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Summer vacation was fun. But now it’s over….

We have some excellent new and recent items in the store right now: We’re pleased to announce that Cold Heat 7/8 by our beloved Frank Santoro and Ben Jones and Matthew Thurber’s 1-800 MICE #3 are now in stock! Two mighty comics series making bold returns. And Anya Davidson has returned with an excellent new comic, Cosmic Collisions.

Cold Heat 7/8!

Also, back in stock we have Yuichi Yokoyama’s Painting and his full line of posters for your gazing pleasure.

And last but certainly not least, we’re carrying vintage original printings of airbrush posters from the 1970s by Kings Peter Palombi and Charlie White III. We have limited quantities of these masterpieces, so get ’em while you can.

Other news:

ITEM: We are now offering some of our titles on the iPhone via Panelfly. So now you can read Powr Mastrs, The Goddess of War, Travel, and Storeyville on your iPhone!

ITEM: The PictureBox Gallery (online only) is bursting at the virtual seams with original art by Ben Jones, Gary Panter, CF, Charlie White III, Peter Lloyd and many others. Go have a look.

ITEM: We owe a giant thanks to all of you who pre-ordered If ‘n Oof and Powr Mastrs 3. You can look for those in March 2010.

Phew, that was a lot. Now, onto the sale!

For one week (Sept. 8-15) we are reducing our prices by up to 35% on many items in the shop, and for the first time we’re offering “Value Packs” for your shopping convenience. That’s right, we’re making it that much easier to enjoy PictureBox goodness. The sets are as follows:

The Overspray Deluxe Set: Pimp-out your bookcase and walls with a copy of Overspray: Riding High With the Kings of California Airbrush Art, as well as two enormous Peter Palombi posters: This is Why You’re Overweight and Exotic Pets.
All for just $35!

Powr Mastrs Set: Need to catch up on Powr Mastrs before the third one drops! Well, get the first two volumes and CF’s miniature masterpiece, Core of Caligula, for an even $20.

80s Grotesque Set: Pee Dog 2: The Captain’s Final Log and Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby. Feeling overwhelmed by the world? Hopeless and ruined? These two graphic romps through sexual confusion, misery and poop jokes will lift your spirits and have you up and around in no time! Cheap therapy for just $20.

Young Painters Set: Here at PictureBox we sure do love a good painting. So much so that we’ve published books with some of the best damn painters around. Get 6 publications by Eddie Martinez, Joe Bradley, Jonas Wood, Michael Williams, Chuck Webster, Katherine Bernhardt and Brian Belott for just $40. That’s a lifetime of gallery-going for one low price.

The Ben Jones Approved Set: Three books beloved by artiste Ben Jones. Mythtym, by Trinie Dalton; Travel by Yuichi Yokoyama; and Jones’ own New Painting and Drawing. See from whence Jones draws inspiration and sample these goodies. $35 is a small price to pay for a glimpse of immortality.

Rock Set: If you’re not to busy playing Rock Band, how ’bout immersing yourself in a multi-generational rock-out with these fab books. For the Love of Vinyl will teach you the meaning of album design; The Wilco Summer Tour Program will leave you in stitches; Real Fun will bring you back to your indie rock roots (or give you new ones); A fantastic Chuck Berry poster by Charlie White III will loom over you; and all of this can happen while listening to Gary and Devin whale away on their psych-country trip. Rock to build a truck on for just $50.

And that’s it. We hope to see you on the road in the next couple months, either at The Small Press Expo in Washington D.C. or The New York Art Book Fair. Thanks!

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Ben Jones has risen from his bed to pronounce things upon us in this interview. Imagine him saying these things (he looks like Heston in Soylent Green) on a busy street corner in 1895. Macho. Authoritative. Jones!

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That’s right, you heard me. Bloodied and battered we rise up with Castle to lead us! Frank Santoro and Ben Jones have unleashed a brand new issue — 48 pages, full color — called Cold Heat 5/6. Just 100 copies were made, and it’s only available online. So don’t dilly dally — get on with it! Frank has some fine words about the issue on his blog, as well as incredible original art for sale done with Jim Rugg. And you buy the issue itself at PictureBox!

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Opening Thursday, Feb.5, 6-9 pm: Ben Jones: The New Dark Age.

Yep, a massive solo show by Mr. Jones. I’ve seen it along the way and it’s a fantastic thing. Below are some images of work in progress, etc.

