From Hesiod on through to the "primitivists" of today, by way of Rousseau, William Morris, and Fourier, among others51 selections in all. Here's a reader that throws light on the inner logic of civilization and its devouring course. In these times of desolation for individual, society, and biosphere alike, such a collection (including commentaries by Zerzan) is urgently needed. Why does every culture have its longing for a lost Golden Age? How have History and Progress brought us such vast separation and emptiness, such a sense of no future? Is it civilization itself that has brought us here? Schiller, Paul Shepard, Kirkpatrick Sale, Fourier, Perlman, Sahlins, Bahro, Zerzan, the Unabomber, etc. etc.visionaries and theorists exposing the foundations of today's crisis.

Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections

History

World

Uncivilized Books

"The Voyeurs is the work of a mature writer, if not one of the most sincere voices of her literary generation. It's a fun, honest read that spans continents, relationships and life decisions. I loved it."—Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library
"As she watches other people living life, and watches herself watching them, Bell's pen becomes a kind of laser, first illuminating the surface distractions of the world, then scorching them away to reveal a deeper reality that is almost too painful and too beautiful to bear."— Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
"A master of the exquisite detail, Bell provides a welcome peephole into our lives."—Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker
"I don't think I could tolerate her if she wasn't so talented."—Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Voyeurs is a real-time memoir of a turbulent five years in the life of renowned cartoonist, diarist, and filmmaker Gabrielle Bell. It collects episodes from her award-winning series Lucky, in which she travels to Tokyo, Paris, the South of France, and all over the United States, but remains anchored by her beloved Brooklyn, where sidekick Tony provides ongoing insight, offbeat humor, and enduring friendship.
Gabrielle Bell's work has been selected for the 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Houghton-Mifflin Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and has been featured in McSweeney's, The Believer, and Vice magazines. "Cecil and Jordan In New York," the title story of her most recent book, was adapted for the screen by Bell and director Michel Gondry in the film anthology Tokyo! She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The Voyeurs

Comics & Graphic Novels

Bell, Gabrielle

Graphic Novels

Trans Terra is a mutant memoir that melds comics, politics, and philosophy into a heady brew exploring work, creativity, emergence of the new, and the possibility of utopia. The author's journey begins in the frigid wastelands of contemporary consumer culture. Like a surreal HMS Beagle, Trans Terra meanders through time and space exploring archipelagos real and imagined. Prominent stops include Soviet Siberia, Communist Poland, Plato's Atlantis, nineteenth-century New York, and Sir Thomas More's Utopia. Arriving on the polluted shores of collapsing global civilization, Tom K glimpses the faint light of utopia beyond the veil of Apocalypse. Taking cue from Salvador Dali's paranoiac-critical method, the author unearths improbable connections between thinkers as disparate as Ignatious Donnelly, Alvin Toffler, Rem Koolhaas, Slavoj Å½iÅ¾ek, and many others. Translated into several languages, Trans Terra is a comic book manifesto for the post-capitalist-crisis world.
Tom Kaczynski (a.k.a. Tom K) is an Ignatz-nominated cartoonist, designer, illustrator, writer, teacher, and publisher. His comics have appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, Mome, Punk Planet, The Drama, and many other publications. Beta Testing the Apocalypse, a collection of his Mome stories, was published by Fantagraphics Books in July 2012. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his partner Nikki and their two black cats.

Trans Terra: Towards a Cartoon Philosophy

Kaczynski, Tom

"True Swamp is a true classic. Melancholy frogs, awkward cross-species relationships, thoughtful discussions on the meaning of life and love and the possibility of kindness, and of course the ever-present need to eat and not be eaten. Jon Lewis has created a world so rich in detail and personality that once you've dipped your toe in the warm larvae-filled water, you won't want to leave. And to tell the truth, you never will. It's been nearly twenty years since I first read these stories and still they simmer away inside my brain, like a benevolent ink-borne parasite that burrows ever deeper, exposing strange new layers of wonder and insight in that crowded fertile swamp we call life."— Dylan Horrocks, Hicksville
True Swamp: Choose Your Poison collects the first storyline of this landmark series, telling the tale of Lenny the Frog—part coming-of-age story, part fantastic adventure, part gutter poetry. Unavailable for over a decade, this twentieth anniversary edition features meticulously restored art, never-reprinted material, an introduction by Charles Hatfield (The Hand Of Fire: The Comics Art Of Jack Kirby), and a foreword by Ed Brubaker (Criminal, Captain America, Incognito).
Jon Lewis began True Swamp in 1992. It continues today. Other comics include Ghost Ship, Spectacles, and scripts for DC, Dark Horse, and Kodansha Publishing. Lewis came to prominence as one of a tight-knit wave of early '90s Seattle cartoonists who brought new narrative ambition to alternative comics. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

True Swamp: Choose Your Poison (True Swamp, 1)

Lewis, Jon

"One of 10 Best Comics and Graphic Novels of the year."—The Onion "Great Graphic Novel for Teens"—Young Adult Library Services Association A great wall separates a magnificent metropolis from the surrounding countryside. All humans are banned from ever entering the city. A young girl is determined to enter the forbidden city in search of her lost brother. When she crosses over, fantastic adventures ensue in narrow medieval streets, ancient temples, and abandoned bazars of the haunted city. To save her missing brother, she must grapple with mythical creatures, explore the mystery of the missing inhabitants, and cure the amnesia of an entire civilization. Over the Wall immerses the reader in a richly imagined world of coming of age rituals, lost worlds and the nature of memory. The beautiful two-color art vividly brings to life the fantastical architecture of mysterious metropolis and faintly evokes the crisp lines of Japanese anime. Over the Wall is a stunning debut from a young and talented cartoonist Peter Wartman. Peter Wartman is a designer by day and a cartoonist by night. He lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the Wall is his first graphic novel.

