. Kliban. The comics section's theme this volume is "Cartoonists on Music" and you can expect many of the greatest names in cartooning today, including: Mary Fleener, Roger Langridge, Peter Bagge, Spain, Carol Lay, Phoebe Gloeckner, Tony Millionaire, R. Crumb, Bill Griffith, David Mazzucchelli, Ivan Brunetti, Matt Groening, Sherri Flenniken, Richard Sala, Rick Geary, Mark Martin, and many more! Softcover, 12-in. x 12-in., 156 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers. Cover price $19.95.

Edited by Gary Groth. William Stout is one of the most accomplished, critically acclaimed and commercially successful illustrators, painters and cartoonists in America today. He has, for over 30 years, brought consummate draftsmanship, impeccable craft, painterly nuance and a mature vision that is, by turns, riotously Rabelaisian and awe-inspiringly naturalistic to virtually every form of visual popular culture -- from comics to film to gallery exhibitions. The Comics Journal Winter 2003 Special spotlights Stout's work with a beautiful cover, painted especially for this volume, and an interview with the artist in which he proves to be not only a great artist but an engaging raconteur and high-flying theorist as well. The interview covers his long career, which includes, among other highlights, his solo comics as well as his collaborations with Jack Kirby, Moebius, Al Williamson, Russ Manning and Harvey Kurtzman; his various film work for Jim Henson, Walt Disney and others; his album covers for Firesign Theatre, The Rolling Stones, and more. Essays included in the special are: Paul Gravett on "Whatever Happened to the Escape Artists," with new strips by the most prominent artists who appeared in that groundbreaking '80s British comics anthology (Escape), including Eddie Campbell and Carol Swain; Donald Phelps on Lynda Barry; Tom Spurgeon on Tom Hart; and Bill Blackbeard on Milt Gross. "Cartoonists on Patriotism" informs the comics section this time around with the comics of Joe Sacco, Bill Stout, Kim Deitch, R. Crumb, Bill Griffith, Jack Jackson, Sam Henderson, Tom Toles and many others! Softcover, 12-in. x 12-in., 180 pages, PC/PB&W. Mature Readers. Cover price $22.95.