BEN JONES
FEB 5TH – FEB 28TH 2009
OPENING THURSDAY,
FEBRUARY 5 6-9PM
76 GRAND STREET
NYC, NY

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In the spirit of hope (and commerce) PictureBox is holding a massive, two-week sale on nearly everything on our web site! It’s a cold world out there, but what better way to pass the time than curling up with a visual book! Each book is a stimulus package for the soul! Plus every purchase from now (January 16) until February 1 will include a FREE copy of Paper Rad’s DVD Problem Solvers.

So, here we go:

* Been curious about Overspray: Riding High with the Kings of California Airbrush Art? This masterpiece has been lauded by everyone from Women’s Wear Daily to the New York Times to Eye Magazine, and it can be yours for just $20!

* Ever wondered about who made the best record covers of the 1970s? In awe of Houses of the Holy, Dark Side of the Moon and Electric Warrior? No need to be frightened, for all will be revealed by buying For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis. It, too, can be yours for $20!

* Beguiled by mythical trappings and enamored of contemporary art and writing by my generation’s best imaginations? Then dig into Trinie Dalton’s MYTHTYM for just $15! It’s like going to a museum, reading the best book ever written, and watching a movie all at the same time!

* Curious about the book about which the New York Times exclaimed: “Few cartoonists of the moment are weirder or more original than Yuichi Yokoyama – his work obsessively diagrams architecture and design … Travel is remarkably entertaining.” Travel can now be yours for just $9.95!

* Want to dip into a graphic novel on nearly ever top ten of ‘08 list? Interested in Dune? Philip K. Dick? What about masterful drawing? Well, my friend, check out C.F.’s Powr Mastrs 2, now just $10!

* And then there’s Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby! The Village Voice crows: “By depicting human behavior at its worst, Nemoto recalibrates the limits of what we can bear to consider on a page of comics.” Damn straight. Yours for $8.95!

* Many consider Lauren Weinstein’s The Goddess of War a shortform masterpiece of graphic storytelling. I sure do! Richard Gehr calls it a “A blend of Marvel’s Thor comic, a Wagnerian space opera, and Anthony Mann’s Westerns” Sounds right to me! Yours for just $7.95!

* And, good heavens, where else can you find Michel Gondry’s visionary memoir/manifesto/guru-text You’ll Like This Film Because You’re In It? The man is a genius, and the book is a helluva a lot of fun to read. Inspirational and educational too! Now just $6.95!

* Wait a minute, what about The Ganzfeld 7? Co-edited and designed by Paper Rad’s Ben Jones, this final issue actually elicited an email from one notoriously cranky woman stating “It’s the best thing ever! And I’m not even stoned!” Yours for just $25.00!

* I know you’ve been wanting to buy Gary Panter, which remains PictureBox’s finest hour, but needed to first purchase a pedestal to hold its 10 pound weight. Now you can, since it’s just $30!!!!!

* All of these books, not to mention our older, equally remarkable books, like Frank Santoro’s Storeyville (just $8.95), Brian Chippendale’s Maggots (just $8.00), Cheryl Dunn’s Some Kinda Vocation (just $8.00) and Paper Rad’s Cartoon Workshop/Pig Tales (just $6.95) are all on sale. Not to mention prints, posters and much much more. Get down with it!

* And remember, PictureBox wants you to have these books because we have your best interests at heart!

This sale will self-destruct on February 1.

Happy hunting.

Love,

PictureBox

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This weekend at SPX PictureBox will unleash some serious chaos on you. Lauren Weinstein, CF, Frank Santoro, Timothy Hodler and Matthew Thurber will be in attendance.

PictureBox will debut new zines by Dash Shaw and Santoro. AND we will have limited advance copies of the books below.

The Ganzfeld 7
Edited by Dan Nadel and Ben Jones
Art directed and designed by Ben Jones
Edition of 1000

This is the final issue of The Ganzfeld. We got excited and just skipped 6 and went straight to 7. For this one we’ve really stacked the deck. Ben Jones art directed and co-edited the whole thing, even providing covers. Inside the 288 page, full color book is new work by: Brian Gibson, Lauren Weinstein, Taylor McKimens, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Jessica Ciocci, Chris Ware, Mat Brinkman & Joe Grillo (24 pages of collaborative drawings), Erin Rosenthal, Keith McCulloch, Peter Blegvad, Joe Buzzell, Jon Vermilyea, C.F., Eddie Martinez, Chuck Webster, and many more. There are features on Marc Smeets, Joanne Greenbaum, Heinz Edelmann and Pshaw. And there are comics by Ben Jones throughout. It’s a brick. A monument. A terror. Available at very few outlets and pretty much only online.

