Books

Softcover, 24 pages, Measures 5.5 x 8.5 inches, full color. Includes 3x3" sticker.

Released along with Katsuya Terada's Rakugaking solo art show at our Giant Robot 2 gallery comes this beautifully printed art zine.

I Love Coffee I Love Ninja includes various drawings and paintings by the artist expressing his love and/or neurotic addiction to the magical beverage. What caffeine junky can't relate to that joy?

Excerpt from the forward written by Katsuya Terada:

"Mornings, I wake up.

I don't feel like working at all.

There's tons of shit that needs to be done, but I don't want to do it.

This is when I throw myself into grinding beans..."

 

Hardcover, 8 x 8 inches, 32 pages. 

A follow-up to Stack the Cats, Balance the Birds is about balance and relative size. When birds spot a tree and decide to land on its branches, the readers can help them find the perfect balance. Like Stack the Cats, Balance the Birds introduces key early math skills for toddlers.

This landmark publication accompanies a major retrospective exhibition of Takashi Murakami’s paintings. Although other volumes on Murakami in English address the crossover between his fine art and commercial output, this book presents the first serious consideration of his work as a painter. It provides a sustained consideration of the artist’s relationship to the tradition of Japanese painting and his facility in straddling high and low, ancient and modern, eastern and western, commercial and high art. Lavishly illustrated with large-scale images of works that span his art student days to now—many reproduced together for the first time—the book contextualizes Murakami’s output in postwar Japan with essays that situate the artist in relation to folklore, traditional Japanese painting Nihonga, the Tokyo art scene in the 1980s and 1990s, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. The volume includes essays by curator Michael Darling, Michael Dylan Foster, Chelsea Foxwell, Reuben Keehan, and Akira Mizuta Lippit, as well as a biography and exhibition history, selected bibliography, and index.

Softcover, 40 pages, measures 10 x 6.8 inches.

Publisher Drawn & Quarterly explains, "Optic Nerve 14 brings Adrian Tomine’s multifaceted, expressive cartooning to a new peak with two stories and a bonus autobiographical strip. “Killing and Dying” is about a father’s struggles to be supportive: it centers on parenthood, mortality, and stand-up comedy. “Intruders” depicts a man obsessively trying to find his way back to a former life by revisiting places he once knew. Optic Nerve 14 will appear on the twentieth anniversary of Tomine’s beloved comic book series, in whose pages the landmark graphic novel Shortcomings was first published. Each story in Optic Nerve 14 reveals new dimensions to Tomine’s unique visual sensibility and complex, character-driven stories."

Hardcover, 548 pages, measures 6 x 9 inches.

Following the successful release of multi-series trading cards based on the originalStar Wars film series (1977–83), Topps released the first volume of its Widevision series in 1995. These special cards were just as tall as the standard Topps trading cards but twice as long—a format that better reflected the widescreen dimensions of the films. Now, for the first time, every card, as well as rare promotional cards and limited edition chase cards, are reprinted in one deluxe collection. This new volume includes the fronts and backs of each card, showcasing original storyboards, fun facts, filmmaker quotes, behind-the-scenes photos, and exclusive commentary by George Lucas.

Also included are four bonus cards, rare promotional images, an introduction by Gary Gerani, the original editor of the Star Wars Topps series, and an afterword by Star Wars collector Stephen J. Sansweet.

Hardcover, 6" x 8.25", 368 pages, 308 images, Limited edition of 1500 .

26 pages, measures 5.5 x 8.5 inches.

From the vault, comes the second installment of "From the Pit" photo zine.

Before Giant Robot, owner and founder Eric Nakamura shot seminal late 80's / early 90's punk rock bands. Photo's capture performers in their early days. Beautifully shot; history was captured.

Features photos of such bands and performers as Firehouse, "5,6,7,8's," The Dwarves, Soundgarden, L&, The Go-Nuts, Rocket From the Crypt, Butthole Surfers and more!  Forward by Eric. 

Softcover, 40 pages, measures 10 x 6.8 inches.

