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St. Martin's Press

Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay

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Description

"Twenty-five years on, [Cheap Novelties'] observations of what is lost as cityscapes evolve and shift due to gentrification and changing demographics are still fresh and relevant."―The Guardian Cheap Novelties is an early testament to Ben Katchor's extraordinary prescience as both a gifted cartoonist and an astute urban chronicler. Rumpled, middle-aged Julius Knipl photographs a vanishing city--an urban landscape of low-rent apartment buildings, obsolete industries, monuments to forgotten people and events, and countless sources of inexpensive food. In Katchor's signature pen and ink wash style, Cheap Novelties is a portrait of what we have lost to gentrification, globalization, and the malling of America that is as moving today as it was twenty-five years ago. In 1991, the original Cheap Novelties appeared in an unassuming paperback from the RAW contributor; it would become one of the first books of the contemporary graphic novel golden age, and it set the stage for Katchor to become regarded as a modern-day cartooning genius. Drawn & Quarterly's twenty-fifth anniversary edition is a deluxe hardcover. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Drawn and Quarterly (September 27, 2016)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 112 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1770462635


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 32


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.89 x 0.71 x 8.79 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #1,248,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #215 in Drawn & Quarterly Comic & Graphic Novels #1,587 in Literary Graphic Novels (Books)


#215 in Drawn & Quarterly Comic & Graphic Novels:


#1,587 in Literary Graphic Novels (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Day Old Bread Never Tasted So Good
Ben Katchor brought Julis Knipl ("Knipl" is the Yiddish word for "nest egg") to life in the pages of the alternative newspapers once found in city street corner coin boxes: the New York Press, the Miami New Times, Providence, R.I. Nice Paper and others. What a gift! "Cheap Novelties" collects 86 short (mostly one-page, eight panel entries) and one long story, the aptly named "Cheap Merchandise District" - to make up the first of three collections of Julis Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" strips. It is not the best known, that honor goes to "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" (1996), but it is the mother lode. Edward Sorel, reviewing the 1996 book for the New York Times called Katchor "the most poetic, deeply layered artist ever to draw a comic strip." This is Americana. To place it in time, think back to the five and dime stores that anchored main street commercial districts before the Wal-Marts of the world took over. In my Maine home town, population 2000 or so before WW II, Turner's 5 cents to $1.00 Store carried some of more mundane merchandise Julius Knipl prowls for in the Cheap Merchandise District of his imaginary metropolis: sets of magnetic Scottie Dogs, moth powder discs, rabbit's foot key chains, live turtles and snow globes. Knipl's decaying metropolis offers all that Turner's did and much more: newspaper weights, peep-o-viewers, city provided mustard fountains, boutonnieres that squirt you with water when you bend down to smell the flower, bald spot removers, hat band rain predictors, and day old bread. Katchor offers us the chance to cast another glance at what gave up when we turned our back on the inner city. Of course, now that we're moving back again, the While U Wait Alterations shops are gone. At least we have Knipl's word for the way things were. End note. Penguin published Cheap Novelties as a "Raw One-Shot" book. "Raw," as you recall, was the oversized format comics and graphics magazine published by Art Spiegelman and associates after "Maus" made its mark. Katchor, Chris Ware and others worked on Raw. The "One Shot" books were those devoted exclusively to the work of a single Raw artist. Cheap Novelties is Katchor's Raw One-Shot book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2012 by David R. Anderson
    • A City Trip
Not for all, but this collection of graphic vignettes evokes nostalgia and humor. Clever and well-drawn, too.
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2016 by Chris Macleod
    • Great panels, great fun to be had here.
There are some real poetic moments here. It is fun, it is comprehensive, it is beautiful,touching and deep. A very nice book.
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2018 by Frank Abignale
    • Five Stars
Love his style . All these details
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2018 by Chester
    • He absolutely loved it.
This was a gift for my dad. He absolutely loved it.
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2017 by Jessica Ivey
    • Five Stars
Item arrived in great shape. Thank you!
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017 by Leslie G.
    • Well done, People!
Well done, People! Thanks a million!
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2016 by Erik Laiho
    • Pretensions stripped away.
As a gentile, I bought copies for friends to show them insights Katchor gives of "ourselves" through Knipl's words/actions/self-doubts. Nostalgia, combined with 'layers' of deep, Jewish wisdom, humour and pathos makes this something all generations should read.
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2002 by JB McGuire

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