{"product_id":"agony-isbn-9781590179819","title":"Agony","description":"ENJOY THE ECSTASY OF\u003ci\u003e AGONY\u003c\/i\u003e. Amy and Jordan are just like us: hoping for the best, even when things go from bad to worse. They are menaced by bears, beheaded by ghosts,  and hunted by the cops, but still they struggle on, bickering and reconciling, scraping together the rent and trying to find a decent movie. It’s the perfect solace for anxious modern minds, courtesy of one of the great innovators of American comics. Now if only Amy’s skin would grow back ... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis NYRC edition features a recreation of the original, pocket-size, slipcovered paperback, designed by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly.“Mark Beyer’s 'Amy and Jordan' was one of the great underground comic strips of the late ’80s and early ’90s—the Candide-on-PCP misadventures of a seemingly accursed New York City couple.”  —Douglas Wolk, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Almost childlike in its energy and lack of story logic, this is a charming explosion of grotesque comedic misfortune, exactly as the title promises ... Beyer’s calamitous comedy has aged well, its geometric, densely patterned imagery recalling fine art as much as comics and still packing a punch among today’s alternative cartoonists.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, PW Picks\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Exquisitely, gleefully hopeless.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe A. V. Club\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"I couldn’t get enough of their misery: I finished it in one sitting and flipped back to the beginning.” \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Paris Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eDaily Blog\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mark Beyer’s \u003ci\u003eAgony \u003c\/i\u003eis  a highlight of the 80s art comics movement ... Now available in a new edition as the first  release of the New York Review Comics line, the abstract, absurd, and  bleakly funny comic book returns, and it’s just as oddly beautiful and  relevant as ever. ... Throughout \u003ci\u003eAgony\u003c\/i\u003e,  Beyer’s artwork is odd, alienating, and remarkably effective. A  self-taught artist whose work could easily be classified as outsider,  raw, brut, or naïve art, Beyer strikes a balance between simple, even  childlike figure-work supported by a very dynamic and complex design.\"\u003ci\u003e— Comics Alliance\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Gorgeously madcap and brutally inspiring.”\u003ci\u003e —Kirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eAgony\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eby Mark Beyer is an otherworldly pocket-sized jewel that’s bound to be rediscovered.” \u003ci\u003e—Blouin \u003ci\u003eArtinfo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Beyer’s work is universal at its heart ... One of the masters of the form.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mark  Beyer’s are some of my favorite comics of all time, and surely the most  perfectly realized vision of urban despair ever to hit the comic page. A  must for any fan of bleakness and misery.\" —Daniel Clowes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He’s one of the flukiest geniuses in comics.\" —\u003ci\u003eL.A. Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Exquisite poems of urban despair, dreamy and nightmarish.” —Chip Kidd\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Perhaps the ultimate urban nightmare comic ... Mark Beyer [is] not only   an extremely funny cartoonist, but one of the most progressive as  well.”  —\u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A childhood hell palpitating with adult neuroses.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Village Voice \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Beyer’s seminal strip is a terrifying New York of the mind.” —Dash Shaw\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I hope Mark Beyer’s work will find a place in the canon ... A treasure of the comics medium.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Millions \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A complete and total original.” —Kaz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A]n exemplar of [the] eighties ‘alternative' comics movement. ... \u003ci\u003eAgony\u003c\/i\u003e is a book filled with pain, misery, brutality, and hopelessness, but our unexpected laughter reminds us that we must carry on, regardless.”—Ivan Brunetti, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review Daily\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMark Beyer\u003c\/b\u003e is a self-taught artist who began making comics in 1975. His work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Village Voice\u003c\/i\u003e, and many other publications, and was a mainstay of \u003ci\u003eRAW \u003c\/i\u003emagazine. He created a series of animated shorts for MTV’s \u003ci\u003eLiquid Television\u003c\/i\u003e,  designed album covers for John Zorn, and collaborated with Alan Moore.  Amy and Jordan, the stars of his graphic novel Agony, were also featured  in a newspaper strip that ran from 1988 to 1996, and which was  collected in \u003ci\u003eAmy and Jordan\u003c\/i\u003e in 2004. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited around the world, including in Europe, Japan, and the United States.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eColson Whitehead \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of five novels, including \u003ci\u003eZone One\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSag Harbor\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Intuitionist\u003c\/i\u003e. His latest book is \u003ci\u003eThe Noble Hustle\u003c\/i\u003e,  a nonfiction account of the 2011 World Series of Poker. He is a  recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.","brand":"New York Review Comics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305279574245,"sku":"NP9781590179819","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590179819.jpg?v=1767721149","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/agony-isbn-9781590179819","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}