Throw the Book at Them

Ok, chances are, you never heard of McSweeney's.
Slap your brother for not typing up an essay on the company and stapling it to your stomach.

In a nutshell, McSweeney's is the greatest publisher of modern literary fiction out there. With current greats like Nick Hornby, Jonathan Safran Foer, John Updike and editor Dave Eggers making books (not to mention numerous other contributors), they bust out the non-required reading you need to devour.

So, aside from publishing full novels (Like Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity), a literary magazine with many indy artists contributing (The Believer), and a special every-quarter-of-the-year anthology where select works of modern short-fiction are carried (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern), they have also released a major comic anthology of sorts.

Now, I'm super late on this cause the book came out in, what, June? But I just picked it up and it made me slap my brother.
Actually, I have no brother, but I did slap my roommate. But he's a jerk and keeps drinking my damn Kool-Aid so it's whatever.

My point is, the comic anthology is actually McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13. See, instead of releasing a book of regular fiction like they do every quarter of the year, the fine folks hired up Chris Ware (of Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth fame) as guest editor and compounded a brilliant assortment of creators to showcase the best in current indy comics.

Who is on-board? Well, R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes, Los Bros Hernandez, Adrian Tomine, Jeff Brown (my favorite) and plenty more slap-happy geniuses. According to their site, "The issue also includes essays from Michael Chabon, Ira Glass, John Updike, Chip Kidd, and others. Hardcover, clothbound, with an enormous dust jacket that does much more than guard against dust. This one makes our throats go tight."

Me, too. It looks GORGEOUS and it's so fun I peed a little when I opened it. Go to the bookstore and look through it or take my word for it and just get it from Amazon.com. The dust jacket comes off to reveal a massive poster by Ware and the hardcover book itself sports a gold-embroidered cover.

Get some education with this baby. Or at least LOOK like you have some. Nerds.