Missed the Small Press Expo? That's okay, Top Shelf and Drawn and Quarterly are giving you a chance to make up for it by holding some big sales this month. Despite being a regular at SPX these days, I love these sales as a chance to pick up either older books that I've missed or to take a second look at a comic I was considering in the past.
You can reach Top Shelf's sale site here. It's running through September 24th.
Top Shelf's $3 and up sale may not have a lot left for me that I don't already own, but here's some things for you to get if you don't have them already.
The Non-$3 Stuff:
Eddie Campbell is an amazing artist, and the Alec: The Years Have Pants collection, while being $20 instead of $3, is a book I've been coveting for some time. I'll be grabbing this one finally, as the artist who might best be known for working with Alan Moore is fast becoming one of my personal favorites.
If Rick Kosolowski's King is anything to go by, then you'll enjoy BB Wolf and the 3 LPs and Three Fingers, which feature some re-imagining of some familiar characters. They're both $10, and are high on my to-read list.
I really enjoyed Carnet de Voyage by Jason Thompson, as his introspective travelogue takes the reader to places that I have a feeling I'll never make it to in my life. This is $10 well spent if you are a big fan of travel writing. The illustrations make this even better than reading a "book book" as I like to call them.
Unlikely and Undeleted Scenes, both by Jeffrey Brown, can give you your fill of autobiographical comics. Each is $10, and you can read my review of Unlikely here.
The $3 Titles:
At only $3 each, the Surrogates and its prequel, Flesh and Bone, are an absolute steal. These are great noir-inspired stories with a sci-fi feel. My reviews are here and here.
I mentioned King above, and I'm happy to see it's part of the sale, too. This story, that may or may not be the lost last years of a rather famous singer, is a tale of faith and redemption, and is amazingly deep. My review is here.
Fox Bunny Funny is another story that's deeper than it looks. It's a cute allegory at first and then moves in more philosophical directions. I raved about this one, and I should re-read it soon.
You can grab the "lighter" side of Jeffrey Brown by checking out Sulk. All three volumes are in the sale.
This sale is also a chance to sample James Kochalka. There are lots of smaller sketchbook diaries as well as a few others. Any one of them is worth a look.
These are just some of the items in the sale that I wanted to highlight. Some are on my to-read shelves (that never seem to shrink!), like Van Helsing's Night Off and Trenches. If you're putting together an order, take some chances. Grab a book or two that looks interesting that you know nothing about. It's only going to cost you a cup of coffee or two if you're wrong. If you're right, that's a new favorite creator to add to your list.
Tomorrow, we'll look at Drawn and Quarterly's sale.