If that weren’t enough it comes packages with 4 more items only available as part of the package:

-Problem Solvers, the DVD, by Paper Rad. EXCLUSIVE to Ganz 7
-A 12 page zine collecting the best of Kathy Grayson’s blog
-A 24 page pamphlet examining the work of L.A. genius artist Bob Zoell by Norman Hathaway
-An 18×24 two-sided poster by Lauren Weinstein

Travel
Yuichi Yokoyama

All SPX copies are signed with a drawing by Yokoyama

In Yuichi Yokoyama’s Travel, the storyline is as linear as it is sharp: it is the long, silent and crystalline description of a train ride undertaken by three men. The subject Yokoyama depicts here is less the landscape around the train (the distance covered, the regions travelled through) than the actions within the train itself. As the train moves, the three men walk through the string of cars and are confronted with the vehicle’s architecture, its machine-like environment. By above all, they are confronted with the stares and the physical presence of other passengers. Travel is a journey into the contemporary Japanese psyche – a brilliant, wordless graphic novel. Bookforum has written of Yokoyama: “Concerned with phenomena rather than character and narrative, his comics resemble the output of a drafting machine: sequences that present multiple views of an object in action and look like exploded product diagrams. Yokoyama seems to enjoy the resulting images as much for the strange shapes that are generated as for what they reveal.” This edition features an introduction by cartoonist and historian Paul Karasik and commentary by the author.

Powr Mastrs Vol. 2
C.F.

Powr Mastrs Vol. 2 follows hot on the heels of this elusive artist’s first volume– in a series of six graphic novels–which was one of last year’s most anticipated debuts. C.F. comes out of the mythic Providence, Rhode Island art and noise scene–his musical alias is Kites. In a recent profile The Comics Reporter observes, “Contrasting sharply with many of his flashier contemporaries, C.F.’s primary skill lies in overlooked nuances of comics storytelling, in particular pacing.” His distinctive voice and intricate rendering skills have attracted attention from the groundbreaking comics anthology, Kramers Ergot–he was included in the fourth issue, and featured on the cover of the fifth. Here, C.F.’s epic fantasy–an allegorical tale where power, physical identity and even gender are always in flux–picks up steam: Buell Kazee sneaks down into the cellar of the plex knowe crypt and conjures trouble; Tetradyne Cola takes a nap and dreams of Monica Glass and the lemon sparklers of star studio; members of the Marker clan compare notes on their magical crimes and the witches of Lace Temblor conspire over transmutation night.

Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby
Takashi Nemoto

“Nemoto is the undisputed master of filthy comics. His work is brutal and horrifying and sure to shock even the most jaded comics reader. And yet underneath all his absurd depravity is a beautiful and touching story of a father’s love for his giant mutant sperm son.”-Johnny Ryan

At long last, this underground Japanese classic has been translated into English. A seminal work of manga from the mid-1980s, Monster Man Bureiko Lullaby is a Candide-esque tale–if you can picture Candide as a mutated sperm brought to life by radioactivity. Unremittingly explicit, this is the comics equivalent of Henry Miller at his best: direct, honest and insightful while simultaneously beautiful and grotesque. Tokyo-based Takashi Nemoto, who was born in 1958, has been called the R. Crumb of Japan: Nemoto and Crumb share a similar, surreal drawing style and pessimistic, satirical stance, for which both have faced their share of negative criticism. Due to his unapologetically squalid subject matter, Nemoto has long been a controversial figure in Japan–clashing violently with mainstream Japanese morals–and is just now receiving some critical success there. Reviewers are finally looking past his gross-out humor to find farflung influences and connections like Mark Twain, Otto Dix and Andre Masson. Book design by King Terry.

See you this weekend!

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The unflappable Chris Beckett gets high on Cold Heat in this profile / interview.

Check it out here.

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Then I guess I have to. I keep waiting for some happy blogger to find this, but no one ever does. It’s our dedicated site, courtesy of Ben Jones, for the upcoming back breaker/door stop/weapon of love Gary Panter.
Bookmark it now.

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Frank Santoro hanging masterful new drawings

Ben Jones contemplating the universe

Tonight, at CANADA, New Mutants!

And tomorrow, at MoCCA, Comics Comics 3, 1-800 MICE, The Ganzfeld 5, and maniac artists signing galore!