Publishing Comics

Starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, author Jeremy Dauber whizzes listeners through the progress of comics in the 20th century and beyond. Follow the history from the golden age of newspaper comic strips - Krazy Kat, Yellow Kid, Dick Tracy - to the midcentury superhero boom - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman - and from the moral panic of the Eisenhower era to the underground comix movement; from the grim and gritty Dark Knights to the graphic novel’s rise.

Victor Vex was supposed to be the world's greatest supervillain. He has the volcano. He has the cape. He has the dramatic laugh. Unfortunately, the superheroes vanished decades ago. Now Victor spends more time arguing with accountants, repairing ageing death rays and trying to recruit competent henchmen than threatening the world. His greatest enemy might just be modern bureaucracy. Everything changes when a simple bank robbery uncovers a forgotten photograph, a mysterious key and a message that should never have existed. The Collection has begun. As old allies, retired villains, forgotten ...

Flintmantle dreams of becoming a legendary beast slayer, just like his famous uncle. He certainly has the strength, the courage and the skill. Unfortunately, the slightest sight of blood sends him crashing to the ground. Armed with a mighty warhammer, Flintmantle leaves his mountain home in search of adventure. He soon collects a most unconventional company: Tobin and Nackle, two brightly dressed halflings who charge into danger before anyone can stop them; Mossbeard, a forgetful druid whose magic rarely behaves as intended; and Sootwhistle, an eight-inch-tall drunkard with a bent sword, a ...

From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd comes this hilarious and informative book of answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe’s iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science...

Four mutant chickens. One ruined fried-chicken restaurant. A city full of terrible ideas. Professor Cornelius Cluck wanted to solve world hunger with an experimental feed known as M.C.S.-51. Instead, Hatch 51 exploded. Now Spur, Bertha, Nugget and Flap are six-foot mutant chickens hiding out in the abandoned Cluck Bucket while New Yolk City fills with escaped experiments, mutant vegetables, weaponised gravy and one extremely angry genetically engineered cow. Worst of all, Colonel Scramble survived. The cracked mutant egg is gathering the failed experiments of Hatch 51 into his own ...

The swamp was supposed to be forgotten. Abandoned after years of chemical dumping, Neon Mire has become home to a bizarre civilisation of mutants, monsters and creatures who simply want to be left alone. Then NeonCore Industries discovers something buried beneath the mud. The Neon Heart. An ancient crystal capable of producing unimaginable energy. Now corporate mercenaries, giant harvesting machines and ruthless scientists are tearing through the swamp to reach it. Standing in their way are five unlikely defenders: Boggs, a bullfrog martial artist; Wrench, a masked snapping-turtle inventor;...

A stand-up comedian beloved for her combination of feisty wit and Southern charm, Pierce knows all too well that life is funny—until it’s not. But she also knows that it will become funny again. She’s held on to that hope—and that promise—through tragedy and triumph. And now she’s finally ready to tell her full story. In Life Is Funny until It’s Not, Pierce recounts a preacher’s daughter’s childhood filled with heartbreak, including abuse, her parents’ divorce, and the sudden deaths of her two sisters in the span of two years.

"Matt Drabble is a name that will one day be as widely recognized as Stephen King & Dean Koontz" - READERS FAVORITE Thirty years ago, an alien ship crashed into an English farm, and the world changed forever. The visitor - a green, reptilian being named Cosmic Jones - was thrust into the spotlight by ambitious young reporter Jamie-Lyn Anderson. When religious extremists of the SOUL organisation took hostages, the government turned him into the world's first real-life superhero. Armed with a team of enhanced humans - the marksman Six-Shooter, the empathic Dr Quantum, the unstoppable Bull, ...

PICK UP THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE MICROPHONE Part instruction manual, part memoir and part cautionary tale, “How to FAIL at Stand-Up Comedy” is a hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking exploration of a 30 year career in stand-up. Sabo pulls no punches while revealing what it’s really like to live the life of a traveling comedian, warts and all. Sabo points out everything you can do wrong in this business with glaring detail and without judgment. Chock full of advice from industry insiders and experts in the field, “FAIL” takes you on the journey from open-miker to seasoned ...

