Reading Frenzy ~ An Independent Press Emporium

AEIOU or Any Easy Intimacy

By Jeffrey Brown

240 pgs,mini,paperback

The 3rd book of the "girlfriend" trilogy, and has Jeffrey learned anything? Only that girls make him cry. The intimate details of this story are so magnified, it is difficult to see the whole thing, which is the author's intention. Every panel captures a feeling or situation we have all experienced in our own relationships, and perhaps you can see yourself in Jeffrey's squiggly lines.

$12.00

The Airy Tales

By Olga Volozova

$15.00

American Elf (softcover)

By James Kochalka

520 pages

$29.95

Blankets (softcover)

By Craig Thompson

592 pgs., 9.4 x 6.5

From the publisher: Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith. A profound and utterly beautiful work.

Winner of the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Awards for BestGraphic Novel and Best Cartoonist.

"A rarity: a first-love story so well remembered and honest that it reminds you what falling in love feels like... achingly beautiful." --

"Blankets is a great American novel. --

"Thompson manages to explore adolescent social yearnings, the power of young love and the complexities of sexual attraction with a rare combination of sincerity, pictorial lyricism and taste." --

"I thought it was moving, tender, beautifully drawn, painfully honest, and probably the most important graphic novel since Jimmy Corrigan." --

"This is a genuine graphic novel, with a universal appeal." --

$29.95

Bookhunter

By Shiga

9 x 7.5"

From the Publisher:

"Ripped from today's headlines, Bookhunter fires off and you can't quit reading. The excitement is fulfilling. The year is 1973. A priceless book has been stolen from the Oakland Public Library. A crack team of Bookhunters (aka. library police) have less than three days to recover the stolen item. It's a race against the clock as our heroes use every
tool in their arsenal of library equipment to find the book and the mastermind who stole it.

Will the detectives catch this scoundrel? Find out in Bookhunter, the greatest comic of the new millennium. What a roller coaster ride of excitement! What an unexpected twist takes place! Do not begin Bookhunter unless you are prepared to finish it in one sitting."

$15.00

Brainfag Forever

By Nate Beaty

From the publisher: BFF: Brainfag Forever! collects nearly a decade of Nate Beaty's self-published comics. Brainfag is a medical term for "brain fatigue," culled from a turn-of-the-century Grape-Nuts ad. Nate uses comics to explore self-expression, love and love lost, urban existence versus living off the grid, balancing art and coding on the computer, and generally maintaining sanity in a world gone mad. Featuring extensive new material explaining each issue, including the first 25 years of his life in five pages! Climb inside the head of a cartoonist using comics as cheap therapy.

$13.00

Clumsy

By Jeffrey Brown

232 pages,digest,paperback

From the publisher: "You can open to any page and find something unusually bare and honest about these stories. They're surprising, even though half the moments in the book are ones you've probably experienced yourself. Hard trick to pull off." 

-- Ira Glass, This American Life, NPR

"Funny, sad, and a little embarrassing, Jeff Brown . . . delivers the look at real life that other forms of 'reality' entertainment falsely promise." 

-- Andrew Arnold, Time

Clumsy is Jeffrey Brown's debut work; a book praised by Chris Ware and hailed by James Kochalka as his "favorite graphic novel ever." Clumsy is the bittersweet story of a year-long, long-distance relationship, told through snippets of everyday life, drawn in a simple and elegantly awkward style that heightens the emotional impact and leaves you reminiscing about your own past love affairs. It also has a lot of sex.

$10.00

Cry Yourself to Sleep

By jeremy tinder

88 pgs., 6.1 x 4.5

From the publisher: Cry Yourself to Sleep explores the disappointments of early adulthood by following the lives of three unique characters: Jim, a minimum wage rabbit struggling to pay his rent; Andy, an aspiring novelist dealing with rejection; and The Robot, a machine who just wants to be a better man. In this stellar debut graphic novel, Jeremy Tinder mixes sadness, sweetness and humor to tell a quirky little story of pride swallowing, fake moustaches, car crashes and friendship.

$7.00

Delayed Replays

By Liz Prince

From the Publisher:

"The second comics collection from Ignatz Award winner Liz Prince (WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME IF I WET THE BED?), further explores how one incredibly self-centered twenty-something finds contentment in her everyday life. From the amusing to the banal, Liz's comics are slice-of-life at its best, or if not best, at least most relatable. These strips could easily find their home in many alternative weekly papers, but Liz is too lazy to post them anywhere but her live journal."

$7.00

Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio: Exploratory Studies of Girls and Rabbits

By Renee French

The fictional character of Edison Steelhead collects his(Renee French's) soft drawings along with daily observations of an artist at work.  Complete with recurring characters and an almost-narrative within the artists notes and the disheveled rabbits and girls within the strange world of Edison Steelhead.

$9.00