Welcome to part two of the annual Chapel Hill Comics Holiday Shopping Guide. If you haven’t checked out part one by Erin, which is all about gifts which cost twenty bucks or less, you should!

Click here to read part one!

Onward!

FOR THE KIDS:

What’s our best-selling graphic novel series in the store? It’s Bone, by Jeff Smith! We recommend it to anyone looking for a comic for their kid or for themselves. It’s a fantasy series with wonderful cartoony art, and some of the best-paced visual jokes in comics. It’s a big fantasy epic, but it never loses its sense of humor, regardless of how scary things get for the heroes. It’s great for boys, girls, men or women. If you like fantasy, you will like this series! There are nine volumes, and they are all either $9.99 or $10.99.

You may be saying, “Hey, you’ve already sold me Bone, and we loved it! What else ya got?”

Well, for starters, there is a prequel by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess called Rose, which is about Grandma Ben as a young woman. It’s a single volume story which shows you some of how things came to be the way they are at the time of the main Bone storyline. It’s $10.99.

Read Rose already? How about a Fone Bone plush figure? That’s right, the main character of the Bone story has been immortalized in plush, and is two feet tall, making him “life-sized!” This plush doll is normally priced at $40, but we were lucky enough to get a deal on a big batch of these, and we’ve been selling them at $20 or free with the purchase of $50 in kids’ books! Supplies are limited on this doll; we’re down to around 20% of what we started with.

OTHER COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS FOR THE KIDS:

And hey, Bone may be great, but it’s not the only thing out there. If your kid has enjoyed the Bone series, he or she would probably like these fine items as well:

Mouse Guard, by David Peterson, is an all ages comic about mice with swords. It’s beautifully drawn, and kids who are into the art can spend hours watchingthe mice battle crabs, snakes, owls, and other giant monsters! There are two hardcover collections of this comic, which cost $24.95 each.

Amulet is a series by Kazu Kibuishi, who was recruited to Scholastic by Jeff Smith, so they are definitely thematically linked. This is a series about a brother and sister whose mom is kidnapped by monsters, and they rush to save her. There are two books in the series available so far, and they are $10.99 each.

There’s a good chance you’ve read The Wind in the Willows, the classic kids’ book by Kenneth Grahame, but have you read the comic adaptation by French watercolor master Michel Plessix? It’s the only comic adaptation of a book which I’ve read that I like better than the original. He depicts all four seasons with equal care and beauty; watching Mole, Rat Badger, and Toad move aound in and interact with the world is a treat. I’ve read this adaptation many times, and it is ingrained in my memory. This week, when Vanessa and I were outside walking in the woods on a lovely winter day, I remarked that I was reminded of the Wind in the Willows. Dude, I’m comparing nature to this comic, so you know it’s good. There’s one paperback, and it’s $13.95.

There’s also the Stuff of Legend, a new comic series about a bunch of toys who go rushing into the closet to save their boy when he is abducted by the Boogeyman. This has lovely, atmospheric art, and there are two issues so far. They cost $4.99. I notice Erin’s list includes Stuff to Legend too, but that’s cool; it deserves two mentions.

SIGNED BOOKS FOR ASPIRING WRITERS AND FANTASY READERS

We had a book signing last week with several authors, including fantasy writer Jeff Vandermeer. Mr. Vandermeer was kind enough to sign copies of his books for us to keep available for those of you who wanted to make the event but couldn’t.

Finch is a steampunk murder mystery set in the darkly foreboding fictional city of Ambergris. It’s solid stuff, and should apply to folks who enjoy the work of authors like China Mieville. And hey, not only do you get the book, Jeff was kind enough to leave us with copies of the Finch soundtrack by Murder by Death, which has one of the coolest CD designs I have ever seen. There’s no increase in price for the signature, so for $14.95, you’re getting a signed copy of a great book, and a CD.

And if you’re an aspiring writer or an established one, you’ll enjoy his other new book, Booklife. It’s about writing and about promoting yourself as a writer, which is key knowledge for anyone trying to get ahead in any creative venture. Booklife is also $14.95.

We’ve also got copies of some of Jeff’s other books in stock, to go along with these when you pick them up!

FOR THE ART LOVER:

James Jean is a spectacular artist who grew to prominence as the cover artist on Fables, the series about fairy tale characters who live in modern-day New York. We always do very well with his art books, and since the first three of his art books are out of print, we stocked up heavily on all his stuff which came out in 2009. He’s also designing for Prada now, and while we don’t have any of his dresses in stock, we think these fine items would be more than an adequate substitute:

Process Recess 3 is a beautiful art book which reproduces Mr. Jean’s sketchbooks in all their intricately detailed glory. We’re also one of the few shops out there that have promotional discs which were made from the circular piece die-cut out of the cover, so you have the choice of making your copy of Process Recess whole or carrying around the disc for good luck! $34.95.

Kindling is a collection of frameable prints by Mr. Jean. You can leave them in the book, or you can pull them out and hang them on your wall. Kindling even includes a 23″ gatefold poster. $29.95.

And if you’re thinking smaller, we’ve got copies of Mr. Jean’s postcard book, XOXO. Erin already covered this lovely little item in the budget gifts section, so I’ll crib from her: James Jean’s XOXO postcard collection makes a great gift for an art lover or a prolific postcard-writer. The beautiful illustrations are perfect for decorating in an office or dorm room, too. $9.95.

MY FAVORITE GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR:

This has been a good year for graphic novels. We got Incognito from Brubaker and Phillips, the second volume of Umbrella Academy from Way and Ba, and Darwyn Cooke’s superb adaptation of Richard Stark’s The Hunter, the fifth volume in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series, and many more. But none of those are my favorite graphic novel of the year.

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli is a straight-up masterpiece. He uses the medium in ways I haven’t seen before, and does things I really don’t think you could do with any other medium. Mr. Mazzucchelli understands that comics is a synthesis of words and pictures, and baby, he synthesizes! So what’s it about, right? Well, the title character, Asterios Polyp is an architect who, prompted by disaster, set out on a journey to discover himself. It’s a love story about how people change each other by being in their lives. It’s beautiful. I heartily recommend it. It’s a big fat hardcover, and it’s $29.95.

READ THE BOOK BEFORE YOU SEE THE MOVIE:

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim is one of our best-selling graphic novel series. Two of the books are in our top ten best-selling books of the year, and the other three and in out top forty. Why do we sell them so well? Because we love them, and because most folks who pickup the first volume come back for the later volumes. The Scott Pilgrim is a hybrid of action, comedy, and romance which is hilariously entertaining. The gist of the storyline is that Scott has to fight his new girlfriend Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends. In addition to the over-the-top angsty drama of Scott and his friends (and his band, Sex Bob-Omb), you also get awesome video game style fights.

Folks who work and shop at Chapel Hill Comics are not the only ones who love this series, though. Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, is a big fan too, and he is the director of a Scott Pilgrim movie due of in 2010. From what we understand, it’s going to be good, so lots of folks are going to want to see it, and just like with Sin City, Persepolis, and Hellboy, they’re going to want to read the original books before they see the movie. There are five books so far, with a sixth and final book scheduled to drop before the movie in 2010, and they’re $11.95 each.

While this list includes many of the items I expect to work well for lots of people over the next few weeks, it’s certainly not comprehensive, so if looking at our lists doesn’t help you decide on a gift, come in the store and ask the staff to help you find something. Or if you’d rather let your giftee choose for themselves, we sell gift certificates in any denomination!

Click here for part one of the gift guide!

Thanks,
Andrew Neal
Chapel Hill Comics
316 W Franklin St
Chapel Hill, NC 27516