Invaluable [and] idiosyncratic . . . Brunetti includes under-the-radar surprises . . . and draws consistently fascinating connections between pieces.”—Cliff Froehlich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Cliff Foehlich
"One of the most stunning—and smartly assembled—anthologies I've ever seen."—Eric Reynolds, FLOG! The Fantagraphics Blog
FLOG! The Fantagraphics Blog - Eric Reynolds
Good grief, what a book this is—a hyperactive, periodically insane dive into the archaeology of alternative comics, the sort of book you long to present to people with no interest in the medium and watch as it removes the top of their heads and gives their brains a good stir. . . . Each page has something new, upsetting, wonderful on it, which makes it, along with the equally gigantic vol. 1, pretty much unbeatable.”—Independent on Sunday
I urge you to check out An Anthology of Graphic Fiction & True Stories (both volumes), edited by Brunetti and published by Yale University Press. They're certainly two of the best anthologies I've seen in recent years.”—Whitney Matheson, USA Today “Pop Candy” blog
USA Today - Whitney Matheson
"An engaging, provocative, and valuable survey."—Booklist
"If the Daniel Clowes cover intrigues you, and you want to a good introduction to the odder and more idiosyncratic side of comics today, there are few guides more knowledgeable than Brunetti, and few books more useful than his Anthologies ."—Andrew Wheeler, ComicMix
ComicMix - Andrew Wheeler
"Brunetti has a genius for sequencing. . . . Like almost any good comic, these anthologies flow."—Richard Gehr, The Village Voice (online)
The Village Voice (online) - Richard Gehr
"Another far-reaching set of comics that range from the 1920s to 2008. As with the first book, the genius of this second Anthology is in its organization, which groups pieces not by year or subject, but by association. . . . A."—Onion A.V. Club
"An engaging, provocative, and valuable survey."Booklist
"Brunetti has a genius for sequencing. . . . Like almost any good comic, these anthologies flow."—Richard Gehr, The Village Voice (online)
Richard Gehr
The Village Voice (online)
"One of the most stunning—and smartly assembled—anthologies I''ve ever seen."—Eric Reynolds, FLOG! The Fantagraphics Blog
Eric Reynolds
FLOG! The Fantagraphics Blog
"If the Daniel Clowes cover intrigues you, and you want to a good introduction to the odder and more idiosyncratic side of comics today, there are few guides more knowledgeable than Brunetti, and few books more useful than his Anthologies ."—Andrew Wheeler, ComicMix
Andrew Wheeler
“Invaluable [and] idiosyncratic . . . Brunetti includes under-the-radar surprises . . . and draws consistently fascinating connections between pieces.”—Cliff Froehlich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Cliff Foehlich
No doubt about it: If you follow graphic literature, this is the anthology. Like its predecessor, the stand-alone second volume of Ivan Brunetti's Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories not only packs a punch with its star-studded writer and artist lineup; it functions as a hands-on tutorial to this burgeoning art form. As for the lineup, here's a modest sample: Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Jaimes Hernandez, Gary Panter, Joe Sacco, Saul Steinberg, and Frank Santoro.
The book is a manifesto of comics’ coming of age. Unlike several earlier anthologies of comics, including two dense volumes published by the Smithsonian (one of newspaper comics, one of comic-book stories) and a fine collection of newspaper strips compiled by the comics artist Jerry Robinson (“The Comics”), the Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories is not an overview of the history of comics from their birth in the lurid Sunday supplements of the turn of the last century through the rise of superheroes in the late 1930s to the triumph of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer for Maus in 1992. Rather, it concentrates almost solely on recent work by contemporary artists and writers doing what Brunetti calls “art comics” — personal, deeply intimate, idiosyncratic and sometimes wild comics published for the most part by independent presses. The New York Times
Brunetti's stated criteria for what made the cut for this hearty and hefty volume comes in his refreshingly honest introduction: "Ultimately... these are comics that I savor and often revisit." Luckily Brunetti's got a fabulous eye for an artist's signature work. The selections are difficult to argue with, hitting not just the expected luminaries (Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes) but lesser-knowns like surrealist Mark Beyer and Richard McGuire, whose "Here" breaks down the time-space continuum with mind-bending ease. Brunetti includes usually just one work from each artist, but makes exceptions for the likes of R. Crumb, and he isn't above putting his own work in, a move that's somehow more charming than obnoxious. Any fallow patches are more than made up for by, say, Jaime Hernandez's cinematic miniepic "Flies on the Ceiling." Unlike other recent anthologies, women cartoonists are represented with some of the best work in the book, like Debbie Drechsler's horrific "Visitors in the Night." While one may question the need for another comics anthology in a year unusually heavy with them, Brunetti has gone beyond the obvious to create an anthology of what is truly the finest in comics. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Don't be fooled by the prosaic title or the whiff of pedagogy in the introduction; this is the world of comics-or at least the North American, English-speaking part of that world-at its liveliest. The second anthology edited by Brunetti (volume one was published in 2006) showcases some of the form's history and development, highlights some of the best and better-known contemporary artists and introduces some cutting-edge innovators working at the vanguard of form and collage. The thematic organization by the editor (a Chicago-based professor and cartoonist) is compellingly idiosyncratic, juxtaposing Chris Ware's one-pager of a superhero named "God" with R. Sikoryak's series of covers for the fictional Action Camus series-a takeoff on Action Comics with a superhero who is part Superman, part Albert Camus's The Stranger. The work included addresses plenty of psycho-philosophical issues-death, identity, dreams, memory, death and the possibility of an afterlife-while also including a tribute to MAD magazine's creator Harvey Kurtzman, with his work followed by extended graphic celebrations by such leading acolytes as Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman. The latter stresses how far Kurtzman's influence extended beyond fellow artists to the culture at large: "I think Harvey's MAD was more important than pot and LSD in shaping the generation that protested the Vietnam War." The obsessions probed throughout the anthology are as personal as the artistry, with Crumb offering a series of strips on record collecting (the first in collaboration with Harvey Pekar) and the exotic lure of what were once known as "race records"; Joe Matt on porn addiction; and Lynda Barry on dancing (and "keepers of thegroove"). In David Heatley's closing " Portrait of My Mom" and "Portrait of My Dad," it's plain that what he's really offering is a portrait of himself. Explains Brunetti, "I have tried to represent a variety of approaches while retaining a sense of wholeness and interconnectedness among the stories. If the first volume viewed comics as a developing human being, then this volume treats them as an extended family."The anthology suggests that, thankfully, this extended family isn't close to exhausting its creative potential.