Over The Wall

Wartman, Peter

Arts & Photography

L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist (Graphic Novel/Comics) 2013
Eisner Award Nomination (Best U.S. Edition of International Material)
In Incidents in the Night David B. sets out to explore the uncharted territories of overflowing and dusty shelves of Paris' legendary book shops. His journey quickly turns into an obsessive vision quest in pursuit of a mysterious nineteenth-century journal: Incidents In the Night. Mountains of books become sites of archeological digs as the author excavates layers of myth, fact and fiction in search of the elusive thread that links them all. Along the way he stumbles on fanatical Bonapartists, occult conspiracies and the angel of death. Incidents in the Night is an intricate, ever-expanding web of dream and reality exquisitely translated by Brian Evenson.
David B. is one of France's finest cartoonists and one of the co-founders of the legendary L'Association collective. He is the author a many books: The Armed Garden and Noctural Conspiracies, among many others. Epileptic was was awarded Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Scenario and the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist.
Brian Evenson is the author of ten books of fiction. He is the winner of the International Horror Guild Award, and the American Library Association's award for Best Horror Novel. He has translated work by Christian Gailly, Jean Frémon, Claro, Jacques Jouet, Eric Chevillard, Antoine Volodine, and others. He is the recipient of three O. Henry Prizes as well as an NEA fellowship. He lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

Incidents in the Night: Volume 1

Biographies & Memoirs

B., David

Arts & Literature

Ignatz award Nomination for Outstanding Collection
Leon Beyond—part John Hodgman, part out-of-date school textbook—is the know-it-all, relentless-fact-baking brain child of cartoonists Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch. Leon's knowledge was catalogued weekly in the St. Louis Riverfront Times. Amazing Facts and Beyond collects the comic-strip's best and most outrageous moments. Discover the world of optilusors, Robert Skur, dance notation and grooved disc jellyfish. Learn new words and concepts: winkaton or optogenerian. Mark your extreme calendar before you travel to the pancake and eggs nebula. Meticulously un-researched and full of dubious knowledge, Amazing Facts and Beyond is the modern successor to Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Featuring guest contributions by Ted May, and others.
Dan Zettwoch is a cartoonist, illustrator, and designer. Dan's work has been published in countless anthologies. His acclaimed first book Birdseye Bristoe was published last year by Drawn and Quarterly. He lives with his wife in St. Louis, Missouri.
Kevin Huizenga is cartoonist whose work has been published by Drawn &amp; Quarterly, Marvel, Fantagraphics, Time, Slate.com and many others. His latest book Gloriana was published last year by Drawn &amp; Quarterly. Kevin lives with his wife in St. Louis, Missouri.

Amazing Facts and Beyond

Huizenga, Kevin

Zettwoch, Dan

Comic Strips

Pascin, a biography of the noted Jewish modernist painter (Julius Mordecai Pincas, known as Pascin, March 31, 1885–June 5, 1930), is Joann Sfar's most personal and important work. Pascin is portrayed by Sfar both as a kindred spirit and an aesthetic revolutionary struggling to redefine an art form. Sfar revels in the artist's celebration of all things corporeal in the world of art. Though the story is drenched in sex, it is never eroticized. Created in a direct and immediate drawing style, Sfar focuses more on the artist's personal and sexual life than on his art, and brings Pascin to life as the ultimate bohemian.
Joann Sfar is considered one of the most important artists of the new wave of European comics. He is the author and artist on a great number of acclaimed graphic novels including The Rabbi's Cat, Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East, Vampire Loves, and Dungeon. He wrote and directed Gainsbourg: Une Vie Heroique, the biopic of the illustrious French songwriter and singer. The film was released in 2010 to international acclaim.

Pascin

SFAR, Joann

2015 Doug Wright Spotlight Award Nomination
Ignatz Award Nomination for Outstanding Graphic Novel
An American artist witnesses the Quebec spring 2012 student strike on the streets of Montreal. The brutal police response and their violent tactics trigger an exploration of urban planning and its hidden connections to military strategies. Marshal Bugeaud’s urban warfare tactics in Algeria, Haussmann’s plan for Paris, planning and repression in the New World; theory and personal experience collide into an ambitious and poetic cartoon memoir.
Sophie Yanow was born north of San Francisco in 1987. In 2011 she moved to Montreal, and with the Colosse collective published In Situ, her acclaimed autobiographical comics series. She was an invited artist- researcher for the Canadian Center for Architecture’s C for Condo” workshop, and her work has been exhibited throughout the US and Canada. She lives in Montreal.

War of Streets and Houses

Yanow, Sophie

Brian Evenson delves deeply into the pages of Chester Brown’s (Louis Riel, Paying for It) seminal comic-book Yummy Fur, from its beginnings as a mini comic to its afterlife in the graphic novels it spawned. Brian's comics archaeology excavates the discarded fragments of Brown's masterpiece Ed The Happy Clown, examines the never re-printed adaptions of the Gospels, considers the juxtaposition of religion and absurdism, and meditates on the pleasures of reading serialized pamphlet comic books. The book also features a new interview with Chester Brown, shining a new spotlight on this important work.
Brian Evenson is the author of eleven prize-winning books of fiction, including The Open Curtain, Last Days, Windeye, and Immobility. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island, where he teaches at Brown University.

Ed vs. Yummy Fur: Or, What Happens When A Serial Comic Becomes a Graphic Novel (Critical Cartoons)

EVENSON, BRIAN

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