Publisher Drawn & Quarterly explains, "Acclaimed cartoonist Adrian Tomine (New York Drawings, Shortcomings) returns with a dazzling new issue of his two-decade-long comic book series! Optic Nerve #13 features three complete stories, each distinct in their tone and visual style. "Go Owls" is a dark comedy about 12-step programs, drug dealing, and minor league baseball. "Translated, from the Japanese," illustrates the diary of a young Japanese mother, caught between two countries and hovering on the precipice of divorce. "Winter, 2012" is an autobiographical glimpse into Tomine's home life and his ongoing struggles with the modern world. Throughout Optic Nerve #13, Tomine channels contemporary zeitgeist and vernacular to produce flawlessly designed, compellingly readable stories."

Softcover, 10" x 8.5", 128 pages, Full Color, Text in Japanese & English

A wonderful catalog of Murakami's prints from his KaiKai KiKi Gallery! Classic first run prints from his collection.

Zine measures 8.5 x 11 inches, 70 pages, Black & White.

Giant Robot history reprinted! Before it was a magazine, Giant Robot was a zine. And Issue 3 is back 20 years later! Culture that is still relevant and interesting to this day.  Re-discover it all! Articles on:

• Alfredo Alcala comic book artist
• MAK-90's - Are you safe without one?
• Emily's Sassy Lime vs Rice! The War.
• Doughnuts made by Cambodians.
• Asian Topics in old Punk Songs
• Hong Kong Films
• Nails, Youth, Sumo, UFC V, Pizzicato, Blurts, Sebadoh and Tons More!

Hardcover, 256 pages, measures 7.7 x 1 x 9.3 inches.

A collection of more than 100 recipes that introduces Japanese comfort food to American home cooks, exploring new ingredients, techniques, and the surprising origins of popular dishes like gyoza and tempura. 

Move over, sushi.
It’s time for gyoza, curry, tonkatsu, and furai. These icons of Japanese comfort food cooking are the dishes you’ll find in every kitchen and street corner hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Japan—the hearty, flavor-packed dishes that everyone in Japan, from school kids to grandmas, craves.
In Japanese Soul Cooking, Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat introduce you to this irresistible, homey style of cooking. As you explore the range of exciting, satisfying fare, you may recognize some familiar favorites, such as ramen, soba, udon, and tempura. Others are lesser known Japanese classics—such as wafu pasta (spaghetti with bold, fragrant toppings like miso meat sauce), tatsuta-age (fried chicken marinated in garlic, ginger, and other Japanese seasonings), and savory omelets with crabmeat and shiitake mushrooms—that will instantly become standards in your kitchen as well. With foolproof instructions and step-by-step photographs, you’ll soon be knocking out chahan fried rice, mentaiko spaghetti, saikoro steak, and more for friends and family.
Ono and Salat’s fascinating exploration of the surprising origins and global influences behind popular dishes is accompanied by rich location photography that captures the energy and essence of this food in everyday Japanese life, bringing beloved Japanese comfort food to Western home cooks for the first time.

Softcover, 32 pages, Measures 4.25 x 6 inches, black & white.

Released along with Katsuya Terada's second solo art show at our Giant Robot 2 gallery comes this Hot Pot Girls zine. Hot Pot Girls 2 features black and white photos of the artist's various drawings and paintings for his Hot Pot Girls show. What wonderful work!

Softcover, 32 pages, Measures 4.25 x 6 inches, black & white.

Released along with Katsuya Terada's solo art show at our Giant Robot 2 gallery comes this Hot Pot Girls zine. Features black and white photos of the artist's various drawings and paintings for his Hot Pot Girls show. What wonderful work!

Softcover, 9.25" x 6.5", 108pp, Black & White

Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his longåÐterm relationship is awash in turmoil. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, suspects that Ben has a wandering eye, and more to the point, it's wandering in the direction of white women. This accusation (and its various implications) becomes the subject of heated, spiralling debate, setting in motion a story that pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth.

