top shelf « The Comics Journal

While Vertigo has made a strong push as of late with its own Vertigo Crime imprint (see Rat Catcher) and Dark Horse recently published an anthology aptly titled Noir in 2009, the results across the board and publishing spectrum are hit-and-miss.

Explaining Reality to Myself: The Steve Lafler Interview (Part Two of Three)

Posted by Rob Clough on September 21st, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Steve Lafler talks to Rob Clough about character design, the ’90s Alternative wave,Buzzard, Bughouse, Top Shelf and much more.

Safe Havens: Second Thoughts

Posted by Rob Clough on August 16th, 2010 at 5:31 AM

Rob reviews the debut graphic novel from Niklas Asker, Second Thoughts.

Top Shelf’s Swedish Invasion

Posted by Chris Mautner on July 26th, 2010 at 12:01 AM

It sounds, on the face of it, like a great marketing idea. Find a country that has a thriving comics community, but yet isn’t well known for it by most North Americans comics readers, indy or otherwise (i.e. any place that’s not France or Japan). Then, translate and release a number of said country’s books to the American and Canadian public under the header of “The [name of country here] Invasion.” Voila! Almost half of your publishing catalog for the season is taken care of!

OK, so it’s safe to say that Top Shelf likely had more sincere and idealistic goals in mind beyond merely filling slots in their schedule when they released their “Swedish Invasion” collection of books earlier this year. After all, it’s not like publishing these books doesn’t come with a certain amount of financial risk; there aren’t that many readers clamoring to procure Scandinavian comics as far as I know.

Soup To Nuts: Undeleted Scenes

Posted by Rob Clough on June 17th, 2010 at 12:01 AM

I once wrote of Jeffrey Brown, “More than any other autobiographical artist that I can think of, Brown is acutely aware of the difference between actual experience and the interpretation and recording of same.”

Show Your Work: Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers

Posted by Rob Clough on June 7th, 2010 at 5:22 AM

Rob reviews the new book of supplementary material from Matt Kindt’s book SUPER SPY, titled THE LOST DOSSIERS (Top Shelf).

Matt Kindt isn’t mentioned along with a lot of other alternative artists who do variations on genre work, perhaps because …

Dodgem Logic #1 by Alan Moore et al.

Posted by Rich Kreiner on April 7th, 2010 at 1:00 PM

In spirit and content is consciously molded to carry on an illustrious literary tradition. To quote Mr. Moore: “Clearly, what the world needs is a trippy-looking underground mag with a self-confessed agenda of aggressive randomness.”