UNCIVILIZED BOOKS
EX LIBRIS GN #0
(W) Matt Madden (A) Matt Madden (CA) Matt Madden
A character is trapped in a room with nothing but a futon and a bookcase full of comics. As they peruse covers, read stories and fragments of stories, they begin to suspect that the comics contain hidden messages and... a threat. Fiction and reality blur; sanity and madness become increasingly intertwined as the reader becomes convinced the key to their predicament is to be found between the panels of the strange books. With a dizzying array of inventive visual and narrative styles, Ex Libris continues the line of exploration and play that Madden initiated with 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style.
NEW REALITIES GN #0
(W) Greg Hunter (A) Dash Shaw
Dash Shaw is one of the most restless cartoonists of recent decades, constantly evolving in how he approaches the comics page. In the years since his breakthrough graphic novel Bottomless Belly Button, he has continued to create acclaimed, idiosyncratic comics, varying his uses of line and color as well as shifting from domestic realism to sci-fi farce to historical fiction. But some concerns in Shaw's work remain constant. In New Realities, critic Greg Hunter (The Comics Journal) follows the through-line across this adventurous body of work.