New Releases by Bill Kartalopoulos

This is the accompanying publication to the exhibition of the same name at Center for Book Arts, New York from 01/21/2026 - 05/02/2026. The book includes texts by the curators and other contributing writers as well as images from the works on show.

In the mid-1960s, legendary artist and writer Joe Brainard (I Remember) teamed with poets such as John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Barbara Guest, Ron Padgett, Kenneth Koch, Ted Berrigan, and many more for these pioneering collaborative comic strips—unavailable for decades and collected here for the first time. “PEOPLE OF THE WORLD… RELAX!” In the creative hotbed of 1960s New York, Joe Brainard was a whirlwind. He was a maker of paintings, assemblages, collages, book covers, poetry-reading flyers, and more. But some of his most exciting work was done with his friends. In 1964, the twenty-two-year-old Brainard turned his talents to rewiring the lowly comic book form into something new and surprising. He invited his friends Frank O’Hara, Ted Berrigan, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Peter Schjeldahl, Barbara Guest, Ron Padgett, and others—all of them New York School poets—to collaborate with him on comics that they would write and he would draw. The results were unlike any comics seen before. Previously available only on the rare-book market (at very high prices) but available here under one cover for the first time, the two issues of C Comics still feel as fresh as when the first page rolled off the mimeograph machine more than sixty years ago. Brainard’s energetic line and joyful humor charge across every page, illustrating O’Hara's recasting of a cowboy as a mash-note-writing lover, Padgett’s experiments with traditional cartoon sound effects (ROAR! GRRR! SKREE!), cameos by Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy, and heaps of Dadaesque delights. This edition includes a foreword from Padgett and an essay by comics historian Bill Kartalopolous, who details the creation (and creators) of C Comics. A masterpiece of collaboration and spontaneity, C Comics is a testament to the vastness of Brainard’s creativity and his ability to push any artistic form in a new and powerful direction.

A Caldecott Honor Winner and co-author of This One Summer selects the best graphic pieces of the year. "The pieces I chose were those that stuck with me, represented something important about comics in this moment, and exemplified excellence of the craft. Surveying the final collection, I'm moved by the variety of individual approaches. There are so many ways to make us care about little marks on a page." —Jillian Tamaki, from the introduction The Best American Comics 2019 showcases the work of established and up-and-coming artists, collecting work found in the pages of graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, zines, online, in galleries, and more, highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of the comics form today. Featuring Vera Brosgol, Eleanor Davis, Nick Drnaso, Margot Ferrick, Ben Passmore, John Porcellino, Joe Sacco, Lauren Weinstein, Lale Westvind, and others.

“I love comics. Comics is (Comics ARE?) a perfect language, robustly evolving and expanding like any other living language,” writes Phoebe Gloeckner in her Introduction to The Best American Comics 2018. This year’s collection includes work selected from the pages of graphic novels, comic books, periodicals, zines, online, and more, highlighting the kaleidoscopic diversity of the comics language today. Featuring GABRIELLE BELL • TARA BOOTH • GEOF DARROW • GUY DELISLE • EMIL FERRIS • JULIA GFRÖRER • SARAH GLIDDEN • SIMON HANSELMANN • JAIME HERNANDEZ • JULIA JACQUETTE • GARY PANTER • ARIEL SCHRAG, and others

The #1 New York Times –bestselling and Eisner Award-winning creator of Understanding Comics gathers the year's best graphic stories in one essential volume. "It's the perfect book to pick up to restore your faith in comics or help show infinite diversity in infinite combinations on display on paper using the world's greatest artform." — Comics Bulletin Compiled by guest editor Scott McCloud—"just about the smartest guy in comics" (Frank Miller), The Best American Comics 2014 showcases the work of both established and up-and-coming contributors and highlights both fiction and nonfiction—from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, minicomics, and the Web—to make a unique, stunning collection. Featuring Charles Burns * R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb * Gilbert Hernandez * Jaime Hernandez * John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell * Raina Telgemeier * Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples * Chris Ware * and others