This gorgeous grimoire is part alchemy, part art book, part storybook, part comic book, and part conceptual art from the pen of Al Columbia, a longtime fan favorite contributor to comics anthologies like Zero Zero, Blab!, and more recently, Mome.
Collecting over a decades worth of artifacts, excavations, comic strips, animation stills, storybook covers, and much more, this broken jigsaw puzzle of a book tells the story of Pim & Francie, a pair of childlike, male and female imps whose irresponsible antics get them into horrific, fantastic trouble. Their loosely defined relationship only contributes to the existential fear that lingers underneath the various perils they are subjected to. Columbias brilliant, fairytale-like backdrops hint at further layers of reality lurking under every gingerbread house or behind every sunny afternoon. Never have such colorful, imaginative vistas instilled such an atmosphere of dread, and with such a wicked sense of humor.
This is a comprehensive collection of Columbias Pim & Francie work, including paintings, comics, character designs, and much more, all woven into something greater than the sum of its parts, with Pim & Francie careening from danger to danger, threaded together through text and notes by the artist.
This is the first book collection by Columbia, a well-regarded talent amongst longtime fans of the alternative comic book scene, and one who will thrill an entirely new audience with the singular, inspired, fully-realized fantasies within Pim & Francie.
First Edition - 2009. New book in excellent condition.
Spine has what could be light scuffing, or it could be part of the design.
240 page full color hardcover
Fantagraphics, 2009
The Stories
- Cinnamon Jack: The Tree of Life
- The Lad of Broken Hearts: The Golden Faun
- The Adventures of Pim and Francie
- Funny Incest Stories #6
- The Golden Bear Days
- The Kitty Murders
- The Exploding Eyes
- Cinnamon Jack: Eyepoppers
- Tales of the Haunted Forest
- The Forest that Grandpa Built
- Prickear the Imp
- The Changeling
- The Ghost of Belljar Jefferson
- Tales of the Bloody Bloody Killers the Six-Six-Sixers
- Pim and Francie Comics #1 (Cover)
- Trixie the Wonder Dog
- Pim and Francie #6 (Cover)
- Grandpa's Laboratory
- Black Magic Zombies
- Goodbye Grandma
- Greenfly Pie
- Jellybeans
- Tales of Ruthy and Lucy
- The Body of Emily White
- Dudley Town
- Sparkleberries
- Cinnamon Jack: Sweet Child Pie
- Candyface the Clown: Camp Candyface
- Candyface the Clown: Marshmallow Surprise
- The Origin of Mayor Murder
- Pim and Francie Visit the Vatican
- Coventry
- Francie's Revenge
- The Heart of Love
- In the House of Mayor Murder
- O Death
- Podsnappers
- Pandemonium
- Blackholebenny
- Salmon Falls
- Run, Run, Rabbit, Run
- Pim and Francie Comics #2 (Cover)
- Psycho the Cyclops
- Requiem
- Revelation
- The Familiar
- The Ferryman
- Nightmare
- The Forest that Grandpa Built Part II
- Fun with the Groovy Gus
- Pim and Francie in Toyland
- Elysium
- The Forest That Grandpa Built Part III
- The Preacher's Mother
- Grandpa's Laboratory Part II
- The Ouija Board
- Pim and Francie Comics (Covers)
- The Golden Faun Part II
- The Wünderkind
- Zequiel the Imp
- The Birthday Party
- Requiem Part II
- The Possession of Emily White
- Tales of the Bloody Bloody Killer: The Devonshire Strangler
- Cinnamon Jack's Bloody Daisies
- Fun with Chopped Up Charlie
- Into the Black
- Revelation II
- Goodbye Francie
