Kramers Ergot 7 [Hardcover]

Sammy Harkham (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2008 | Series: Kramers Ergot (Book 7)

Kramers Ergot, the most influential and acclaimed anthology of the past decade, returns in its seventh volume as a gigantic full-color 16 x 21 inch hardcover! While past issues explored an innovative blend of art and comics, this collection focuses on expanding the boundaries of the narrative comics page. No. 7's massive page size has given these contemporary artists an opportunity to tell stories at a scope not seen since the expansive Sunday newspaper comics of the early twentieth century. Including over 50 of the world's greatest cartoonists, it draws on the talents of established cartoonists, newcomers, elegant stylists, and unpredictable innovators such as Tom Gauld, Carol Tyler, Chris Ware, Ben Jones, Jaime Hernandez, Blanquet, Daniel Clowes, Mat Brinkman, Kim Deitch, Anna Sommer, Anders Nilsen, C.F., Adrian Tomine, Matt Groening, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. There's a sort of finality about this massive, ambitious art object of an anthology, produced with the finest paper stock and printing available. Editor Harkham has assembled the best-known names in art comics to use the huge page size—16"×21", larger than a newspaper page—as a blank canvas for experiments in storytelling. The result is a delirious, fantastic newspaper supplement as imagined through the lens of the last 20 years of comics experimentation and formalism. Although a few artists like Mat Brinkman and Helge Reumann use the giant page size as the setting for abstract art, many—Seth, Josh Simmons and Gabrielle Bell—cram intense yet minimalist narratives into a parade of tiny panels. The overall effect is overwhelming, but some stories stand out—Shari Boyle's gorgeous elephant fantasy, Tom Gauld's nearly abstract retelling of the Noah myth, Dan Clowes's one-page hard-boiled tragedy, Jaime Hernandez's compact triolet about cosmic unjustness and Matthew Thurber's lyrical nonsense about Brian Eno and a parrot. While the price tag is high, and some stories lack real narrative punch, this anthology is a high-water mark of intelligence and artistry, and will reward many rereadings by those who can find the shelf space to house it properly. (Dec.)
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Review

If there's one book that art-comics enthusiasts would be happiest to find in their stockings this year, it's probably KRAMERS ERGOT 7 (Buenaventura, $125), except for the small matter that it's bigger than an entire hearth. This is one of the grandest English-language comics artifacts ever produced -- a mammoth hardcover anthology, 16 by 21 inches, of new stories by several dozen notable cartoonists, including Daniel Clowes, Seth, Gabrielle Bell, Kevin Huizenga, Sammy Harkham (who also edited the book) and The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Like the early-20th-century broadsheet newspaper comics pages that inspired it, Kramers Ergot occupies its readers' entire visual field, and most of its contributors have some fun with its dimensions, cramming the page with tiny details or opening it up for apocalyptically huge vistas. The cleverest gesture comes from Chris Ware, whose two-page contribution is built around a cartoon of a sleeping baby printed at the child's actual size. --The New York Times

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Buenaventura Press (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980003954
• ISBN-13: 978-0980003956
• Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 16.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,076,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unprecedented collection, unbeatable price, December 21, 2008

By 

read it for the words (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kramers Ergot 7 (Hardcover)

For me, the book succeeds massively and on many levels.

First off, the concept is ambitious and uncalled for: "let's invite 60 of our favorite artists to create giant-size comics, and then put them all together and see what happens." Probably without quite knowing why they were doing this project -- except that it sounded like fun -- Buenaventura Press gave it a shot. Good for them!

Second, the look and feel of the physical object is borderline absurd. Another reviewer aptly notes that the book is so big it hurts your arms to hold and so tall it won't fit on any sane bookshelf. How refreshingly strange! (Like the comics inside??) Part of the book's ingenious beauty, I think, is its physical impoliteness. In other words: the funny frustrations of the package weirdly "rhyme" with the work inside. The whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts.

Third, Chris Ware has drawn an actual-size baby in the center of his two-page spread. She's a full-size baby, just lying there and staring up at you from a cradle of comic panels. Don't miss it. The book is full of unexpected stuff like this -- touches that the editors never could have anticipated when they devised the format. Not every artist does something extremely unique-feeling with the big page, but not every artist has to. It's a thrill to see all the individual takes on the format, some more conspicuous than others.

Fourth, the production values are first-rate. The paper is super-premium, all the binding was done by hand, and the title is stamped on the cover and on the spine in a delightful, subtle rainbow foil that feels just right. (You have to see the rainbow stamping in person to really see it.... Online pix don't communicate it.)

$125 seems like a high price, I guess, until you consider that this is effectively a limited-edition art object with a print run of 3,000 or 3,500. (I've read both numbers online.) I'm not saying it's not a lot of money; what I'm saying is that it's not so much money that anyone who wants one can't save up and buy a copy if they really really want it.

What's more, Amazon's discount is pretty incredible. To be able to get a book like this for $80 postpaid -- the cost of a mid-range pair of sneakers -- is just super.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars UNBELIEVABLE ! ! !, May 3, 2009

By 

Future Man "Future Man" (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kramers Ergot 7 (Hardcover)

This is probably the coolest book I've ever seen. It still totally blows me away every time I open it and I've owned it for a few weeks now.

The size is awesome! It takes me back to memories of being a small child and laying on the floor looking at "Where's Waldo" books for hours. It is so awesome that some of today's most experimental comic artists have had the opportunity to do something on the same grand scale as the old Little Nemo comics from about 100 years ago and that it can actually be published.

The art is awesome! As an art object alone, I feel it is well worth the cover price. There are so many great artists featured in this book; almost one for every page, and their styles are so different it will keep you turning the pages in astonishment and curiosity just to see what will be next.

The comics are awesome! So many different approaches to this opportunity and for the most part they all feel like they fit together fairly well, even without any sort of theme at all. It is awesome to see Chris Ware continue his "Building Stories" story in this way as that is my favorite thing from him so far. The story of Noah's Ark is another one of my favorites that I've read multiple times.

All in all, this is a perfect example of a book where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It was hard to bring myself to spend so much for a book, but after reading it over and over again, I would in retrospect have been willing to pay double what I did. This book is absolutely worth what they ask!

First read: 10/10
Re-readability: 10/10

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beware of Amazon's shipping, December 31, 2008

By 

T. A. P. Dijken "Papiervisje" (Amsterdam) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kramers Ergot 7 (Hardcover)

This book would have gotten 5 stars, if not for the Amazon shipping.
The book itself is fantastic. Most artists have taken the opportunity to create something stunning on this large format. Page after page it is an amazing collection of art.
The problem is that Amazon decided to throw the book in a large box, add a few (empty) bubbles and ship it over the ocean. Naturally, all corners are damaged. I know there is a steep discount, but I would rather pay $10 more for a sturdy box like the Absolute Sandman is shipped in.
So, you decide. A wonderful book with some damage at a steep discount or for the full price at your local comic shop.