By confusing their personal problems with political ones, Ben and Miko are strangely alone together and oddly alike, even as they fly apart. Being human, all too human, they fail to see that what unites them is their shared hypocrisies, their double standards. This gray zone between the personal and the political is a minefield that Tomine navigates boldly and nimbly. The charged, volatile dialogues that result are unlike anything in Tomine's previous work or, for that matter, comics in general. But Shortcomings is no mere polemic. Any issues that are raised stand on equal footing with expertly-crafted plot turns, subtle characterization, and irreverent humor, all drawn in Tomine's heart-breakingly evocative style. What Tomine ultimately offers is more provocation than pronouncement--a brutal, funny, and insightful reflection of human shortcomings.

Shortcomings was serialized in Tomine's iconic comic book series Optic Nerve (issues #9-11) and was excerpted in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13.

Cover varies in color.

Hardcover, 7.25" x 8.25", 144pp, Full Color

Renowned cartoonist Julie Doucet has created a unique, mass produced artistí«í´s book. Printed on a half dozen different papers in eight colors, this amalgamation of drawing, collage, painting, and narrative is a visionary meditation on love and its discontents. Using cut out, collaged letters and phrases to compose her oblique, poetic text, Doucetí«í´s words are as graphically enticing as her images. The book moves from pointed collages made from 1960s Quebecois magazines to abstract, psychedelic drawings to a moving catalog of her loverí«í´s possessions, and back again. The diversity of images could be the work of multiple artists, but Doucetí«í´s funny, frank sensibility ties it all together. Doucet, long known as the "female R. Crumb," and regarded as the finest female cartoonist of the 20th century, has never before published a book like this: a pure, non-comics distillation of her artistic sensibility. This complete work of art will appeal both to fans of her graphic novelsí«ÌÎÌÓwho will appreciate her sense of humor and vivacious drawingí«ÌÎÌÓand art aficionados who will be moved and surprised by her skills, and bowled over by her unforgettable images.

Hardcover, 6" x 8.25", 220pp, Text in English and Japanese

Some copies have some minor imperfections to the cover to some degree.

Buenos Aries is sort of a visual journal of acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle (2046, Hero, Infernal Affairs). The book documents his everday experiences on the set of Buenos Aries, a film that recreates the experiences of director Wong Kar-Wai and his crew while in Argentina in 1996. Each page is in entry penned by Doyle himself which is accompanied by incredible photographs of behind the scene moments on set and various locations in Argentina.

Paperback, 8.25" x 6", 272pp, Black & White

Weekly Time magazine sets up a series of culinary battles between the Tozai News's "Ultimate Menu," represented by Yamaoka, and the Teito Times's "Supreme Menu," represented by Kaibara Y zan, Yamaoka's father and nemesis. The ingredient this time is vegetables, specifically cabbages and turnips. Who will win the Vegetable Showdown? Later, Yamaoka and Kurita help Tomii's son get over his hatred of eggplant and patch a rift between lovers using the power of asparagus.

Paperback, 7.5" x 7.5", 120pp, Full Color

Hilarious, disgusting, mysterious, and cuter than a puppy playing with a kitten, Chocolate Cheeks is the next great "Yikes" book from Steven Weissman. The Pullapart Boy (a 21st Century Frankenstein's monster for kids), his social circle having dwindled down to his stupid brother (Dead Boy), their dead dog (Elzie Crisler), and a fat kid that nobody likes ("Chubby" Cheeks), attempts to make some new friends. Meanwhile, across town, the Little Tin-Stars (Cow-Boy and Cow-Girl) are in a desperate fight against the forces of nature, hostile natives, a river monster, their own horse and a man called Chocolate Cheeks. Juxtaposing gag-driven, newspaper-fashioned strips (employed to great effect in 2006's Chewing Gum In Church) with the sprawling, Western comic approach of his legendary "Look Out For Big Della" (from 2002's White Flower Day), Chocolate Cheeks is Weissman at his best: stunning, memorable, poignant, hilarious, and just gross enough to delight the children.