The Birth Caul

This is the biography of Marquise Luisa Casati.
Luisa Amman was born in Milan in 1881 to a wealthy family who had made its fortune in cotton. After marrying Marquis Camillo Casati, and the birth of their only daughter, Luisa undergoes a transformation and quickly becomes one of the most eccentric women of her time. She wants to shock, to make herself into a living work of art. She befriends the beautiful people of her time, artists and celebrities: Giovanni Boldini, Augustus John, Ida Rubinstein, Jean Cocteau and Man Ray just to name a few. She lives in Rome, Venice and Paris, attending masquerade balls and living through extraordinary adventures. A lavish spender, in a few short years she manages to squander the immense fortune belonging to her late father. Among her memorable feats, were her nocturnal appearances in the streets of Venice, completely naked under her fur coat, accompanied by a Cheetah on a leash. She became a muse to a number of artists, who were fascinated by her famous androgynous persona. However, in the end, her terrible ego and her tendancy for self-centredness dragged her into an abyss of loneliness and absurdity…

Lois and Clark go on a cruise that gets hijacked–a cruise that also includes the power-mad business mogul Lex Luthor! Witness the birth of the Man of Steel's ultimate arch-rival as John Byrne's new take on Superman's early days continues!

"They were all there, the pimps, the fags, the whores, the curious, the alcoholic, the weird of the late '50s… blues lovers, Canadian bikers, thrill seekers, junkies, insomniacs, hepcats…" So begins "Down at the Kitty Kat," one of the 20-plus never-before-collected memoirs and yarns by Spain Rodriguez, one of the original gang of Zap Comix provocateurs. Although he's best known for his two-fisted tales of the chopper-riding Trashman, Spain's blunt graphic style and uncompromising gift for caricature, rendered in eye-punishing slabs of black and white, work equally well for more subtle fare – such as these memoirs of his misspent youth. Cruisin' with the Hound ranges from Spain's days as an innocent young churchgoer to his time as a member of the Road Vultures motorcycle gang, with stops along the way for his discoveries of science fiction and other, more adult pursuits ("The Birth of Porn") – as well as the "The Education of an Underground Cartoonist," describing his journey from a pimply Captain Marvel-reading scribbler to his arrival as a professional artist. But the heart of this collection is a cycle of stories ) set during Spain's teenage days in the 1950s, often featuring the doomed, dot-eyed Fred Toot.

Witness the birth of an artistic legend, in Eisner Award–winning painter Alex Ross’s first professional work! As Skynet prepares a nuclear strike to wipe out humanity, John Connor leads a small team to destroy the sinister AI’s mainframe.

WINNER OF FOURTEEN EISNER AWARDS. This volume features two tales of Bigby's exploits during World War II as well as "The Year After," which follows the aftermath of the Adversary's attempt to conquer Fabletown–including the birth of Snow White and Bigby's children! Collects issues 22 and 28-33 of creator Bill Willingham's celebrated Vertigo series.

Twenty-five years since THE SANDMAN changed the landscape of modern comics, Neil Gaiman's legendary series is back! THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE heralds New York Times best-selling writer Neil Gaiman's return to the art form that made him famous, ably abetted by artistic luminary JH Williams III (BATWOMAN, PROMETHEA), whose lush, widescreen images provide an epic scope to The Sandman's origin story. From the birth of a galaxy to the moment that Morpheus is captured, THE SANDMAN: OVERTURE will feature cameo appearances by fan-favorite characters such as The Corinthian, Merv Pumpkinhead and, of course, the Dream King's siblings: Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny. 'People have often asked me what happened to Morpheus to make it possible for him to be captured in THE SANDMAN #1,' Gaiman said. 'And now they get to find out. And finding out, they get to learn secrets of the Endless that I've kept to myself for 25 years. Family secrets. And I should warn you: one of the Endless dies on page five.' The first issue of this 6-issue, bimonthly miniseries features a stunning double-page interior foldout.