Wow Cool

Hello world. I’m glad to report that we have not one, but two new releases from Mickey Z. Not just the latest issue of R.A.V. – Number six – but also a short horror tale called Sagari. All of it hand produced with the miraculous Risographical technologies. Mickey was both awesome and economical in her shipping practices. All the books showed up at Wow Cool HQ in a stylish Riso ink box. Very appropriately emblazoned with a big Z.

Free Comic Book Day? Alternative Free Comic Book Day lasts all month! Brad Trip is always intense! In the meanwhile we have several exciting new titles to offer you.

First up are the first three offerings from Austin English’s Domino Books: Dark Tomato #1 by Sakura Maku, Spider Monkey #1 by Jesse McManus & Austin English, and Difficult Loves by Molly Colleen O’Connell.

Sugar Booger! Yes, Kevin Scalzo’s books live and thrive again at Wow Cool! Both issues of Sugar Booger, Aw Nuts and Sweat Book are all in stock. Vital stuff.

And then there’s Nurse Nurse by Katie Skelly, collecting all eight issues of her minicomic in a lovely paperback package. The first new release from Sparkplug since founder Dylan Williams’ passing. Michael DeForge says, “Nurse Nurse is perfect! It is beautiful and funny and deeply weird, and unlike any other comic out there right now”.

New to our shop is the first installment of Gabrielle Gamboa’s ambitious adaptation of Nathanael West’s agony column expose Miss Lonely Hearts. Frank Santoro says: “The tension between the styles builds and the rhythm of the 1,2 of the panels and the page turns is executed precisely and makes you want to read it all again and again. I forgot how intense this story is – it very much lends itself to a comic book treatment. Why it works is that the treatment is rooted stylistically to the time period rendered.” Go get yours now.

Malachi Ward’s new comic is the haunting 29 page tale, “Real Life” that makes up all of the first issue of his new series Ritual. You may know Malachi from his books Utu and Expansion with Matt Sheean. He’s also contributed to Study Group Magazine, NoBrow #6 and Prophet #24. Ritual #1 is in stock and available to you now in the Wow Cool Shop.

Each and every copy hand made by Zak Sally on his own press as shown below. Go grab yours now.

Fresh off the boat from swinging London is issue six of NoBow Magazine. For their first double issue NoBrow asked over 60 artists to contribute work to the theme of Doubles or Doppelgangers. With contributions from Tom Gauld (The Gigantic Robot), Kevin Huizenga (Ganges), Blanquet (Toys in the Basement), Malachi Ward (Utu) as well as new narrative work from Nobrow stalwarts Jon McNaught (Birchfield Close, Pebble Island), Jack Teagle (Jeff: Job Hunter) and Luke Pearson (Hildafolk) and the formidable talents of Michael Deforge and Ignatz newcomer award winner Joseph Lambert, among many, many others. Illustration submissions from the likes of Sean Lewis, Roman Muradov, Golden Cosmos, Gwenola Carrere, Andrea Kalfas, Viviane Scwartz, Katia Spitzer, Luke Best and many many more!

We’ve also got the newest issue of the excellent Mother’s News in; and, while supplies last, anyone whose order ships out from the Wow Cool shop via Media or Priority Flat Rate mail gets a free copy. The last couple issues flew out of here pretty quick. For those who don’t know, Mother’s News is a free monthly newspaper out of Providence, RI. It features regular comic strips by Michael DeForge, C.F., Brian Chippendale, Mickey Z. and many other that you can’t find elsewhere.

There are many new books that should be arriving any day, in the meanwhile we’ve recently added some older gems, including: fresh stock of Eric Haven’s The Aviatrix and Andy Ristaino’s Tunnel; Scott C.’s Double Fine Action Comics Volume 1; Tom Gauld’s The Gigantic Robot; the very fine second and third issues of the anthology Pencil Fight; and a Craig Thompson rarity in the Dark Horse magazine Reveal.

In other news, there is finally some proper art in the shop header, courtesy of Andy Ristaino.

As the seasons renew and the days last longer, lo!, there are new books in the shop and I stay up later to tell you about them. We have lifted the curse of a seemingly endless array of books published in 2008, which made up the bulk of additions to the shop last month, and moved on to actual new things.

First up we have Wild Glass Look Back by R. Clint Colburn, a full color sketchbook collection from new publisher Space Face Books. This is a very limited edition at a very reasonable price.

Next is the very latest in the Retrofit series, Noah Van Sciver’s 1999: The Year My World Ended – a possibly slightly ironic (given the year depicted) take on the putting the pathetic loser through a possibly semi-autobiographical hell tale.

Lastly, to prove that April is far from cruel, we give you fear in a handful of dust (wait that’s not right…) No, we give you D.I.Y. Magic by Anthony Alvarado – spawned from his Athur Magazine column and now taken root in heavily illustrated (by Ron Regé, Jesse Moynihan, Malachi Ward, Farel Dalrymple and many others) bound paper form from Portland’s Floating World Books.

Stay tuned for more goodness. This is looking to be an exciting year in funny book land.