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The
New Comic Book Releases List Web Site
Heard about a good one coming out? Find out when it's coming
out, on this great site, which also has one of the best links
pages for American comics I've ever seen. You can even get a
weekly e-mail with all the new releases. And after you've been
to this site, it's only natural to head on over to...
Comicon.com
They bill themselves as "The World's Biggest Comic Book
Convention," and they just may be right. You can order comics,
catch up on the latest, even track down your favorite writers
and artists, and find out what's up with them.
Classic
Comic Books
Contains reviews and articles about comic strips and comic books,
and articles on their writers and artists, designed and written
by Michael E. Grost, a comics enthusiast who lives near Detroit,
Michigan, USA. This site offers pretty in-depth looks at such
Golden Age comic P.I.s as Speed Saunders, Roy Raymond, Larry
Steele and Slam Bradley. Michael's also the dude behind the amazing
Guide to Classic Mystery
and Detection, Classic Film and Television. Both are
heartily recommended.
Hard-Boiled Mysteries Detective and Crime Comics
Part of Etienne Borgers' Hard-Boiled Mysteries
site. A brief intro to some of the best of the European and American
detective and crime comics. Etienne knows a bit about comics,
having scripted one of BD stewardess heroine Natacha's
more hardboiled forays back in the seventies. Drop by and say
"Hi!"
Bandes dessinées d'inspiration policière
Contributor Marcel
Bernadac's great new website about French detectives in comics. En français, but the pictures alone are worth it. The French know how to do crime comics. A complement to his Le récit policiers d'expression française.
ANAFI
The site for an Italian organization which translates as "The Friends of Comics." Too bad it's in Italian only (for the members by ANAFI). The site isn't that great, but the magazine, Fumetto, dedicated to news and criticism of comics around the world, edited by ANAFI four times a year since 1969, is very good indeed.
European Comics on the WEB
Erik Tjong Kim Sang, a Swedish university researcher
in fundamentals for computer applications, has created this link-filled
site so English readers can get an idea of some of the great
European comics out there.
Crimeboss
Those whose taste runs more to the vintage rather than the new
will find an inspiring assortment of crime comics from the 40's
and 50's here. The large cover scans may take a little time to
load, but they're well worth the wait. (Thanks to James
Stephenson for this one).
Moonstone Books
The folks at Moonstone
Books have announced their plans for a very ambitious
series of "Moonstone Noir" graphic novels, wherein
they intend to ressurrect some of the most beloved pulp, radio
and television detectives of all time. All titles are 48-pages,
square-bound, and self-contained, and contain art and text by
such impressive names as Stefan Petrucha, Kirk Van Wormer, Jay
Faerber, David Gallaher, C.J. HEnderson, William Messner Loebs,
Richard Clark and Eric Theriault. They intend to cover private
eye types such as Jack Hagee
and Johnny Dollar,
and quasi-P.I.s like Boston Blackie,
Bulldog Drummond, Kolchak the Nightstalker, and The Lone Wolf. Books on The
Hat Squad and The Mysterious Traveler may also interest
visitors to this site.
rec.arts.comics.misc
A good, general interest newsgroup dealing with
comics.
The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe: Who's Who
A great site for tracking down obscure and not-so-obscure
DC characters.
Where To Get 'em!
by Rick Robinson
The
Master List of Comic Book Stores and Trading Card Places
Once you've found out when it's coming out, or after you've found
out it's already out, here's where you can find it. An ever-expanding
listing of stores in the U.S. and Canada.
NCRL's
Comic Book Shops on the Internet
Brought to you by the same folks who bring you
The New Comic Book Releases
List Web Site, so you know it's good. And here's some
specific dealers:
Bud Plant
The one I like the best. The catalog is about
280 pages four times a year and it's packed with great (though
not budget) stuff. Oh there is some discounted stuff, but a lot
of it's first run. It's where I bought Pulp Culture, for instance.
They handle a lot of art & artists books as well. You stay
on the catalog list by buying something every six months or so,
which isn't too difficult!
Comic Relief
One of the all-time great comic book stores, with over 14,000 graphic novels in stock, and carrying well over 700 different monthly titles. It's located in Berkeley, CA, just a block away from UC Berkeley. Their phone number is 510-843-5002.
Publishers
by Rick
and me.
Vertigo
The official site of DC
Comics more sophisticated (dare I say "adult"?)
imprint. Publishers of Sandman Mystery Theatre, 100
Bullets, and mini-series and graphic novels such as Jonny
Double, Scene of the Crime, Angel and the Ape
and others. Arguably the best comic line in North America.
Casterman
The premier publisher of graphic albums in France,
and publishers of, among many others, Jacque Tardi's masterful
adaptations of Leo Malet's Nestor Burma novels. These guys take
comics very seriously. Just amazing, beautiful books.
Fantagraphic Books
A little of everything, a lot of a lot of stuff. Want Hate comics,
they have them all, Want Bob Griffith Zippy stuff? They have
five collections. R. Crumb? Yep. Bob Miller? Yep. Want Fearless
Fosdick? Yep. Krazy Kat? Yep. Prince Valiant? Yep. A Love and
Rockets Zippo lighter? Yep. Eros Graphic novels? Yep and Yep.
(a separate catalog for EROS stuff, I think).
NBM Publishing (Nantier "Beall" Minoustchine)
Now we're talking about a publisher rather than
a distributor, though they distribute things as well. Go to the
website and sign up for a catalog is the easiest way to see their
wares. They have some Erotic stuff, no comics but a lot of graphic
novels though not much in the mystery vein, unfortunately.
Kitchen Sink Press
Another major supplier, with a LOT of stuff. The catalog rivals
Bud Plants, if you get both you have probably got things covered.
You stay on the catalog list by buying something every six months
or so, same as Bud Plant. They've got stuff by Alan Moore, Carol
Lay, Charles Burns, Dave McKean, Doug Allen, Eddie Campbell,
Erez Yakin, Jack Jackson, Jay Stephens, Jim Woodring, John Mueller,
John Wagner, Mark Landman, Mark Schultz, Matthew Coyle, Neil
Gaiman, Phoebe Gloeckner, Rick Veitch, Robert Crumb, Scott McCloud,
Will Eisner...
I've ordered from all of these sources, and they are all
reputible. They haven't mischarged me nor have I had any delivery
problems. Of course sometimes things get back-ordered, but they
are very good about letting you know and they keep plugging to
get the book. I haven't ordered from the websites, but then I
get the catalogs and just sort of go through them a couple of
times and then send of a check for the few things I can't live
without.
I'm not proposing any of these as a substitute for the
local comic shop, but if there are 4,000 comic shops in the US
and Canada, as I read recently, then there must be a lot of people
who don't have one nearby or don't have one that carries or will
get the stuff they want. There are certainly a LOT of things
in these catalogs and on the websites that my local shop doesn't
carry!
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