Bloomsbury presents Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson, read by Rebecca McClay The classic comic novel based on the author's real experiences as the wife of a British Army officer in the 1920s ‘The writer's unflagging humour, her shrewd, worldly wisdom, and her extremely realistic...

She could forgive the affair. She could forgive the hidden millions. But one-star reviews were personal. Jennifer Flanders is a prolific self-published mystery author and an amateur detective of extraordinary confidence. She has exposed a murder at a Napa vineyard, investigated a suspicious death on a weight-loss cruise, and hunted a vegetarian stalker through an Aspen ski resort. The police may dispute every conclusion, but Jennifer knows what she knows. Her greatest enemy is Magnolia, the anonymous reviewer methodically awarding one star to everything Jennifer publishes. Then Jennifer ...

Perfect for lovers of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the undead mayhem of What We Do in the Shadows, Christopher Moore's worldly wit, and the weird fun of Sookie Stackhouse. A demented Alchemyst. An outraged Faërie queen. And Benny and Gus, ghouls with a goal . . . . . . which will probably get...

This program is read by the author. The definitive biography of the beloved—often controversial—co-creator of many legendary superheroes, A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee presents the origin of “Stan the Man,” who spun a storytelling web of comic book heroic adventures...

A deadly killer stalks the rain-soaked streets of Shinbone, spreading panic and terror among the townsfolk. The authorities are baffled, partly because there hasn’t been a single crime in Shinbone for more than a hundred years but mostly because this particular deadly killer… …isn’t actually killing anyone. Enter Hieronymous Blush, master magician and the detective responsible for solving the mystery of The Lickspittle Leviathan. Can one man stand alone against the demonic threat of The Shinbone Shadowhunter? Of course not: he can’t even tie his own shoes. The race is on….

In this insightful and provocative book, comics-industry veteran Danny Fingeroth explores the backgrounds of the most well-known superheroes and their creators—largely young American Jewish men from Eastern European backgrounds. These innovators include Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Will Eisner, and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In Disguised as Clark Kent, Fingeroth explores how the creators’ Jewish backgrounds helped make superheroes the most familiar popular-culture icons of all.

"You're a comedian? That must be awesome!" It's a familiar response from people who've just met someone that calls comedy their full-time job. On the surface, it's glamorous: laughter, bright spotlights, and traveling the world. But like sausage-making, the real action is far from pretty. What goes unseen is the struggle undertaken by comedians to perform on that stage. In Go Home Happy, stand-up veteran Nathan Timmel leads the reader through a funny, pride-swallowing journey navigating the minefield of club owners, booking agents, drunken hecklers, and unexpected friends. Part fun and ...

Michael E. Uslan, executive producer of the Batman movie franchise, offers an insider’s look at Hollywood and the process of how movies and television shows go from the drawing board to your screens. Continuing the delightful tale of his adventures begun in The Boy Who Loved Batman, Uslan draws on both his successful and less successful attempts to bring ideas to the screen, offering a helpful, honest, and breezily told guide to producing films.

Explore the Stories Behind the Legends The 1990s and early 2000s were a time of intense change and experimentation for Marvel Comics. Out of this emerged The Ultimates—a comic that would have an explosive impact on Marvel and the broader pop culture landscape. Writer Mark Millar, with artists...

Humans think they run Grimborough. The cats know better. Meet Felix Ninewhiskers: alley cat, self-appointed chairman, criminal mastermind and proud owner of more confidence than common sense. Together with the Alley Council—a nervous grey cat who distrusts buckets, an enormous ginger obsessed with sausages, an elegant former aristocrat, a one-eyed storyteller whose impossible tales keep turning out to be true, a curious kitten with a talent for magical trouble, an old sailor still waiting for his captain, and a shadowy mischief-maker nobody ever sees coming—Felix has one simple ambition...

Smoke rolls through the forests. Tanks burn beside the railway line. Horses charge through artillery fire as Poland fights for survival on the first day of the Second World War. Under Fire – Mokra is a brutal and immersive collection of twelve interconnected stories set during the Battle of Mokra on 1 September 1939, where the Polish Volhynian Cavalry Brigade stunned the advancing German war machine with fierce resistance, hidden anti-tank guns, daring cavalry attacks, and stubborn determination. Through the eyes of tank commanders, cavalry troopers, infantrymen, Stuka pilots, artillery ...